Possible Structure
Introduction: Exposition (Explicit details, Burke’s Pentad)
What issues or choices did you face? If you’re writing about your journey as a writer, what did you feel you had to do to improve? If you’re writing about your discourse community, what was inspiring you to join or stay?
Climax (So, what did you decide to do? And what happened afterwards?)
Denouement/Conclusion (resolution) > Reflection (what did you learn about your yourself, or, perhaps, how you grew as a student? Or about the community you belong to? Think about the Synoptic/Extended meaning).
You can and should use first person singular!
Incorporate Literary elements: Metaphor (“He was a real piece of shit”) Simile (“She was a reasonable as a rabid dog”) Imagery/sensory/figurative writing (“His voice had this really annoying high frequency whine that almost pierced my eardrums). BE DESCRIPTIVE! Colors, scents, sounds. And have fun. Don’t be afraid to embellish. No one is going to sue you.
Please note – Use 12pt/Times New Roman Font, with double spacing (hit the enter key ONLY once between paragraphs, which must be indented). 1” Margins all around.
(Continued)
Scoring:
Paragraph Development: How well do you tell your story? Do you provide supporting details? Do you follow Burke’s Pentad? As this is a creative non-fiction piece, you are allowed to be, well, creative in your descriptions. ________
Integration of Concepts Discussed in Class: Does the piece follow a coherent narrative structure, with all the components discussed in the assignment included? _______
Reflection: Can you demonstrate that you know the implications of what you did, and how rhetoric was used on you? What did you learn? Can you draw any sort of Extended Meaning from your story, and maybe draw a relationship/connection between your story and what you’ve learned/read elsewhere? ________
Mechanics: This category refers to sentence-level grammar – how well you construct sentences, conjugate verbs, utilize vocabulary, etc. Your score in this category will also include presentation ______ Total ______