SDSU Personal Narrative Life Challenges Discussion

Each of us has our own experience with storytelling; some of us may keep journals or create visual art or make music. There are so many different outlets, but often this generative process is possible because of our life experiences, and the need to tell our story can at times become necessary. As individuals we are informed and shaped by our intersectionalities, histories, families, successes, failures, and futures. In telling our stories there exists the reclamation of a moment, a time period, a feeling, or a moral truth. This process has the ability to contain profundities or a cathartic experience.

Your Task:
Part 1: The Personal Narrative
For your fourth and final major writing project of the semester, you will be tasked with writing a
personal narrative focused on an important, momentary event in your life. This narrative should
not set out to tell your entire life story, or even close to it—instead, try to think about an
experience that was meaningful or pivotal for you in some way. The moment and/or event you
focus on can be large or small, life-altering or not; at the end of the day, it is completely up to
you to choose what you want to write about. Rhetorically, you must develop some sort of theme
in your narrative (refer to the “Elements of Narrative” handout for more help with this).
 

How you choose to tell your story is completely up to you. You decide how much or what kind
of information your readers will receive about this event and the people involved. I encourage
you to get creative with this and write in a style that feels comfortable—your narrative should
feel like you. This project encourages risk, and experimentation. Remember, you are in charge of
crafting this experience for your readers, so make sure to think about how your choices as the
writer will affect your audience.  
 

Your narrative should include some type of narrative arc (think Freytag’s Pyramid), a setting, a
plot with a central conflict, developed characters, a consistent point-of-view, and detailed
descriptions.
 

Part 2: The Reflection
Once you’ve written your narrative, you are then expected to write a reflection discussing the
story you decided to tell and the rhetorical choices you made as an author. Some guiding
questions to consider during your reflection are:
• Why did you choose this particular event to write about? What made it important to you?
• How did you develop the elements of narrative in your story (plot, conflict, setting,
characters, point of view, etc.)? Why did you choose to tell your story in this way?
• Reflect a bit on the theme you developed in your story. What is the theme of this story?
What meaning do you hope your readers will take away from it?
• What rhetorical devices and appeals did you utilize during your personal narrative?