literacy narrative essay ideas

Narrative Essay Topics: TOP 200 Choices for Students

Imagine yourself facing a blank page, ready to fill it with your memories and imagination. What story will you tell today?

As students, you often have to write narratives that capture people's attention. But with so many stories to choose from, where do you start? How do you find the perfect topic that will grab our readers' interest and make them think?

Join our essay service experts as we explore 200 topics for college where stories are waiting to be told, and experiences are ready to be shared. From everyday events to unforgettable moments, each topic is a chance to connect with your readers and make them feel something.

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Ideas for Narrative Essay Topics

After exploring how students write narrative paragraphs, we've put together a list of narrative essay topics designed specifically for college and school students. This list covers a wide range of subjects, so pick one that speaks to you!

Literacy Narrative Essay Topics for College Students

How about delving into captivating literacy narrative essay topics designed specifically for college-level writing? Exciting, isn't it?

• How did a childhood book shape your view of the world?
• What challenges did you face when learning to read in a second language?
• How has storytelling within your family influenced your literacy journey?
• Can you recall a pivotal moment that ignited your love for reading?
• How did a specific teacher inspire your passion for literature?
• Have you ever encountered a character in a book who profoundly impacted your perspective on life?
• What role did writing play in helping you navigate a difficult period in your life?
• How has your relationship with technology affected your reading habits?
• What cultural or historical event sparked your interest in a particular genre of literature?
• How has poetry shaped your understanding of language and emotion?
• Have you ever experienced a breakthrough moment in your writing process?
• How has reading aloud impacted your comprehension and enjoyment of literature?
• Can you recall a time when a book challenged your beliefs or worldview?
• How has participating in a book club enriched your reading experience?
• What strategies have you developed to overcome reading difficulties or distractions?

Personal Narrative Essay Topics on Relationships

Take a moment to reflect on your past experiences and craft compelling personal narratives with these essay ideas.

• How did a specific friendship shape who you are today?
• Can you recount a moment that strengthened your bond with a family member?
• What challenges have you faced in maintaining a long-distance relationship?
• How has a mentor influenced your personal and professional development?
• Have you experienced a betrayal in a relationship? How did it impact you?
• Can you describe a memorable conflict resolution process within a relationship?
• How has your relationship with a pet affected your emotional well-being?
• What lessons have you learned from navigating a romantic relationship?
• How has your relationship with a sibling evolved over time?
• Can you recall a time when you had to set boundaries in a friendship?
• How has volunteering or community involvement enriched your relationships?
• What cultural differences have influenced your relationships with others?
• Can you share a moment when you felt truly understood by someone?
• How has technology affected the dynamics of your relationships?
• Have you ever experienced a reconciliation that transformed a strained relationship?

Best Narrative Essay Topics on Education and Learning

Consider the beauty of sharing your personal experiences and emotions in a captivating manner through these ideas for personal narrative essays.

• What was the most valuable lesson you learned outside of the classroom?
• Can you recount a moment when a teacher's unconventional method transformed your understanding of a subject?
• How has a field trip or experiential learning opportunity impacted your education?
• What challenges have you faced in balancing extracurricular activities with academics?
• Have you ever had a "Eureka!" moment while studying? Describe it.
• How has learning a new skill outside of school influenced your academic performance?
• Can you recall a time when a peer's perspective challenged your own understanding of a topic?
• How has technology enhanced or hindered your learning experience?
• What role does creativity play in your approach to learning?
• Have you ever experienced a setback that ultimately propelled you forward academically?
• How has your cultural background influenced your learning style?
• Can you describe a time when you had to advocate for yourself within an educational setting?
• How has mentorship shaped your educational journey?
• What strategies have you employed to overcome academic challenges or obstacles?
• Can you reflect on a time when failure taught you a valuable lesson about learning?

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Personal Narrative Essay Ideas on Reflection on Life

Why not ignite your creativity with a range of narrative essay topics, from extraordinary moments to everyday experiences?

• How has a moment of failure ultimately led to personal growth and resilience?
• Can you recount a pivotal decision that significantly altered the course of your life?
• What lessons have you learned from navigating a crossroads or major life transition?
• How has your perspective on success evolved over time?
• Can you reflect on a time when you had to confront and overcome a deeply held fear?
• What role has gratitude played in shaping your outlook on life?
• How have your values and beliefs been influenced by significant life experiences?
• Can you describe a moment when you found clarity and purpose amidst chaos or uncertainty?
• What impact has traveling to a new place had on your understanding of the world and yourself?
• How has adversity strengthened your character and determination?
• Can you recall a time when a random act of kindness profoundly impacted your life?
• What lessons have you learned from embracing vulnerability and authenticity in relationships?
• How has practicing mindfulness or self-reflection enhanced your well-being and happiness?
• Can you reflect on a period of personal transformation or self-discovery?
• How have you found meaning and fulfillment in pursuing your passions and interests?

Ideas for a Narrative Essay on Culture and Society

Engaging your readers with narrative essays on culture and society is a great way to spark interest, offering captivating ideas for exploration.

• How has your family's unique culinary heritage influenced your cultural identity?
• Can you reflect on a specific cultural artifact or heirloom that holds deep significance for your family?
• What challenges have you faced in preserving traditional customs while adapting to modern societal expectations?
• How has a local festival or celebration revealed the intricacies of your community's cultural tapestry?
• Can you recount a moment when you navigated a cultural clash between your upbringing and the dominant culture?
• How has your experience as a first-generation immigrant shaped your understanding of cultural assimilation?
• What lessons have you learned from participating in intercultural exchange programs or initiatives?
• Can you describe a unique cultural practice or tradition within your community that outsiders might find intriguing or misunderstood?
• How has the revitalization of indigenous languages contributed to the preservation of cultural heritage in your region?
• Can you reflect on a personal journey of reconnecting with your cultural roots after a period of assimilation or disconnection?
• What role does storytelling play in passing down cultural wisdom and values within your family or community?
• How has the portrayal of your culture in mainstream media affected your sense of belonging and self-perception?
• Can you recount a moment when you challenged cultural stereotypes through creative expression or advocacy?
• How has the migration of a specific cultural group enriched the social fabric and economic landscape of your community?
• What initiatives or grassroots movements are currently underway to promote cross-cultural understanding and cooperation in your society?

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Narrative Writing Topics on Hobbies and Interests

Wow your readers by turning your passions and hobbies into compelling narrative essay topics that will get them thinking.

• How has your passion for urban gardening transformed neglected spaces in your community?
• Can you recount a thrilling adventure from your hobby of urban exploration?
• What lessons have you learned from restoring vintage motorcycles in your spare time?
• How has your fascination with birdwatching deepened your connection to nature and conservation efforts?
• Can you describe a memorable moment from your hobby of foraging wild edibles in the wilderness?
• What unique skills have you developed through your hobby of beekeeping, and how have they impacted your daily life?
• How has your interest in historical reenactment brought the past to life in unexpected ways?
• Can you reflect on a transformative experience from your hobby of landscape photography?
• What insights have you gained from practicing the art of bonsai cultivation and nurturing miniature ecosystems?
• How has your passion for stargazing inspired awe and wonder in the vastness of the universe?
• Can you recount a challenging project from your hobby of woodworking and the satisfaction it brought upon completion?
• What cultural connections have you discovered through your hobby of traditional folk dancing?
• How has your interest in sustainable fashion influenced your consumer habits and environmental awareness?
• Can you describe a moment of serenity and mindfulness experienced while practicing the art of tea ceremony?
• How has your hobby of letterpress printing preserved the tactile beauty of handmade craftsmanship in a digital age?

Narrative Essay Titles on Life-Changing Moments

Life is full of unexpected twists that can lead to life-changing moments. Take a look at these narrative essay titles for stories that have had a lasting impact on your life.

• How did surviving a natural disaster reshape your perspective on life?
• Can you recall a single conversation that drastically altered the course of your life?
• What was the pivotal moment that inspired you to pursue your dreams against all odds?
• How did a chance encounter lead to a life-changing friendship or partnership?
• Can you reflect on the decision that transformed your career trajectory?
• What profound lesson did you learn from facing a life-threatening illness or injury?
• How did traveling to a new country open your eyes to new possibilities and opportunities?
• Can you recount the moment when you discovered your true passion or calling in life?
• What was the turning point that allowed you to break free from a toxic relationship or environment?
• How did experiencing failure or rejection ultimately lead to personal growth and resilience?
• Can you describe the moment when you found the strength to overcome a deep-seated fear or insecurity?
• What life-changing realization did you have while experiencing a period of solitude or introspection?
• How did a profound act of kindness from a stranger restore your faith in humanity?
• Can you reflect on the moment when you forgave someone who had deeply hurt you, and how it changed your perspective on forgiveness?
• What pivotal decision did you make that allowed you to reclaim control over your own happiness and destiny?

