*As if you were on The Late Show promoting a movie:

quick set up (Set this clip up for us.) then roll tape show a clip from the movie of your life

*PURPOSE: Why are you telling this story?

SO WHAT?!
To satisfy this demand, use the Introduction and Conclusion to create a frame which will encompass your story.

The Introduction & Conclusion are the frame around your picture. In them, you will only discuss the background and lesson learned. They are not to make up the majority of your essay.
The Body of the essay will be the picture. It will tell a story, and it will make up the majority of your paper. Further, the narrative elements you choose for the story will clearly illustrate the lesson/s you learned.

INTRO.

STORY

CONCLN.

GENERALIZE:
Regarding the type of lessons you learned Regarding the type of experience you had Death is a painfully inevitable part of life, so most of us have undoubtedly had to face death at some point in our young lives.

NARROW TOWARDS YOU:

Some Others For some, it may have been the death of a close friend or classmate. For others, it may have concerned the passing of a teacher or an adult acquaintance.

TO YOU:

Transition to you Use transitional expressions Perhaps brief background information However, my encounter with death involved the demise of a close family relative when I was 16. In November of 2006, my 22-year-old cousin, Jefferson Miles, whom I had idolized all my life, died of esophageal cancer.

THESIS:
Previous sentence: Brief background When, where did this event take place? Year, age, season During the spring semester of 2004 after I turned 18.

Thesis: ANSWER 2 QUESTIONS: 1) What kind of story? 2) What kind of lessons learned?

THESIS:

This tragic experience from that miserable fall taught me valuable lessons concerning my life and family in particular, as well as life and death in general.

This frightening experience has taught me valuable lessons regarding me, my family, family in general, and life.

DESCRIPTION is necessary: vivid detail for character development or setting the scene concrete & specific details
careful selection of details (STORY=LESSON)
o no flashbacking, no omniscience o no Quentin Tarantino o past tense only

CHRONOLOGICAL organization of details

o Year, age, season o people, places, occupation titles, stadiums,

TIME

NAMES

o Not a descriptive essay o Use description to set the scene o Or highlight your lessons learned o the blonde male nurse in purple scrubs took

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS

hospitals, funeral parlors, high schools

my blood pressure at St. Marks Hospital.

Extremely FOCUSED
Just a clip from your life-movie

Flows LINEARLY
All verbs should be in the PAST TENSE

PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE: the story should not be all one paragraph; break the narrative into stages (each stage = a paragraph)

In the story through dialogue or thoughts at the time** In the Conclusion when you are explaining a particular lesson** In the Introduction, briefly, as you set up the story

*GET TO THE STORY The 1st Body paragraph = start of the story Do not make the reader wait until the 3rd Body paragraph for your story to begin.

Fully explain the morals/lessons you learned from this experience

While you only hinted at the morals in your Introduction, explain them in detail here in your Conclusion Lessons concerning yourself, family, friendship, love, life -Induction: lessons emanate out from the event

No you
In the Introduction and Conclusion, do not switch to 3rd person POV (you) This is YOUR story-

These are lessons that YOU learnedSo speak from the I (1st person POV)

*FOCUSED:

FROZEN MOMENT IN TIME NOT LIFE STORY NOT MULTIPLE DAYS 3-4 PAGES IN LENGTH (with sufficient detail) PART OF A CHAPTER IN YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
o neither a FULL CHAPTER o nor an ENTIRE BOOK

1) TELL THE STORY OF A MAJOR CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE, AN EVENT THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE OR YOUR WAY OF THINKING ABOUT A PERSON, PLACE, OBJECT:

went to college, inspirational story, went out for a sport/club/play quit bad habit, split with boy/girlfriend, left bad friends met someone new death in the family divorce day

*CONTINUED:

9/11 or anthrax scare good/bad vacation dumb action I did suspended from school found God, faith was tested, found Alcoholics Anonymous *met a challenge that neither you nor anyone thought you could do

2) TELL THE STORY OF A SPECIAL OBJECT (trophy, medal, picture, stuffed animal) THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO YOU:

*this is NOT a descriptive essay on the object; BODY: o rather, tell the story behind the object: o how/when/why did you get it CONCLUSION: o lessons learned from the experience o why it means so much to you, o how it gives insight into who you are, o and how you would use it to introduce yourself to someone new whom you wanted to see the real you

3) OTHER TOPICS: uncles viewing family members (sons) deaththe day of the day you found Alcoholics Anonymous bad vacation (focused) day found out about...diabetes, cancer, pregnancy *family tradition sweet 16, hunting trip, accident, robbery school play or musical (auditions, opening night), nationals or states responsibility

*INTRODUCTION:

Youve got to learn to laugh at yourself. The best advice my grandfather ever gave me was Boy, youve got to learn to laugh at yourself.

Sane people have learned to laugh at themselves. (or well-adjusted people) (generalizing w/o you) The best way for people not to take life too seriously is to tell stories about unpleasant events that happened to them. As a teacher, I have had certain encounters that, had I not laughed at them, would have driven me crazy and forced me to leave the profession. For example, during the spring semester of 2004, I took over a section of Microcomp for an ailing colleague and had one of the most embarrassing experiences of my professional career. That day, this teacher was taught a few lessons about himself and his coworkers.

*SYNONYMS for EXPERIENCES:

occurrences, incidents, encounters, events,

episodes

*BODY:
After a long day of teaching my usual load of courses, I .

skip irrelevant parts continue with the rest of the story, with concrete/descriptive details and with specific narrative details that prove your lesson learned

*CONCLUSION:
This embarrassing, yet funny experience taught me some valuable lessons about myself and my colleagues. First, I realized that

continue with specific, clear lessons learned go into specifics regarding these lessons more than one lesson learned from the most significant experience in your life

WHILE I ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO WRITE ABOUT EXPERIENCES THAT HAD SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECTED THEIR LIVESWHICH MAKES FOR BETTER, MORE PASSIONATE WRITINGPLEASE BEAR THE FOLLOWING IN MIND:
1) IF NECESSARY, I WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON TO READ THE ESSAY; IN ESSENCE, I WILL BE YOUR PEER EDITOR

2) YOU WILL NOT BE GRADED ON THE SUBJECT MATTER ONLY THE GRAMMATICAL AND MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE ESSAYSO DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND THE GRADE AS A VALUE JUDGMENT ON YOU

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