This document provides instructions for Project 1 of an English 208 personal and exploratory writing course. Students must write a 4-6 page personal narrative about a time in their life when they did something unexpected. The narrative must use literary elements like plot, character, setting, and tension to engage the reader. It should also imply or reveal the significance of the unexpected event. Acceptable topics include acting against others' expectations, asserting one's identity, or surprising even oneself in a way that changed one's self-image. The goal is for students to thoughtfully craft a story from their own life experiences.

1. ENGL 208 Personal & Exploratory Writing Ben Shane
Project 1: Personal Narrative
Due Date: September 16
4-6 pages
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it’s raining, but the feel
of being rained upon. —E.L. Doctorow
Write a personal narrative about a time in your life when you did something unexpected. You
must use the literary strategies of plot, character, significant detail, and setting to tell your story.
Develop your story through the use of contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and
gives it significance. You may discuss the significance explicitly, as revelation or reflection, or imply it.
What counts as a story?
A story is a series of events that create for the reader a sense of tension or conflict that is resolved
through a new understanding or change in status. Your goal for this assignment is to write a story
about your life that fulfills these criteria.
You are not expected to write like Shakespeare or Hemingway. You are expected to make a sincere
effort to write a story that includes all of the strategies mentioned above, and to do so in your own voice.
What counts as “something unexpected?”
Think of a time when you acted against someone’s expectations of you. Maybe you quit a sport your
parents had you play your whole childhood. Maybe you left the church you attended with your family,
or joined a church/temple/mosque that no other family member attended. Maybe you chose to go to
college, or maybe you took a gap year. It can be big or small, but it must be significant; don’t write
about jumping out from behind the door to scare someone.
We all have an image of ourselves, an identity that includes all of our attachments to the world:
likes/dislikes, hobbies, skills, beliefs, philosophies, values, etc. Similarly, everyone we come into
contact with creates an image of us. We try to project our image as we see it, and make others see us the
way we see ourselves, but we aren’t always successful (or, just as often, our self-image is distorted).
You might think of some way that your self-image and someone else’s image of you came into conflict,
and you had to assert your own identity by acting in a way that surprised others (or scared them,
disappointed them, elated them, etc.).
Something that is unexpected for one person may not be out of character for another. For example,
I’ve ridden motorcycles since before I could legally drive, so when I rode a motorcycle cross-country in
college, it wasn’t unexpected. But when I was fourteen and started listening to as many operas as I could
find, that was unexpected for me and those around me. The important thing is that you choose a story
that is unexpected, not that you write about something that is traditionally considered grand or
adventurous.
You might also consider times when you did something that surprised you, and resulted in your
having to change your own self-image. Or a time when you did something that society would not
approve of. You don’t have to (and, indeed, should not) say explicitly what the unexpected action is or
who it surprised (or disappointed, scared, etc.)—you just need to tell the story of that time.