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Good Narrative Topics on Travel and Adventure

Consider creating intriguing titles for your narrative essay ideas by exploring thrilling travel adventures.

• Can you recount a memorable encounter with wildlife during your solo hiking adventure?
• How did a spontaneous decision to explore an unfamiliar city lead to unexpected discoveries?
• What lessons did you learn from navigating a foreign country with only a map and your instincts?
• Can you describe the exhilaration of conquering a challenging mountain peak for the first time?
• How did immersing yourself in a local culture during your travels broaden your perspective on the world?
• What unexpected obstacles did you encounter while embarking on a backpacking journey through rugged terrain?
• Can you reflect on the transformative experience of volunteering abroad in a community-driven project?
• How did getting lost in a labyrinthine city alleyway lead to serendipitous encounters and newfound friendships?
• What was the most memorable meal you had while sampling street food in a bustling market abroad?
• Can you recount the adrenaline rush of participating in an extreme sports activity in a foreign land?
• How did witnessing a breathtaking natural phenomenon during your travels leave a lasting impression on you?
• What cultural traditions or rituals did you participate in during a homestay experience with a local family?
• Can you describe the sense of wonder and awe you felt while exploring ancient ruins or historical sites?
• How did navigating a language barrier challenge and ultimately enrich your travel experience?
• What valuable life lessons did you learn from the mishaps and misadventures encountered during your journey off the beaten path?

Narrative Essay Topic Ideas on Career and Work Experience

College students can uncover captivating narrative essay ideas by exploring potential career paths or reminiscing about past job experiences.

• How did a challenging project at work showcase your problem-solving skills and resilience?
• Can you reflect on a pivotal mentorship experience that guided your career trajectory?
• What valuable lessons did you learn from a career setback or failure, and how did it shape your future success?
• How did a workplace conflict lead to personal growth and improved communication skills?
• Can you recount a moment when taking a professional risk paid off in unexpected ways?
• What insights did you gain from transitioning to a new industry or career path?
• How did participating in a cross-functional team project enhance your collaboration and leadership abilities?
• Can you describe the satisfaction of achieving a long-term career goal after years of hard work and perseverance?
• What impact did a meaningful recognition or award have on your motivation and sense of accomplishment?
• How did volunteering or pro bono work contribute to your professional development and sense of purpose?
• Can you reflect on the decision to leave a stable job in pursuit of passion or fulfillment?
• What strategies did you employ to navigate a toxic work environment and maintain your well-being?
• How did a career setback lead to unexpected opportunities for personal and professional growth?
• Can you describe a moment when mentorship or sponsorship played a crucial role in advancing your career?
• What lessons did you learn from a challenging client or customer interaction, and how did it shape your approach to customer service and relationship-building?

Interesting Narrative Essay Topics about Challenges and Obstacles

If you're not sure what to write about for your narrative essay, think back to the tough times you've had and how you managed to get through them.

• How did you conquer a once-paralyzing fear to chase your dreams?
• What new strengths did you discover while adapting to a physical challenge?
• Can you recall a creative solution you used during a tough financial period?
• When did you bravely stand against injustice, despite opposition?
• How did overcoming a language barrier broaden your horizons?
• What key lessons did you learn from a major setback in your life?
• How did you manage overwhelming stress and responsibilities?
• What inner reserves of resilience did you draw upon after personal loss?
• Describe a time when you defied societal norms to pursue your goals.
• Reflect on a moment when failure fueled your determination for success.
• When did you find the courage to leave your comfort zone behind?
• How did community support bolster you through a challenging time?
• Share a time when self-doubt led to newfound confidence.
• Can you recount a tragedy that spurred your personal growth?
• What insights did overcoming a monumental obstacle reveal about life?

Best Narrative Essay Topics: How to Choose the One That Resonates 

A narrative essay is a type of writing that tells a personal story, including characters, plot, setting, and the order of events. Its main goal is to connect with readers emotionally and share a specific message or insight through the retelling of a meaningful experience.

Students write narrative essays as part of their studies for several reasons. Firstly, it allows them to express themselves creatively by sharing their unique experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Secondly, it helps them develop important writing skills like organizing ideas and thoughts effectively.

Choosing good narrative essay ideas involves looking at personal experiences, interests, and the potential for engaging storytelling. Here's a simple guide to help you pick the right topic:

• Think about significant moments in your life that had a lasting impact, such as personal growth or overcoming challenges.
• Choose topics related to your hobbies, interests, or areas of expertise to make your story more engaging.
• Consider what your audience would be interested in and choose topics that resonate with them.
• Focus on a specific event or detail to make your narrative more focused and impactful.
• Look for universal themes like love or personal transformation that connect with readers on a deeper level.
• Brainstorm ideas and write freely to uncover compelling topics.
• Decide on storytelling techniques like flashbacks or foreshadowing and choose a topic that fits.
• Get feedback from friends, peers, or instructors to see if your topics are interesting and impactful.
• Choose topics that evoke strong emotions for a more compelling narrative.
• Select a topic that you personally connect with to make your story authentic.

Once you've chosen a topic, brainstorm ideas and create an outline for your essay. Follow your professor's instructions carefully and consider seeking help from our narrative essay writing service if needed.

Bring your stories to life with EssayPro. Select from a vast array of narrative essay topics and let our professionals help you weave your tales into captivating essays. Whether it's adventure, reflection, or imagination, we're here to assist.

Final Remarks

As we wrap up, our list of 200 narrative essay topics is here to fuel your creativity for your next writing project! Whether you're sharing a memorable event, reliving a childhood memory, or expressing a profound insight, crafting a narrative essay can be an uplifting experience that resonates deeply with readers.

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Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Literacy Narrative Essay: Writing From Start to End

• Icon Calendar 11 August 2024
• Icon Page 6759 words
• Icon Clock 31 min read

Mastering an art of writing requires students to have a guideline of how to write a good literacy narrative essay, emphasizing key details they should consider. This article begins by defining this type of academic document, its format, its distinctive features, and its unique structure. Moreover, further guidelines teach students how to choose some topics and provide an outline template and an example of a literacy narrative essay. Other crucial information is technical details people should focus on when writing a document, 10 things to do and not to do, essential tips for producing a high-standard text, what to include, and what mistakes to avoid. Therefore, reading this guideline benefits students and others because one gains critical insights, and it helps to start writing a literacy narrative essay and meet a scholarly standard.

General Aspects

Learning how to write many types of essays should be a priority for any student hoping to be intellectually sharp. Besides being an exercise for academic assessment, writing is a platform for developing mental faculties, including intellect, memory, imagination, reason, and intuition. As such, guidelines of how to write a literacy narrative, and this type of essay requires students to tell their story through a text. In turn, different aspects define a literacy narrative, its format, distinctive text features, unique structure, possible topics students can choose from, and a particular technicality of writing this kind of text. Moreover, students should also observe an outline template and an example of a good literacy narrative essay to understand what they can include and what they should avoid. Hence, this guideline gives students critical insights for writing a high-standard literacy narrative essay.

What Is a Literacy Narrative Essay and Its Purpose

According to its definition, a literacy narrative essay is a reflective type and form of writing that tells an author’s relationship with reading, writing, language development, or other personal stories. Basically, such a composition differs from argumentative, analytical, and cause and effect essays or reports and research papers. While these other texts require students to borrow information from different sources to strengthen a thesis statement and back up claims, this type of essay means students narrate their understanding of literacy, such as learning to read, mastering a new language, or discovering a specific power of words and reflect on how these experiences influenced their identity, values, and beliefs about communication or event that has impacted them significantly (West, 2024). In simple words, these essays focus on one or several aspects of their lives and construct a compelling story through a text. As such, the main purpose of writing a literacy narrative essay is not just to recount these experiences but to analyze their impact on an author’s life, offering more insights into how literacy has shaped their perspective and personal growth (Babin et al., 2020). Therefore, students should examine and reexamine their life course to identify experiences, events, or issues that stand out because they were pleasant or unpleasant. After identifying a memorable aspect of their life, they should use their accumulated knowledge to construct a narrative through speaking, reading, or writing (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). In terms of pages and words, the length of a literacy narrative essay depends on academic levels, course instructions, and assignment requirements, while general guidelines are:

High School

• Length: 1-3 pages
• Word Count: 250-750 words

College (Undergraduate)

• Length: 2-4 pages
• Word Count: 500-1,000 words

University (Upper-Level Undergraduate)

• Length: 3-5 pages
• Word Count: 750-1,250 words

Master’s

• Length: 4-6 pages
• Word Count: 1,000-1,500 words
• Length: 6-10+ pages
• Word Count: 1,500-2,500+ words

Note: Some sections of a literacy narrative essay can be added, deleted, or combined with each other, and its purpose or focus can be changed depending on topics, life experiences, and other important activities to write about. For example, a standard literacy narrative essay format typically includes a clear structure with an introduction that introduces a key moment in life, body paragraphs that provide detailed descriptions and reflections on such an experience, and a conclusion that summarizes an overall impact on a person’s journey (West, 2024). Basically, literary narrative writing involves telling a personal story with a focus on some elements of literacy, such as reading, writing, language development, or other significant moments in life, and reflecting on how these experiences have shaped an individual’s understanding and identity. An example of a literacy narrative is a personal story about how a challenging experience with learning to read or write, such as mastering a difficult book or overcoming a language barrier, shaped an author’s understanding and appreciation of this activity. Finally, to start off a literacy narrative essay, people begin with a vivid memory or pivotal moment that captures a specific essence of their personal journeys and sets a unique tone for an entire story they want to tell.

