Bit & Rudder

Homeschool Writing Made Easy

essay writing

Episode #24 How to Write a Personal Narrative Essay

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Episode #24 How to Write a Personal Narrative Essay

Have you noticed that stories are everywhere? Everyone loves a good story. Stories aren’t just for entertainment though. They also help us connect with people and make sense out of the world. Today’s topic is about the personal narrative—narrative is just another word for story—why it’s important for your student to learn to write this kind of essay and the practical steps for teaching it. 

In this episode, I discuss

✅how a personal narrative is different from fictional storytelling

✅the tried-and-true formula that you can use for most narrative essays

✅the importance of descriptive language in narrative writing and a simple strategy for helping students prioritize it

✅where to go to find 500 narrative prompts and sample narrative essays

✅Plus, details on how to join me and my AP students for National Novel Writing Month


Links Mentioned:
Nanowrimo Young Writers Program

Western Technical College: List of Narrative Essay Samples

Oregan State University: 500 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing

Illustration of Descriptive Writing (Essay A, Essay B)

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Episode #19 Writing the Body Paragraphs

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Body paragraphs aren’t as flashy as introductions or conclusions, but they make up about eighty percent of any essay.

Eighty percent!

That’s a huge percentage, which means that we had better pay attention to them if we want our arguments to be strong and convincing.

So that’s what this episode is about: dissecting a body paragraph to see how it works and then using that knowledge to develop strong paragraphs of our own.

In this episode, I discuss

  • the four essential components of a body paragraph
  • the differences between coherence and cohesion and why your essay must have both
  • how many body paragraphs an essay should have (and how long they need to be)
  • three different ways to embed research smoothly into your writing
  • eight mistakes students make in writing body paragraphs (and how to fix them)
  • strategies for teaching students to write strong body paragraphs

If you have wondered how to help your students develop their ideas into strong paragraphs, then this episode is exactly what you’ve been looking for. All you have to do is click play.

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