Personal Narrative Essay Outline

Now that you’ve read and analyzed a personal narrative essay, you are going to prepare an outline for an essay that you could write. At this point, you will not go so far as to actually write the essay, but you may at the end of this unit so make sure it’s something you actually could write about.

Step 1: Brainstorming a topic

The personal narrative essay centers around a story from your own life. In your essay you will both tell the story and analyze the significance of that story. SoÂ try to think of a story that led you to an important belief you have. Maybe it’s a belief you have about what’s important in life, or a discovery you made about yourself.Â You may brainstorm by creating a mind map or just by doing some free-writing. Either way, you will hand in your brainstorming with this sheet.

Step 2: Thesis

Your thesis for an essay like this is different from other thesis statements. Think of it more like a belief statement. Eg/ I believe that by exploring my own fears I become wiser. You may not use that exact wording in your essay, but it doesn’t matter. You have to support your belief statement with the examples from your story but you don’t have to “prove” it.

Thesis:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 3: Mapping out the story and thinking about how each element supports your belief.

Parts of the story	How it helped you develop your belief
Beginning:
Middle:
End:

Step 4: Precise and vivid language

Narrative essays use many of the same techniques as short stories. Think about some precise and vivid uses of language you could include. Come up with at least three. They could include imagery, similes, use of contrast, metaphor, etc.

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Eg/ the tango with fear makes me wise.

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Step 5: Character? Dialogue?

Will you have any “characters” in your essay? Any dialogue? If so who? What will they say? Remember, character and dialogue is used to help you support your thesis-not just to tell the story.

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