Distinctive Features

Every type of scholarly text has distinctive features that differentiate it from others. While some features may be standard among academic papers, most of them are not. Therefore, when writing a literacy narrative essay, students must first familiarize themselves with key features that make this kind of document distinct from others, like reports and research papers (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022 ). With such knowledge, people can know when to use an element when telling their personal stories through writing. As a result, some distinctive features of a literacy narrative essay include a personal tone, a private tale, descriptive language, show-not-tell, active voice, similes and metaphors, and dialogue.

💠 Personal Tone

A personal tone is a quality that makes a narrative essay personal, meaning it is a person telling a story. In this respect, students should use first-person language, such as ‘I’ and ‘we,’ throughout an entire story (West, 2024). Using these terms makes an intended audience realize a whole story is about a person and those close to them, such as family, peers, and colleagues. A real value of using a personal tone in writing a literacy narrative essay is that it reinforces a story’s theme, such as celebration or tragedy. In essence, people hearing, listening, or reading an entire story can appreciate its direct effect on a reader, speaker, or writer.

💠 Private Story

An actual essence of a literacy narrative essay is to tell a personal story. In this respect, telling people about a private experience, event, or issue gives this kind of text a narrative identity. Although a specific story people tell need not be about them, they must have been witnesses (Eldred & Mortensen, 2023). For example, one can write a literacy narrative essay about their worst experience after joining college. Such a narrative should tell a private story involving an author directly. Alternatively, people can write a literacy narrative essay about the day they witnessed corruption in public office. This paper should not necessarily focus on a person but on corrupt individuals in public office. Therefore, a private story should have an author as a central character or a witness to an event.

💠 Descriptive Language

Since a literacy narrative essay is about a personal, private story that tells an author’s experience, it is critical to provide details and help a target audience to identify with such an experience. Individuals can only do this activity by using descriptive language in their stories because a target audience uses the information to imagine what they hear or read (Gasser et al., 2022). An example of descriptive language in an essay is where, instead of writing, “I passed my aunt by the roadside as I headed home to inform others about the event,” one should write, “As I headed home to inform others about the happening, I came across my aunt standing on the roadside with a village elder in what seemed like a deep conversation about the event that had just transpired.” This latter statement is rich with information an intended audience can use to imagine a given situation.

💠 Show-Not-Tell

A literacy narrative essay aims to help a target audience to recreate an author’s experience in their minds. As such, they focus less on telling an audience what happened and more on ‘showing’ them how events unfolded. A practical method for doing this activity is comprehensively narrating experiences and events. For example, authors should not just write about how an experience made them feel, but they should be thorough in their narration by telling how this feeling affected them, such as influencing them to do something (Goldman, 2021). As a result, such a narrative essay allows people to show an intended audience how past experiences, events, or situations affected them or influenced their worldviews.

💠 Active Voice

Academic writing conventions demand students to write non-scientific scholarly documents, including literacy narrative essays, in a active voice, meaning writing in a form where a specific subject of a sentence performs a corresponding action. Practically, it should follow a following format: subject + verb + object. For example, this arrangement makes a sentence easy to read but, most importantly, keeps meanings in sentences clear and avoids complicating sentences or making them too wordy (Babin et al., 2020). An opposite of an active voice is a passive voice, which is common in scientific papers. A following sentence exemplifies an active voice: “Young men helped an old lady climb the stairs.” A passive voice would read: “An old woman was helped by young men to climb up the stairs.” As is evidence, an active voice is simple, straightforward, and short as opposed to a passive voice.

💠 Similes and Metaphors

Similes and metaphors are literary devices or figures of speech people use to compare two things that are not alike in literacy narrative essays. A main point of difference between these aspects is that similes compare two things by emphasizing one thing is like something else, while metaphors emphasize one thing is something else (West, 2024). Simply put, similes use the terms ‘is like’ or ‘is as…as’ to emphasize comparison between two things. A metaphor uses the word ‘is’ to highlight a specific comparison. Therefore, when writing a literacy narrative essay, students should incorporate similes by saying, “Friendship is like a flowery garden,” meaning friendship is pleasant. An example of a metaphor one can use is a statement: “My uncle’s watch is a dinosaur,” meaning it is ancient, a relic.

Dialogue is communication between two or more people familiar with plays, films, or novels. A primary purpose of this kind of communication is to show an actual importance of an issue to different people. Generally, discussions are the most common platforms for dialogue because individuals can speak their minds and hear what others say about the same problem (West, 2024). Dialogue is a distinctive feature of a literacy narrative essay because it allows people to show-not-tell. Authors can show readers how their interaction with someone moved from pleasant to unpleasant through dialogue. Consequently, dialogue can help readers to understand people’s attitudes, mindsets, or states of mind during an event described in a provided text. As such, incorporating a dialogue in a literacy narrative essay makes a whole text more personal to an author and more descriptive to a reader.

Besides the distinctive features above, a literacy narrative is distinct from other types of scholarly documents because it has a unique essay structure. In academic writing, a text’s structure denotes an essay outline people need to adopt to produce the work. For example, to make a literacy narrative, people choose a significant literacy-related or another significant personal experience, describe this moment vividly, reflect on its impact, and analyze how it shaped their understanding of reading, writing, language, or life in general (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). As such, it is common knowledge that essays should have three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. In the same way, literacy narratives, which also follow this outline, have a structure, which students should demonstrate in a body section. Besides, a standard structure addresses a literacy issue, solution, lesson, and summary. As a result, this essay structure allows people to produce a coherent paper, and readers find a composition to have a logical flow of ideas.

1️⃣ Literacy Issue

A literacy issue signifies a problem or struggle for an individual and is a personal or private issue an entire narrative focuses on. Ideally, students use this issue to give an intended audience a sneak peek into their personalities and private lives. Most issues are personal experiences involving a problem or struggle and their effect on an author and those close to them, like family members or friends (Babin et al., 2020). Therefore, when writing a literacy narrative essay, students should identify personal problems or struggles in their past and make them a paper’s focal subject.

2️⃣ Solution

A solution element in a literacy narrative essay describes how people overcame their problems or managed personal struggles. Simply put, it is where authors tell and show readers how they solved a personal, private issue that is a paper’s subject. Such information is crucial to readers because they need to know what happened to an author, who they see as a hero or protagonist of an entire story. For example, such narratives are informative because they show an intended audience how authors dealt with a problem or struggle and how they can use the same strategy to overcome their challenges (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). From this perspective, students should write a literacy narrative essay to inform and empower readers through insights relevant and applicable to their lives.

A lesson element is a cruciall message readers get from a person’s narrative about a literacy issue and its solution in an essay. For example, students can talk about how lacking confidence affects their social life by undermining their ability to create and nurture friendships (Babin et al., 2020). This problem is personal and becomes a literacy issue. Then, they show readers how they dealt with a discussed situation, such as reading books and articles on building personal confidence. Moreover, people should use practical examples of how they solved their problems or struggles. Overall, including all the information about a unique situation or struggle and a corresponding solution helps readers to learn a lesson, what they take away after reading an entire text. As such, students should know their narrative essays must have a lesson for their readers.

4️⃣ Summary

A summary element briefly describes a personal experience and its effects. Every literacy narrative essay must summarize an inividual’s experience to allow readers to judge, such as learning a real value of something. When summarizing their personal story, such as an experience, students should understand their summaries must be brief but detailed enough to allow readers to put themselves in their place (West, 2024). In other words, an entire summary must be relevant to a reader and a broader society. The most crucial element in a summary element is emphasizing a key lesson from a personal issue by telling how an author addressed a personal issue in an essay.

