Personal Narrative

Last week you were asked to write a personal narrative:

What does identity mean? And what give you your identity.

For example, in the 57 Bus: 

Sasha identifies as genderqueer. Sasha wears a skirt everyday. Sasha must remind their friends to use proper pronouns when addressing them. Sasha is a happy and well-adjusted teenager from a good family, and they have good friends. Sasha is going to MIT. They are obsessed with all things Russian and love public transit.

Richard is arrested and charged with two hate-crimes. Richard comes from East Oakland. Richard has served time in a group home, and several of his friends have been sent to prison, or worse, have been killed in the violence that is commonplace in Oakland. Richard formed a bond with Miss Kaprice. Richard wants to graduate and make his mother proud. 

Narrative Writing 

What would you say about yourself? 

Use the Pre-Writing Outline to address some of the same questions/topics/themes that we covered with The 57 Bus and come up/jot down with some thoughts about yourself. 

We're going to focus on writing introductions. Each essay should start with a focus on what identity means. Think about three things when you begin writing:

1. Identify the focus - The reader should be able to recognize what your writing is about. This is where you should introduce the topic, aka, address the prompt. For this assignment, think about your definition of identity. What does it mean? What is it the truly gives a person their identity?
2. Outline the scope - What will you be writing about (think about what you wrote after the article: "I believe hate crimes should be prosecuted because of reason one, reason two and reason three...")? Outline what gives you your identity. 
3. State thesis - We're going to really teach thesis writing later this year. A thesis statement is usually only one sentence long that responds to an assignment topic and appears as the last sentence of the introduction. However, for the purpose of this assignment, think of it as a "purpose statement" or a topic sentence. What is the most important aspect of your identity and what will you be writing about?

After you have your intro written, just write. This isn't going to be the most structured essay you ever write, just convey what identity means to you. 

You can write about anything you feel is important to your own identity. It can be..

• And experience in your life that shaped you (good, bad, other...)
• Something your passionate about (sports, politics, social issues, games, movies, music...)
• How you spend you time and with who (friends, family, teams, hobbies...)
• Beliefs, values, goals, attitudes...

What does identity mean? And what give you your identity.