Eng101 starting essay (personal narrative)

So i have a personal narrative due soon and I really need help. This is for and Eng101 class that i'm taking as dual enrollment for High School.


I'm having trouble writing a "Describe a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty." type paper.

My main subject is about me learning communication skills from a guitar class. I took the class for an easy credit, and easy hour, and something fun to do during my day because ive already been playing for 3 years beforehand. We ended up getting some seperate groups together from every class period. We all had different music and different groups. I got "stuck" with an intermediate group who really didn't know what they were doing. So I had a month to teach them how to read the songs that we needed to learn, to get them coordinated, and to get them ready and confident. I ended up teaching them not only the songs themselves, but how to play all sheet music, to be confident in their playing, and to get them all coordinated. I wrote easy sheet music at home for them to practice the next day. I, in a sense, had my own little class. We got a silver medal because one of us didn't show up (family problem), and i had to assign someone else the part. I'm happy we got a silver at that, seeing as how we should've not even been in the top 3.

Where do I go from here? What would be the most moving and powerful way to organize this in around 500 words?

Greetings!

That sounds like an interesting story to base your narrative on! For something like this, often the best way to start is in the middle of the action. For example, you might start with something like this: "If I'd known it was going to be this bad, I thought, "I'd have brought ear plugs." As I listened to the group struggling to read our first song, with half of them on A minor when the rest were still playing a C chord, and two or three already banging out the next measure before the downbeat, I knew I had my work cut out for me." Then, you'd go on to explain how all this came about. You might want to mention one student in particular who had a hard time and ended up really making you proud, or perhaps they expressed their appreciation to you in some moving way? That will personalize it and make it "moving and powerful."

If you'd like some editing help when you have a rough draft, I'd be happy to help!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Thanks for the help, I seem to be having writers block and you helped.


By the By.. She asked to "Show all the steps in the writing process", anymore hints/tips?

Greetings!

I assume your teacher is talking about Prewriting, Drafting, Revising and Editing. I wouldn't think there would be a lot of prewriting involved in a story that actually happened to you and which does not require a lot of (or any) research. Outlining would be about the only prewriting activity that would be applicable in this case, I'd think (except for "thinking," which is a little difficult to prove). As for the others, if you're using a computer, rather than writing it longhand, I'd suggest keeping your initial rough drafts and saving them with different names, so that you will have them as evidence of your last three stages.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com