Famous Literacy Narrative Essays

Research is an essential activity and helps students to find credible sources to support their work. When writing such essays, they should adopt this approach to find famous literacy narratives and discover what makes them popular in a literary world. For example, a literacy narrative is a personal story that explores individual’s challenges with reading, writing, language development, or other personal moments in life and reflects on how these experiences have shaped their understanding and identity (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). As such, students should focus on how people adopt an unique structure described above. In turn, a list provided below highlights five popular literacy narratives because they are high-standard texts.

Learning to Read by Malcolm X

Malcolm X’s Learning to Read is a literacy narrative that describes his journey to enlightenment. Basically, this text reflects a unique structure of a literacy narrative because it communicates a personal issue, a solution to a problem, a lesson to a reader, and a summary of an individual’s experience. For example, an issue is person’s hardships that inspired his journey to becoming a literate activist. After dropping from school at a young age, Malcolm X committed a crime that led to his imprisonment. A solution to his hardships was knowledge, and he immersed himself in education by reading in a prison library, gaining essential knowledge that helped him to confront his reality. A lesson is that education is transformative, and people can educate themselves from ignorance to enlightenment. Finally, a summary is that personal struggles are a ladder to more extraordinary life achievements.

Scars: A Life in Injuries by David Owen

David Owen’s Scars: A Life in Injuries is a literacy narrative that adopts a unique structure above. An issue in a story is Owen’s scars, including over ten injuries and witnessing Duncan’s traumas. For example, a solution that an article proposes for dealing with personal scars is finding a purpose in each. In this case, an entire text describes how Owen saw each scar not as bad but as something that gave him a reason to live. A lesson is that scars are not just injuries but stories people can tell others to give hope and a reason for living. A summary is that life’s misfortunes should not be a reason to give up but a motivation to press on. It clarifies that, while misfortunes can lead to despair, one must be bold enough to see them as scars, not disabilities.

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son reflects a person’s tense relationship with his father in a specific context of racial tension that gripped New York City in the mid-20th century. In this case, an entire story fits a unique structure of a literacy narrative. A personal issue in a given text is an individual’s tense relationship with his father. A solution to this struggle is accepting life as it is and humans as they are, not struggling to change anyone or anything. For example, a key lesson in a given text is that the family can cause pain and anguish, and the best people can do is not to let others influence their feelings, attitudes, behaviors, or motivations in life. A summary is that people’s struggles are a fire that sparks a revolution of ideas that uplift them and others in a broader society.

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father is a famous story of a person’s search for his biracial identity that satisfies a unique structure of a literacy narrative. For example, a personal issue in a mentioned text is Obama’s desire to understand specific forces that shaped him and his father’s legacy, which propelled him to travel to Kenya. A journey exposed him to brutal poverty and tribal conflict and a community with an enduring spirit. A solution to this personal struggle is becoming a community organizer in a tumultuous political and racial strife that birthed despair in inner cities. In turn, a reader learns that community is valuable in healing wounds that can lead to distress. A summary is that the family is crucial to one’s identity, and spending time to know one’s background is helpful for a purposeful and meaningful life.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast recalls an individul’s time in Paris during the 1920s. A personal issue in an entire text is dealing with a changing Paris. A solution to an individual’s struggle was to build a network of friends and use them as a study. For example, a given text summarizes a person’s story by discussing his relationships, including befriending Paul Cézanne, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott  Fitzgerald. He found some unpleasant and others very hedonistic. A reader learns from a given text that friendships are vital in one’s professional journey because they provide insights into attitudes that make up a human community. A summary is that one’s friendships are crucial in social and intellectual development, despite some weaknesses of friends.

Since students may get a chance to write a literacy narrative essay, they should learn how to choose good essay topics. Typically, students receive instructions specifying a unique topic, but, sometimes, such specifications may be lacking. In such an instance, one must know how to choose a good theme from lists of popular topics. For example, the best approach in selecting a subject is to read widely while noting valuable ideas (Babin et al., 2020). These aspects are a good starting point when deciding a subject of a literacy narrative essay. In turn, a following list provides easy literacy narrative essay topics because they require students to tell a personal story, addressing key elements of a unique structure, and they are:

• Overcoming a Fear That Changed My Life
• Learning From Failures: A Personal Account
• The Journey to Mastering My Favorite Hobby
• Delving Into the Enigma of Alternate Universes: A Hypothetical Journey
• Surviving the Harsh Realm of the Alaskan Wilderness
• A Specific Moment When a Childhood Book Sparked a Lifelong Passion for Reading
• Overcoming a Challenge of Learning to Write in a Second Language
• How a Particular Teacher or Mentor Changed Your Perspective on Writing?
• A Unique Role of Storytelling in Preserving Family History and Culture
• Discovering a Power of Words Through Writing Poetry
• A Direct Impact of Technology on Your Journey to Becoming Literate
• Struggling With and Eventually Mastering an Art of Public Speaking
• A Key Experience of Learning to Read or Write Later in Life and Its Effects
• How Reading a Specific Nook Transformed Your Worldview or Beliefs?
• Navigating Basic Challenges of Literacy in a Multilingual Household
• A Memorable Day in Winter
• My Experience in an Adventure in Africa
• The Greatest Lessons in Friendship
• My Family Is My Anchor
• The Day I Will Never Forget
• My Life as a Community Advocate

Outline Template

Topic: Unique Title

I. Introduction

• A hook: An exciting statement to grab a reader’s attention.
• Background of a chosen essay’s topic.
• A thesis that states a topic’s significance to both an author and a reader.

A. Literacy Issue:

• State a specific literacy theme and signify a personal problem, struggle, or issue.

B. Solution

• Give some background information about a chosen literacy issue.
• Describe a particular setting of an issue.
• Mention some characters involved in solving an issue.
• Give a short story about a given issue and its significance.

D. Summary:

• State some outcomes of a discussed issue through detailed language.

III. Conclusion

• Restate a thesis.
• State both an outcome and a lesson learned.

Literacy Narrative Essay Example

Topic: My Life as a Community Advocate

Introduction

Community service is a noble idea that should form part of every person’s life mantra. A specific context of community is myriad social issues that may undermine people’s quality of life without adequate interventions. My life as a community advocate is about how I have helped to address social issues without holding any public office, evidence that all one needs is love, concern, focus, and commitment.

Body Paragraphs

Literacy Issue

Community service is a noble duty every person should view as an intervention against social problems that potentially undermine an overall quality of life of vulnerable groups in society, such as children, persons living with disabilities, and senior citizens. Community advocacy is standing up for any community in critical forums where decision-makers gather. As such, my life as a community advocate involves attending community meetings, political gatherings, seminars, and any association that consists of an interaction between ordinary people and those in leadership. My goal in such meetings is to raise issues affecting vulnerable groups in my community, which need more attention from local, state, or national leadership.

My life as a community advocate happens in a particular community where I live and any place where leaders with a significant power to change a community’s political, economic, and social architecture gather. In this respect, people involved in my role as a community advocate include elected leaders at local, state, and national levels and leaders of various groups, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities. I also interact with school administrators, social workers, and health professionals like psychologists. These people are valuable in providing insights into different groups’ challenges and what is missing to make their lives satisfactory, if not better. It is common knowledge that vulnerable groups are significantly disadvantaged across dimensions of life, including employment, healthcare, and leadership. Therefore, my life as a community advocate focuses on being a voice for these groups in forums where those with a great potential to improve their experiences and outcomes are present.

An event that makes me proud of being a community advocate is when I helped to create a school-based program for children from low-income households below the age of five in my county. A program’s objective was to feed children and provide essential amenities they lacked due to their parent’s or guardians’ economic circumstances. Over time, I have learned several counties across a state have adopted a program and made the lives of vulnerable children promising.

I took part in activities and improved an overall quality of health support for children. I have learned from several clinicians and social workers that children in a program have shown improved scores in body immunity because of good nutrition. Such news makes me proud to be a community advocate and continue being a voice for the voiceless in a society where politicians have prioritized self-interests in local, state, and national leaderships.

My life as a community advocate has shown me people can solve social problems without minding their position in any community. The only tools I have used are love, concern, focus, and commitment to make the lives of vulnerable groups satisfactory, if not better. Looking back, I feel proud knowing I have helped vulnerable children to experience a life they may have missed if no one showed love and care. My community advocacy is evidence that people can solve social problems by caring.

Steps on How to Write a Literacy Narrative Essay

Writing a literacy narrative essay is a technical exercise that involves several steps. Each step requires students to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of how to write this type of scholarly document. For example, to write a literacy narrative essay, people reflect on a significant personal experience related to reading, writing, language, or other significant activities, describe an event in detail, and analyze its impact on their development as an individual (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). In essence, technical details of writing these papers are specific issues one must address in each step of writing: preparation, stage setup, writing a first draft, and wrap-up. Although not every detail applies in a literacy narrative, most do, and students must grasp all for an improved understanding of what writing a high-standard academic document means.

