Middle East International School

Academic Year 2022/ 2023

Writing – Grade 8

Personal Narrative Essay

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Introduction to Personal Narrative Essay

The Hook: Your first sentence should be compelling and make the reader want to continue.
Let’s say you are going to present a tale about your travel abroad, specifically an experience of
being “pick-pocketed” in Florence, Italy. You might begin with a startling fact about the number
of incidents of this crime in a day in that city or the fact that child gypsies are sent out by their
families to pick-pocket as a means of supporting those families. On the other hand you may start
with a description of your feelings caused by this accident. It will be an intriguing start, because
the reader would like to know what the reason for your fear or despair was.
Set the Scene: Here you want to give the reader the general place and time of the experience(s)
you will be relating. Sometimes, the experiences may occur over a period of time (for example,
growing up in poverty) or they will relate to a single incident (being in Italy for a week as a part
of family vacation). You must always include such information in the introduction. The reader
should know from the very beginning where and when the action takes place.
 You can actually begin your story, for example, “The morning began like any other, with
breakfast and decisions about what we would visit that day, but it certainly ended up differently,”
or you can offer a lesson learned, “I now know why travelers are encouraged to protect their
valuables with one of those pouches that can go inside their clothing,” or some theme that your
story will portray, “Hardships and lack make us all innovators of sorts.” It should also be
interesting so that the reader would want to know more and continue reading the essay.

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The Body

Usually, the body paragraphs will tell the story of the experience. However, this is not always the
case. Suppose your essay is about growing up in poverty and you have used the theme that this
condition turned you into an innovator (your theme). Each paragraph will then provide the reader
with an example of how you became an innovator. Perhaps you learned how to fashion “toys”
from objects you found in the neighborhood; perhaps you learned how to mix unlikely
combinations of food when there was very little in the cupboard; perhaps you started to design
and make clothes when there was no money to buy them.

Remember that every argument should always be followed by examples.

Remember to use good transition sentences between your body paragraphs – they can come
either at the end of a paragraph to introduce the next one, or at the beginning of the new
paragraph with some reference back to the previous one. All the paragraphs should be connected
and the narration should be logical.

The other point is this: you need to “show” the reader your story, not just “tell.” You can do this
by injecting actual conversation or by descriptions that paint a picture. Remember that you
should avoid direct and dry statements here. Show your story in bright colors and use more
description paragraphs.

The Conclusion

Reflect on your experience(s) by asking yourself a couple of questions. What have you learned?
How has your life been impacted? Would you act differently if you could relive that situation
again? It’s very important to understand the lessons that you have received. It will explain your
choice to write about this event and show that you are mature enough to learn from your
experience, even if it’s bad.