Can You Help Me

Narrative essay instructions:

MAKE SURE TO USE THE PROPER HEADING ON PAGE 341 IN THE HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS. There is also a paper format example posted in the Pages tab in Canvas.

All of our papers will be double-spaced, written in Times New Roman, be in 12 point font, have one inch margins, have a title, and be two full pages long. Your first paper is going to be a descriptive story. This is not a research paper. Do not do research or place researched material into this paper. We have not gone over MLA citation yet. Also, you may not use first or second person. In other words, no I, me, my, us, our, we, you, or your in your papers. The story should be told from the third person, using he, she, it, and they. Tell it like you were watching it. Therefore, no character in your paper should be speaking in 1^st person, which means that the paper should have no dialogue, meaning that no one should be speaking. Always stay in third person. You should not be in your story and you should not be speaking to the audience in the story. Also, it should be, at most, PG 13. No R or X rated stories. For example, there should be no graphic sex stories. Lastly, the story must be packed with specific detail and concrete words. For instance, do not say that James was happy. This has no meaning because it is too vague. However, James smiled, laughed, and jumped when he won the Virginia lottery for ten million dollars is concrete description. Remember, show an audience what is happening. Do not just tell an audience what is happening.

Some possible paper topics might include a surprise birthday party, a car accident, someone losing a child at Wal-Mart, a spooky story about ghosts or vampires, a science fiction story about Grogblarks and other aliens, someone’s first day at a new school, job, or city, a vacation story, a parenting story, a death in a family or birth of a child, a story about someone’s first crush, a broken heart story, a wedding day, a divorce day, surfing, being pulled over by a police officer,  airplane lesson, swimming lesson, fishing tale, skydiving, injury, safety, or any other story you can think of. The list could go on and on. I am not too concerned about the topic at this point because this is just an icebreaker essay. However, I will be looking closely at paper format, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Grammar and punctuation errors are common and even expected at first; however, spelling errors are not, especially because we have about two weeks between papers, there are dictionaries everywhere, every computer has a spell-checker, and because we are in college. Therefore, spelling errors will cost five points each on a paper. Sorry, gang, but there is no excuse for not knowing or being able to find out the spelling of a word in today’s modern world. I am also a terrible speller, and the only way to correct spelling is to enforce it. Therefore, be careful, especially all of you text message people.  Hint ‘you’ is not spelled ‘u’. Yes, I have had this in numerous papers. Also, there is a difference between where and were and with out and without.

Additionally, use transitional words to move your characters around in a story from place to place or time to time. Some examples are: also, furthermore, moreover, additionally, in addition, however, therefore, thus, for example, for instance, on the other hand, consequently, first, second, third, lastly, finally, and hence.

Also, every good story has a moral or lesson for the audience, which should be stated in a thesis statement and summed up in the concluding paragraph. However, it should not be repeated word for word in the conclusion. In other words, do not tell me a story about a car accident and stop.  Explain that the accident could have been prevented if your character was not talking on a cell phone while driving. Therefore, the moral of the story is to not talk on a phone while driving…yes, I am speaking to all of you who do…ha, ha. I figure that it is better to do it this way, with paper instructions, than for me to be yelling at you out of my truck window driving down 664…lol.  There is another topic…road rage. MAKE SURE THE STORY HAS A MORAL OR LESSON.

Lastly, every academic paper needs a thesis statement, which is a statement that controls a paper, it is the main idea of a paper, and, most importantly, it is your opinion on a subject. The thesis should be the last sentence in the introductory paragraph, not the first, should only be one sentence, and it should not be a question or a quote. Moreover, the thesis should state a point of view or an opinion.