Step 1: Preparation

Preparation is a first step in starting a literacy narrative essay. One technical detail students should address is defining a specific topic. Typically, instructors choose the topic, but students can select one if such a specification is lacking. For example, the best way to choose a topic is research, where one searches for documents, including famous narratives, on the Internet, using online databases (Babin et al., 2020). A second technical detail is to generate ideas, which means reading reliable sources while making notes. In this task, one should consider an intended audience to determine whether to use simple or technical language in an essay.

Step 2: Stage Set Up

Setting a stage is a second step in writing a literacy narrative essay. A first technical detail one needs to address is to create a well-organized outline according to an example above. For example, this task helps people to assess their ideas to see whether they are sufficient for each paper section (West, 2024). A second technical detail is gathering stories by recalling experiences and events significantly affecting one’s life. In turn, a last technical point is constructing a hook, a statement that will help an entire text to grab readers’ attention from the start.

Step 3: Writing a First Draft

Writing a first draft of a literacy narrative essay is a third step in this activity. A first technical detail students should address is creating a draft. This text is a first product of a writing process and helps authors to judge their work. For example, the main issue is whether they have used all the ideas to construct a compelling narrative (Miller-Cochran et al., 2022). A next answer will determine if they will add new ideas or delete some, meaning adding or deleting academic sources. Whatever an outcome, people may have to alter clear outlines to fit all the ideas necessary to make papers compelling and high-standard.

Writing an Introduction

Students should focus on three outcomes when writing a good introduction: a hook, a context, and a thesis. Basically, a hook is a statement that captures a reader’s attention. As such, one must use a quote, fact, or question and trigger a reader’s interest to want to read more (Babin et al., 2020). Context is telling readers why a chosen topic is vital to write about. A thesis is a statement that summarizes a person’s purpose for writing such papers. In turn, some examples of sentence starters for beginning a literacy narrative essay are:

• As I sat in my childhood bedroom surrounded by a mountain of books, I never imagined that one story in particular would ignite a passion for reading that would follow me for the rest of my life … .
• The first time I faced a daunting task of writing a full-length essay, I was overwhelmed with self-doubt, yet that experience became a turning point in my understanding of a unique power of words … .
• The day I received my first journal, with its crisp, blank pages, I felt an indescribable excitement, not realizing then how much writing would come to shape my identity … .
• Learning to read in a language that was not my native tongue was one of the most challenging experiences of my life, but it also taught me resilience and opened up a new world of possibilities … .
• Growing up in a household where multiple languages were spoken, I often felt caught between worlds, but this complex relationship with language eventually became a source of strength … .
• When my teacher handed me that classic novel and insisted I read it, I was skeptical, but little did I know it would profoundly alter my perspective on literature and life … .
• I can still hear a particular echo of my father’s voice as he patiently helped me to sound out each word in that first book, a moment that would forever define my relationship with reading … .
• The first time I wrote a poem, I felt as if I had unlocked a secret door to my emotions, and, from that day forward, writing became my most trusted outlet for self-expression … .
• As I struggled to compose a speech for my school’s public speaking contest, I began to realize that it was not just about reading and writing but also about finding my own voice … .
• The stories my grandmother told me in the evenings, passed down through generations, not only connected me to my heritage but also ignited a deep appreciation for a particular art of storytelling … .

Writing a Body

Writing a body part of a literacy narrative essay requires addressing essential elements of a unique structure. A first element is to state a personal issue and make it a center of an entire narrative. The best approach is to look into the past and identify an experience or event with a lasting impact (West, 2024). A second element is a solution to a defined problem or struggle resulting from a personal issue. Therefore, authors should identify personal problems that expose them to conflict with others or social structures and systems. A third element is a lesson, how a personal issue and a solution affect an author and potentially a reader. A last element is a summary, where people conclude by giving readers a life perspective relating to a discussed personal story.

Writing a Conclusion

When writing a conclusion part for a literacy narrative essay, students should summarize an entire story by reemphasizing a thesis, a personal issue, and a lesson learned. Ideally, the main goal of this section is not to introduce new ideas but reinforce what a paper has said and use main points to conclude a presented story (Babin et al., 2020). As such, people should not leave readers with questions but give information that allows them to draw a good lesson from a given text.

Step 4: Wrap Up

A last step in writing a literacy narrative essay is wrapping up a final draft. A first technical detail students should address is revising key sections without a logical order of ideas. Ideally, one should read and reread their work to ensure all sentences and paragraphs make logical sense. For example, this task should ensure all body paragraphs have a topic sentence, a concluding sentence, and a transition (West, 2024). A next technical detail is editing a final draft by adding or deleting words and fixing grammar and format errors. Lastly, people should confirm a literacy narrative essay adopts a single formatting style from beginning to end. In turn, a crucial content in such narratives includes block quotes and dialogue. As such, students should format them appropriately as follows:

• Block quotes: Select a text to quote, click “Layout” on a ribbon, set a left indent to 0.5cm, click an “Enter” key, then use arrows in an indent size box to increase or decrease an indentation.
• Dialogue: Use quotation marks to start and end spoken dialogue and create a new paragraph for each speaker.

Writing a literacy narrative essay requires students to learn several tips. These elements include choosing topics meaningful to an author, generating ideas from selected themes and putting them in sentence form, creating a clear essay outline and populating it with key ideas, writing a first draft that reflects a unique structure (defined issue, solution, lesson, and summary), reading and rereading a first draft, revising and editing a final draft to produce a high-quality literacy narrative essay, proofreading a complete document.

10 things to do:

• developing a hook to grab a reader’s attention,
• writing an essay in paragraphs,
• using a correct grammar,
• incorporating verbs and triggering a reader’s interest,
• showing rather than telling by using descriptive language in an essay,
• incorporating dialogue,
• varying sentence beginnings,
• following figurative speech,
• formatting correctly,
• rereading a whole essay.

10 things not to do:

• choosing an irrelevant essay topic that does not stir interest in a reader,
• presenting a long introduction,
• providing a thesis that does not emphasize a personal issue,
• writing paragraphs without topic sentences and transitions,
• ignoring a unique structure of a literacy narrative essay (specific issue, solution, lesson, and summary),
• focusing on too many personal experiences or events,
• using several formatting styles,
• writing sentences without logical sense,
• finalizing an essay’s document with multiple grammatical and formatting mistakes,
• not concluding an entire paper by reemphasizing a thesis and lesson learned.

What to Include

Common Mistakes

• Lack of Focus: Failing to narrow down an essay to a specific literacy or personal experience, making a whole narrative unfocused.
• Overly General: Writing an essay in vague terms without providing specific details or examples, which weakens an entire impact of a presented story.
• Skipping Reflection: Merely recounting events without analyzing how they impacted a specific journey or personal growth.
• Ignoring Structure: Neglecting a clear structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion, leading to a confusing and disorganized essay.
• Too Much Background Information: Overloading readers with unnecessary context or history, which detracts from a main narrative.
• Inconsistent Tone: Shifting between formal and informal language or varying emotional tones, which can confuse readers and disrupt an overall narrative’s flow.
• Lack of Emotional Engagement: Failing to convey an emotional significance of a personal experience, making an essay unengaging.
• Ignoring Audience: Writing without considering a reader’s perspective, leading to a paper that may not resonate or be relatable.
• Weak Conclusion: Ending an essay without a strong closing reflection, which leaves readers unsatisfied and a paper incomplete.
• Poor Grammar and Mechanics: Overlooking grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, which can reduce a literacy narrative essay’s credibility.

A literacy narrative essay is a reflective piece that tells a personal story about individual’s experiences with reading, writing, language learning, or other events. In writing, such a composition should include distinctive features, like a personal tone, descriptive language, and a particular use of dialogue, to bring an entire narrative to life. Moreover, these papers follow a specific essay structure that includes identifying a literacy issue, describing a solution, and conveying a lesson learned. As a result, a whole narrative aims to engage readers by showing how these experiences shaped an individual’s perspective and personal growth. In turn, some takeaways to remember include:

• For writing a good literacy narrative essay, think of a personal experience or an event with a lasting impact.
• Use descriptive language to narrate a specific experience or event.
• Identify a conflict in a chosen experience or event.
• State how this conflict shaped your perspective.
• Provide a solution to a discussed conflict.
• Mention a particular setting of a personal experience or event, including people or groups involved.
• State an actual significance of a presented experience or event to people and groups involved and broader society.

