Remember to do your Critical Self-Reflection.
Final Draft Word Count and Setup:
1300-1500 words (plus an APA cover page)
12-point Times New Roman font
Double-spaced lines
1st person point of view
“…those who bear witness…are caught in the conflict between victim and perpetrator. It is morally impossible to remain neutral in this conflict. The bystander is forced to take sides.”
—Judith Herman, M.D.
Trauma and Recovery
WHAT: After reading this quote, write an essay where you examine one time 1) when you took a stand, 2) wanted to take a stand and did not, or 3) witnessed someone else taking a stand. What conclusions have you drawn about what kind of person you want to be?
OR
Write an essay about one of your achievements. Tell the story of the moment of your achievement, and of what lead to that moment. What deeper insight or wisdom did this achievement give you?
HOW:
- BRAINSTORM: Write a paragraph about your audience. Who are they? What would your readers learn or experience reading your narrative?
- Using all five senses, describe the incident(s) and its setting(s). Use the Show Not Tell worksheet at the end of this assignment sheet.
- DRAFT: Write your draft WITHOUT stopping.
WRITING STEPS for DRAFT 2.
- Print your first draft.
- Write the focus or main point of your narrative.
- Make an idea map/timeline: First, number the paragraphs in your 1st draft. On a separate sheet of paper, for each paragraph, write the setting and the moment in time. If you find gaps in time, place, detail or meaning, you need to develop those ideas further in your rewriting of the draft.
- Write the draft again, organizing it so significance rather than chronology becomes the organizing feature.
- Revise writing so meaning of event is shown, embedded in the narration, rather than told.
REVISE:
- For each paragraph, check to make sure you practice SHOWING and NOT TELLING.
EDIT: Read your paper aloud and edit/proofread sentence mechanics and sentence structure.
This assignment does not require outside research; the finished essay should not need in-text citations or a References page. The assignment does not require an abstract. The assignment does, however, require a properly formatted APA cover page.
REMEMBER: Chief Executive Officers consistently list writing skills as one of the top five most important skills required of their employees.
WHY: Writing about your life is a form of self-analysis; it helps you learn more about where you have been and who you are. This essay will also help develop your writing skills of focus, development, organization, paragraph structure, and grammar. Critical thinking and careful writing used in development of this type of essay can teach valuable skills for the workplace. At some point in your career, for example, you might be asked to explain an event or situation that occurred, your role in the event, how the event impacted the workplace, and what you (and the organization) learned from its outcome.
SHOW, Not Tell
Showing Through Action:
We were so happy. (Now, describe it more – what is happening in your body; what are you doing?)
High-fiving each other, the Red Sox fans whooped, yelled and jumped out of their seats when the Yankee’s player struck out and the Red Sox won the game.
The ex-lover was nervous. (What is she doing?)
Chewing her nails, she put the letter on the counter, and then, hands shaking so much she could not get her finger under the seal, she clumsily ripped the top of the envelop open.
Showing Through The Senses: (Sight, touch, hearing, smell and feel)
The meal was terrible.
The stuff on the cafeteria plate looked like wet cardboard in a dumpster, smelled like three day old oysters, and squished when I touched it with my fork.
Other Questions I Can Ask To Help Me Describe More Vividly:
To what degree?
It was so humid that our t-shirts were soaked with sweat.
What actually happened?
We gulped all of our water, spilling it down our shirt fronts and pouring it over our heads.
What can I compare this experience to that the reader may already know?
It was so humid that it was like sitting in a sauna.
What simile or metaphor can I use? The humidity felt like so heavy in the air that I felt as if I were wading through a swamp.
What verbs can I use instead of adjectives or adverbs?
Quickly walked = trotted, jogged. Playful puppy = Fido wrestled.