The thesis tells the audience what your opinion is about a subject. A thesis should not simply announce what will be in a paper. The thesis should not say, “In this paper…”, “My paper will show…” or “This paper will be about”. All of these constructions simply announce the subject, but they do not state an opinion about the subject. The thesis is your opinion and at least three areas of support. For example, “English is fun because of the reading, writing, and conversations.” The opinion is that English is fun. The three main reasons, which you would focus on using specific detail and examples in the body of your paper, are reading, writing, and conversation. Hence, a paper has an opinion, which is the thesis, and an essay map, which are the reasons for that opinion. Also, for argumentative papers, a thesis is what should be used to make a claim, state an argument, or state a side. A thesis for a story about wearing seatbelts might read like this: People should wear their seatbelts because they hold one in a vehicle, prevent serious injuries, and because they save lives. Also, notice the order in this statement. Your story should be told in this order. For instance, let us use John as the character in this story. You would write about John’s car accident by explaining who John is and the situation in your introductory paragraph. Then you would use your first body paragraph to explain how John was thrown from his red Ford Ranger on 664 during rush hour because he was not wearing his seatbelt when a white Chevy Impala came careening into his truck. From there, you would move onto how he did ten cartwheels after he flew through the windshield and landed on the rough, hot asphalt, breaking his left arm, fracturing his pelvis, snapping his ankle, and suffering thousands of slices and cuts from the broken glass of his own windshield. In the last body paragraph, you might explain how he suffered in a coma for three weeks before passing away.   Finally, in the concluding paragraph, you would explain and reaffirm the importance of wearing seatbelts. Moreover, notice that John is not mentioned in the thesis statement and may not even be mentioned in the conclusion. The thesis and conclusion are for the audience. Therefore, no character names in the thesis, and you may only use the character once in your conclusion.  Characters are only used to illustrate points or ideas, but they are not the main points of a story.  This construction gives you five paragraphs, each about 5-6 sentences long. Each of our papers will be at least five paragraphs, being an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. This should easily get you to the two full page mark, but feel free to write more paragraphs and to have longer papers, but no more than three full pages. Focus on quality over quantity.

Not a good thesis:

John learned not to text and drive because it made him worry, he did not like to worry, and it caused him stress. 

Ducks make great pets because they are fun, cute, and they make good pets.

Example good thesis:

Ducks make great pets because they are inexpensive to feed, shelter, and have low vet bills.

Below is an outline that should be used for the narrative paper and basic papers formatting:

1. Introductory paragraph:

Introduces characters and situations

The last sentence of it is the thesis (the last sentence of the first paragraph is always the thesis)

1. Body paragraphs:

Three paragraphs that explain the reasons for your opinion in the order they are listed in your thesis.

1. Concluding paragraph:

Explains the moral or lesson. Reaffirms the thesis, but does not re-state it word for word.

Here is some advice that could help your grades on papers:

-focus on a moral, lesson, claim, or position that you want a paper to explain

-do not write in first or second person…no I, me, my, us, we, our, you, your or any other form of first or second person writing or perspective.

-have a title that creates interest and draws the audience into a paper, no character names in titles, no one word titles, and a title is not the type of paper being written

-do not bold, underline, capitalize every letter, change the font size, or put quotation marks around the title

-have a thesis statement stating the position of the paper…make sure the thesis statement is only one sentence at the end of the introductory paragraph. A thesis statement is also not a question or quote

-last name and page number should be at the top, on the right-hand side of the page.  Example: Baran 4 (consult page 341 in the Simon and Schuster book) (this information must be placed in a header, not typed in the paper)

-only one space should be used between the parts of the heading, the heading and title, and the title and the first paragraph (see page 341)

-do not skip spaces between paragraphs

-avoid exclamation points in academic papers; they make it sound like you are yelling at the audience

-no contractions (words like shouldn’t, didn’t, couldn’t, doesn’t, it’s, let’s, isn’t, what’s).  Contractions will be counted as spelling errors.

-avoid beginning sentences with conjunctions (words like for, and, nor, or, but, yet, so)

-avoid slang in academic papers; for example, got, gotten, headed, a lot, gonna, wanna, back in the day, now-a-days, crazy, okay, kids (kids are baby goats, but they are not human children).

-do not begin sentences with ‘that’, ‘which’, or ‘because’

-avoid too many short/choppy sentences in a row, especially without transitions, because they can make your paper read like a list. Writing should flow. Vary the length of sentences and use many transitional words or phrases.

Well, gang, that is it. Happy writing.