Babin, M., Burnell, C., Pesznecker, S. M., Rosevear, N., & Wood, J. R. (2020). The word on college reading and writing . Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Eldred, J. C., & Mortensen, P. (2023). Returning to literacy narratives. College English , 85 (6), 471–497. https://doi.org/10.58680/ce202332617

Gasser, L., Dammert, Y., & Murphy, P. K. (2022). How do children socially learn from narrative fiction: Getting the lesson, simulating social worlds, or dialogic inquiry? Educational Psychology Review , 34 (3), 1445–1475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09667-4

Goldman, D. (2021). “The hidden door that leads to several moments more”: Finding context for the literacy narrative in first year writing. The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning. , 26 (9), 83–98. https://doi.org/10.7290/jaepl263l9h

Miller-Cochran, S. K., Stamper, R., & Cochran, S. (2022). An insider’s guide to academic writing: A rhetoric and reader . Bedford/St. Martin’s.

West, E. (2024). Representations of language learning and literacy: How to read literacy narratives . Routledge.

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Literacy Narratives: Overview

“What is Your Story?” Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash “A word after a word after a word is power.”

— Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale

Maybe you aren’t someone who writes much at all. Perhaps you don’t believe that there is really much purpose to writing. However, as a human being, you are, by your very nature, enthralled to the power of narrative. Stories shape the realities that we experience on a daily basis and on every level imaginable. Everything that you know or experience has been conveyed to you as a narrative of some sort, and you, in turn, depend on narrative to tell your story to the world. These narratives and the situations that they inhabit can be simple and commonplace–like you telling a parent or sibling about how your day went, from the difficulties that you faced to the good moments that kept you going. They can also be complex and unique–such as listening to someone you trust and respect talk about what you should aspire to in life and what compromises you should and shouldn’t be willing to make along the way. Regardless, words and the stories in which they are enmeshed carry immense power, and they surround you in more ways that you might imagine.

This idea runs counter to common stereotypes of the literacy of our contemporary moment (or lack thereof). Phrases like “no one reads or writes anymore” are thrown about as if they are an unquestionable truth, but reality is another matter. In a landmark study of student writing habits at Stanford University from 2001 to 2008, noted scholar Andrea Lunsford and colleagues discovered that their students were writing constantly and in an unimaginable range of environments: “These students did plenty of emailing, and texting; they were online a good part of every day; they joined social networking sites enthusiastically” ( “Our Semi-literate Youth?” ). Furthermore, these digital writing habits, rather than producing a shallower form of writing and reading comprehension, as many might assume, were “help[ing] them develop a range or repertoire of writing styles, tones, and formats along with a range of abilities” ( “Our Semi-literate Youth?” ). Writing and reading, then, are activities that happen all the time–even if their form has changed markedly during the past few decades.

Literacy narratives offer you an opportunity to reflect back on your own journey as a writer and reader, whether in a traditional or digital context. Perhaps most importantly, in revisiting your path up to this point and envisioning where you see the journey taking you into the future, you can gain a sort of perspective and agency that often isn’t possible in the moment. And, as this semester unfurls and your writing and reading abilities improve, you will, as Atwood indicates, gain increased power–both over the narratives that you author and put out into the world as well as those that you receive and which seek to gain your attention on behalf of their author. Such an author may be an individual very much like yourself or a corporation interested in convincing you to use one of their products. Regardless, your ability to engage, analyze, and respond to these outside narratives will give you increased agency in a world in which the number of narratives and authors are increasing exponentially. The literacy narrative assignment will provide an initial inroad for you on this path.

Everything is a Text!

The foundation of this course is built on your ability to read closely and critically. To engage with this skill, and the multiple literacies we navigate on a daily basis, this essay is a personal piece in which you will explore a significant moment regarding your own literacy; you may approach literacy either in the traditional sense or by using our expanded, modern definition.

As you move through this chapter and related course resources, remember that a “text” in the context of this assignment, and in twenty-first-century composition studies in general, is anything that conveys a narrative to you–regardless of the medium. This, then, can be a book, a song, a social media site, a film, a video game, anything at all. As philosopher Jacques Derrida famously said, “Everything is a text.” In this sense, writing about your experience creating art or making music would fall under the purview of a “literacy narrative.” When you think through the essay that you would like to create below, make sure that you choose a topic that is authentic to your own experience, your own journey, and, perhaps most importantly, something that you are interested in continuing to explore through writing and reflection.

Use the following content, which has been adapted from Leslie Davis and Kiley Miller’s First-Year Composition, to plan your literacy narrative assignment.

ASSIGNMENT SHEET

Assignment Sheet – Literacy Narrative

Literacy is a key component of academic success, as well as professional success. In this class and others, you will be asked to read and engage with various types of texts, so the purpose of this assignment is twofold. First, this assignment will allow you to write about something important to you, using an open form and personal tone instead of an academic one, allowing you to examine some of your deepest convictions and experiences and convey these ideas in a compelling way through writing. Second, this essay provides us an opportunity to get to know each other as a class community.

For this assignment, you should imagine your audience to be an academic audience. Your audience will want a good understanding of your literacy, past, present, or future, and how you seek to comprehend the texts around you.

Requirements:

Choose ONE prompt below to tell about an important time in your life when you engaged with or were confronted with literacy, using the traditional or broad definition. We’ll discuss various types of literacy, so you will identify and define the type of literacy you’re discussing.

• Describe a situation when you were challenged in your reading or experience with a text (a book, song, film, etc.) by describing the source of that challenge (vocabulary, length, organization, content, something else). How did you overcome that challenge to understand what the text was saying? What strategies or steps do you plan to take in the future to make the process easier?
• Describe the type of texts you read (watch, listen to, play, etc.) most often. These texts can occur in traditional formal contexts or in the most informal situations (like group text message threads with your friends or posting on specific social media sites). What makes them easy or challenging to read and interpret? What strategies do you use to ensure that you fully understand them or can apply them in some form of productive context? How have they shaped you as a person?
• Describe your preferred mode of expressing yourself and communicating with the world. This, again, can be something more traditional like poetry, creating art, making music, or something more contemporary, like producing TikTok videos or curating an Instagram channel. It can even be something like cooking, playing a sport, or any other hobby or activity that gives unity, order, and meaning to your world. What have been some of the challenges that you faced as you learned how to create these types of texts? What have been some of your most memorable moments, and how has this mode of expression shaped you as an individual?

Formatting:

• Your professor will determine the exact length of this assignment, but a typical length for an essay of this sort is 1,000 words.
• Your work must be typed in size 12, Times New Roman font and double spaced, 1” margins, following MLA requirements.

Important Note About Topic Choice:

The format of this assignment provides you with quite a bit of leeway. Make sure that you choose your topic carefully.

Section One: Rhetoric and Personal Narrative

Exploring literacy.

What comes to mind when you hear the term “literacy”? Traditionally, we can define literacy as the ability to read and write. To be literate is to be a reader and writer. More broadly, this term has come to be used in other fields and specialties and refers generally to an ability or competency.

For example, you could refer to music literacy as the ability to read and write music; there are varying levels of literacy, so while you may recognize the image below as a music staff and the symbols for musical notes, it’s another thing to name the notes, to play any or multiple instruments, or to compose music.

Or, you may be a casual football fan, but to be football literate , you would need to be able to understand and read the playbook, have an understanding of the positions, define terms like “offsides” or “holding” as they relate to the sport, and interpret the hand signals used by the referees.

Educator and writer Shaelynn Faarnsworth describes and defines literacy as “social” and “constantly changing.” In this unit, we’ll explore literacy as a changing, dynamic process. By expanding our definition of literacy, we’ll come to a better understanding of our skills as readers and writers. We’ll use this discussion so that you, as writers, can better understand and write about “what skills [you] get and what [you] don’t, [and include your] interests, passions, and quite possibly YouTube.”

Checking In: Questions and Activities

• Consider our expanded definition of literacy. In what ways are you literate? What activities and/or hobbies do you value? How do they help give meaning to your world?
• When, where, and how do you read and write on a daily basis? These activities can occur in traditional formal contexts or in the most informal situations (like writing in group text message threads with your friends or posting on specific social media sites).
• Thinking of traditional literacy (reading and writing), what successes or challenges have you faced in school, at home, in the workplace, etc.?

Close Reading Strategies: Introducing the Conversation Model

Reading is a necessary step in the writing process. One helpful metaphor for the writing process is the conversation model. Imagine approaching a group of friends who are in the middle of an intense discussion. Instead of interrupting and blurting out the first thing you think of, you would listen. Then, as you listen, you may need to ask questions to catch up and gain a better understanding of what has already been said. Finally, once you have this thorough understanding, you can feel prepared to add your ideas, challenge, and further the conversation.

Similarly, when writing, the first step is to read. Like listening, this helps you understand the topic better and approach the issues you’re discussing with more knowledge. With that understanding, you can start to ask more specific questions, look up definitions, and start to do more driven research. With all that information, then you can offer a new perspective on what others have already written. As you write, you may go through this process — listening, researching, and writing — several times!

This unit focuses first on the importance of reading. There are two important ways we’ll think about reading in this course. Close reading and critical reading are both important processes with difference focuses. Close reading is a process to understand what is being said. It’s often used in summaries, where the goal is to comprehend and report on what a text is communicating. Compared to critical reading, an analytical process focused on how and why an idea is presented, close reading forces us to slow down and identify the meaning of the information. This skill is especially important in summaries and accurately quoting and paraphrasing.

Close reading, essentially, is like listening to the conversation. Both focus on comprehension and being able to understand and report back on what is written or said. In this project,

• Within close reading, your processes could be further broken down into pre-reading, active reading, and post-reading strategies. What do you focus on before and after you read a text?
• There are many ways to read closely, and being an intentional reader will help ensure you process what you read and recall it later. However, there are many ways to actively read.

Consider assignments you’ve been given in the past:

• Have your instructors asked you to annotate a text?
• Do you find yourself copying down important lines, highlighting, or making notes as you read?
• What strategies do you rely on to actively and closely read?
• What are your least favorite strategies?

The Rhetorical Situation

You may have heard of “rhetorical questions” or gotten frustrated watching the news when a commentator dismisses another by saying “that’s just empty rhetoric” — but what does rhetoric mean? With definitions dating back to Aristotle and Plato, this is a complex concept with many historical and contemporary definitions. We define rhetoric as the ways language and other communication strategies are used to achieve a purpose with an audience. Below, we’ll explore the rhetorical situation, examining how many different factors contribute to how a writer can achieve their goals, and what may influence them to make different decisions.

The rhetorical situation is composed of many interactive pieces that each depend on the other. Let’s start by defining each component:

• Ask yourself: Who created this?
• Ask yourself: Who is likely to, or supposed to, see this?
• Ask yourself: What am I looking at?
• Ask yourself: Why was the text created?
• Ask yourself: When was this created? How did it get developed? Where was the text published? What shaped the creative process?

Each of these categories intersects and influences the other. When we think about a complete rhetorical situation, you’ll need to define all these different pieces to best understand the text. As we begin practicing close reading, drawing the rhetorical situation will be a helpful tool.

Let’s examine this project, the literacy narrative.

• Author : You! While you have a unique background, you’re a student in this course, and your individual writing experience will influence what you write about.
• Audience : Your classmates and instructor. This is a collaborative course, and your instructor will read what you produce.
• Text : Literacy Narrative. This type of text has different goals and requirements. We’ve examined literacy already, and we’ll review narratives soon. Together, these guidelines will help us construct this specific type of text (rather than a poem about reading or your personal memoir about how you became a writer!).
• Purpose : To reflect. To introduce yourself. To define your literacy. These are all goals of this assignment. Throughout your assignment, you’ll want to check in with yourself and ensure that you’re accomplishing these goals. If not, you won’t meet the demands of the assignment.
• Context : This assignment — the assignment sheet above has specific requirements that will influence what you create. Your writing background — no one else has the same life experience with reading and writing as you. The goals of the course — there are specific tasks to accomplish with this project that are specific to course outcome objectives. Each of these aspects will influence how you put the project together. Since you didn’t just wake up and decide to write about literacy, the context of this assignment will determine what you create.
• Which of the elements of the rhetorical triangle influence your writing decisions most? Why?
• Are there any elements you don’t consider? Why don’t they seem as important?

Section 2: Defining Narrative and Organization

Now that we’ve reviewed some basics, let’s take a look at the assignment more fully, begin drafting, and work more closely with feedback from others. A literacy narrative is a specific type of genre, so there are certain requirements for this text. Using examples from other students, we’ll begin to develop your first draft.

Introducing the Literacy Narrative

narrative : a method of story-telling  

A literacy narrative is a common genre for writers who want to explore their own experiences with writing. Just Google “literacy narrative,” and you’ll find endless examples! While this assignment will respond to specific prompts and follow a more specific structure than some of the examples you’ll find on Google, there is a common theme in each essay that revolves around your relationship with literacy. Section One defined literacy,  but what about narrative? Narrative can be defined as a method of story-telling. In the simplest terms, your goal in this literacy narrative, in this assignment, is to tell the story of your personal experience with literacy, either from a past event, something you’re working with now, or looking to the future. Let’s review the three sets of prompts from the assignment sheet:

• Describe a situation when you were challenged in your reading by describing the source of that challenge (vocabulary, length, organization, something else). How did you overcome that challenge to understand what the text was saying? What strategies or steps do you plan to take in the future to make the process easier? This can range from reading a difficult novel to trying to play a particularly complicated song.
• Describe the type of texts you read (watch, listen to, etc.) most often. What makes them easy or challenging to read and interpret? What strategies do you use to ensure that you fully understand them or can apply them? Again, remember that these activities can occur in traditional formal contexts or in the most informal situations (like writing in group text message threads with your friends or posting on specific social media sites). Listening to music and watching true crime documentaries also count as listening to and watching texts.
• Describe what kind of texts you think you will have to read or interpret in the future and where you will encounter these texts (i.e. future classes, your career, etc.). How do you think they might challenge you? What strategies will you use to overcome these difficulties?
• What non-traditional topics could you write about for this project? What activities and/or hobbies do you value? How do they help give meaning to your world?

Each of these prompts gives you the chance to tell your story and examine your experience with a specific type of literacy. As you consider the prompts, think about how you could tell a story to answer these questions. With this frame of mind, review the questions and activities below.

• Which prompt from the assignment sheet will you address? Why does this prompt appeal to you?
• Consider the brainstorming you did about the ways that you are literate. Which prompt matches those skills best? Are these skills you struggled with at first, skills you currently practice, or skills that you’re learning and will use in the future? Use these notes to decide which set of questions you’ll focus on in this project.

Organization: PIE Method

Each prompt includes three questions, which we’ll use as the starting point for three paragraphs. In each set of prompts, your first paragraph will describe the text; remember, when thinking about reading a text, we can interpret this broadly, like with music and sports. The second paragraph will explore the challenges or successes you’ve experienced. Then, the third paragraph will focus on strategies and techniques for improvement. This way, you can tell a more complete story of your experience, sharing the details and emotions along the way and making readers feel like they’re right there with you. But how do you capture all this detail in a way that helps you organize your thoughts and keep your reader interested in the story?

We’ll use a formula for the paragraph structure called PIE, which stands for Point, Information, and Explanation. This method will help you plan what you want to say, and then give examples so you can show why each step was so important to you. Let’s review each part of the paragraph, and then we’ll look at how this applies to your literacy narrative with a student sample.

• In the literacy narrative: Since each paragraph responds to a question from the prompt, the Point of each paragraph should tell readers which question you’re answering. By rephrasing the question in your Point, you can signal to your classmates and instructor so that they know which question you’re answering.
• In the literacy narrative: Most of your evidence, in a narrative, will be from your experience. Report what happened, what you read, or what you learned. Naming these details can help your readers see through your eyes when you give specific examples.
• In the literacy narrative: Help your readers get inside your head and feel like they’re with you. Keeping the Point in mind and showing how all these ideas relate will bring the paragraph together by developing each example clearly and offering a thoughtful response to each prompt. How did you feel about the examples from the Information? Why was it was so significant? Why should your readers care about this experience? Answering these questions will help show your readers what you experienced so they can understand the significance and connect with you.

Together, these pieces all come together to create a strong, developed paragraph that responds to the question from the prompt more fully.

• Below is a sample paragraph that follows the PIE structure. It is coded for the different parts of the paragraph above, with the Point in bold , the  Information in italics , and the  Explanation underlined . The second paragraph has been shortened and has not been coded. First, review the parts of the coded example. Pay particular attention to how these elements work in harmony to build the paragraph. Then, review and identify the PIE elements in the second paragraph.

Planning a Draft

Now that we’ve reviewed all the components and the foundation for this assignment, you’re ready to begin your draft! We’ll focus just on the first paragraph here, but you can use these steps for each paragraph to construct your draft.

Consider the first question from each prompt, copied below, to decide if you’ll focus on a past experience, the present, or the future:

• Describe a situation when you were challenged in your reading by describing the source of that challenge (vocabulary, length, organization, something else).  
• Describe the type of texts you read (watch, listen to, etc.) most often.  
• Describe what kind of texts you think you will have to read or interpret in the future and where you will encounter these texts (i.e. future classes, your career, etc.).  
• Describe your preferred mode of expressing yourself and communicating with the world.

Literacy Narrative Rough Draft

Using your brainstorming from previous weeks, and using the student sample as a reference, begin drafting using the PIE structure, following these steps below to build the first paragraph of your draft. This is just a first draft, so let yourself write freely! This doesn’t need to be perfect or even good — instead, the goal is to put ideas on paper.

• In your Point, rephrase one of the questions above. You can borrow some of this same language to signal to your readers and show which question you’re answering. Remember, this only introduces the main idea — no details yet!
• Review your brainstorming. Did you name specific examples? Add these to your paragraph to develop the Information. Name at least two examples. Each example you give should connect to the Point, providing evidence from your experience.
• Review the examples and start to Explain. How did you feel about the examples from the Information? Why was it was so significant? Why should your readers care about this experience? Ask yourself these questions for each example you include.
• Depending on your drafting process, it might be easy to tackle all three paragraphs at once and get everything down, or you might prefer to write one paragraph at a time.
• Throughout the course, practice with drafting one paragraph per day, or setting a timer to see what you can write in a specific amount of time.
• Review what you’ve written, and see if there are more details to add. Remember, the goal is to get as much as you can out of your head. Revisions will take place next.

Section Three: Peer Review and Revision

Peer review.

Peer review is an important part of the drafting process. It helps us learn from our classmates and see our own work in a different way. Writing can be a lonely and isolating experience that makes the process frustrating and unsatisfying. Getting to share your work with others can break that uncomfortable pattern!

That said, you may be new to sharing your work or have different experiences with peer review. Good peer reviews can spark creativity, help build on good ideas, and revise the rougher ideas. But, sometimes peer review can be challenging if your peer is too critical or too complementary, or maybe you can’t read and understand what they wrote! The tips below will help reinforce best practices, as well as avoid some common mistakes with peer review.

When completing peer review, one important rule is to focus on the big picture and NOT to edit. Think about it like this: If you add a comma, then you’ve helped make one sentence of the paper better. In a paper that’s 1,000 words long, that’s not so helpful! Instead, consider the rhetorical triangle. If you can make observations and ask questions to help your classmate understand the audience or the genre better, then the entire paper is going to improve, because you focused on a higher order concept that affects not just one sentence, but the paragraph and the whole paper. Throughout these projects, we’ll practice several strategies for peer review so you can see several example methods and find what works best for you.

Peer workshop

When you sit down with your peer’s paper, we’ll practice a three-step process. This gives you a chance to explain exactly what you mean while offering specific advice for your peer. Review the steps below:

• Observe : Make a statement or summarize what you see. Identifying a pattern in your peer’s work or repeating what you think your peer is saying can help your peer know if they’re communicating clearly. Using the rhetorical triangle to support these observations could be a helpful strategy!
• Explain : Critique what you see, explaining if the writer has a strong idea or if it might need work. U sing adjectives to describe what’s going well or what’s not working is important so that you peer can learn more about your observation. Was this “clear” or “confusing”? Is the writer “engaging and interesting” or is the writing “plain and repetitive”?
• EXAMPLE: 1) You give a few examples for information, then a sentence of explanation. 2) It doesn’t look like this meets the word limits from the assignment sheet, and I’m not sure which part you’ll focus on as the main form of literacy. 3) Could you clarify this? More explanation about why these are important could help you meet the word limit, too!

All together, these comments will need to be a few sentences long. Since we’re NOT focused on grammar or editing, the changes that your peer can make will have a big effect on the final product. With these more developed comments, your goal is to make 1-2 comments per paragraph. Give your classmate something to consider, using our course vocabulary, to really help them improve. As you read and practice this method, it’s likely that you’ll get ideas for your own paper, which makes this process doubly helpful!

Assignment Rubric

• Will clearly and accurately define a specific type of literacy, explaining the connection and development of literacy. Will clearly establish the identity of the writer and the influence and importance of literacy.
• Will communicate significant experiences to an academic audience. Will give the reader something new to consider. Will interest the reader through storytelling.
• Will remain focused on literacy and the individual prompts. Will include specific details from a variety of experiences. Will engage readers with details and examples. Will explain the connections and development of growth through chosen examples.
• Will follow PIE structure closely.
• Will be clear and readable without distracting grammar, punctuation or spelling errors.

A “B” (good) summary (80% +):

• The concept of literacy may not be as clearly connected or central  to the writer’s development.
• More attention could be paid to engage or interest the readers. May lack context to help the reader understand the writer’s experience.
• Focus may lack through discussing events outside of the prompts. May include few specific examples. May lack explanation to show connection between examples.
• PIE may not be followed in one paragraph. Either the point, information, or explanation could be further developed or clarified within a paragraph.
• The writer may need to work on communicating information more effectively. The narrative will be generally clear and readable but may need further editing for grammatical errors.

A “C” (satisfactory) summary (70% +):

• Literacy is not defined or explained clearly in connection to skill.
• Awareness of audience is lacking, making sections confusing for an unfamiliar reader.
• Prompts may not be clearly connected to the paragraphs. Examples are not included or are not clearly explained.
• PIE may be missing or underdeveloped in multiple paragraphs.
• “C” narratives may also need more editing for readability.

A “D” (poor) summary (60% +):

• Will show an attempt toward the assignment goals that has fallen short. May have several of the above problems.

An “F” (failing) summary:

• Ignores the assignment.
• Has been plagiarized.
• Review the same sample paragraph below from a previous student. Identify one strength and one area for improvement in the draft, following the 3-step method above. As you review, consider how to balance praise and criticism. Something is going well in your peer’s draft, and something can be improved!

Applying Peer Review: Taking Suggestions and Revising

Once you’ve completed peer review, you’ll likely have lots of ideas — reviewing others’ work often ignites a creative spark for your own work! You should feel free to apply strategies from your peers and reexamine your work, but you want to focus on your peers’ suggestions for you. This way, you can see how your ideas and their commentary lines up. In our 3-step feedback process, the last step is to make a suggestion. While the notes from your peers should be valuable, it’s ultimately your draft and your decision about what feedback to include. As you read through the commentary, review the assignment sheet, and begin making changes to the draft. This is one of the most important steps in the writing process and what makes the difference between a rough first draft and a polished, complete draft.

Sources Used to Create This Chapter

• The majority of the content for this section has been adapted from OER Material from “Literacy Narrative,” in First-Year Composition  by Leslie Davis and Kiley Miller is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Media Resources

Any media resources not documented here were part of the original chapter from which this section has been adapted.

• “What is Your Story?” Photo by Etienne Girardet  on  Unsplash

Works Referenced

​Lunsford, Andrea. “Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast.” Stanford University. Nov. 2010. https://swap.stanford.edu/was/20220129004722/https:/ssw.stanford.edu//sites/default/files/OPED_Our_semi-literate_Youth.pdf

Starting the Journey: An Intro to College Writing Copyright © by Leonard Owens III; Tim Bishop; and Scott Ortolano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

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Table of contents

What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

• Write a story about your first day of school.
• Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

• Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
• Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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50 Narrative Essay Topics

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a narrative essay can also tell an exciting story and create vivid pictures in the reader’s mind! We’ve got 50 narrative essay topics designed to prompt students to craft memorable written narratives. These can be modified for students in elementary, middle and high school. Feel free to print the entire narrative essay topics list for plenty of inspiration for your next narrative essay assignment!

Narrative Essay Topics

• Your first day of school.
• Your most exciting day of school
• A field trip that your class took.
• Your favorite summer vacation.
• A trip that included something unexpected or surprising.
• A time that you experienced something spooky.
• A time that you experienced something truly frightening.
• A time that you learned something new that changed you in some way.
• The moment when you met someone who changed your life.
• The day that you got your first pet.
• A move from one place to another.
• Something funny that happened to you.
• Something funny that happened to one of your family members or friends.
• Something embarrassing that happened to you.
• Your favorite birthday party.
• A birthday that was disappointing.
• A big storm (rain, snow or even a tornado!).
• A time that the power went out.
• A summer day when the temperature got much higher than expected.
• A time when you went to an amusement park.
• A time when you got lost somewhere.
• A memorable experience with a favorite family member.
• A sad experience with someone about whom you care.
• Your most exciting moment playing sports.
• Your most exciting moment performing in a play, singing, playing music or dancing.
• An experience that left you feeling frustrated.
• An experience that was hard but ended up being worth it.
• A time that you experienced rejection.
• A weird encounter with a stranger.
• A random act of kindness.
• A time that you took a stand for someone or for an issue that you care about.
• A moment when you thought you might get hurt but didn’t.
• Breaking a bone (or otherwise suffering an injury).
• Your first time away from home for the night (or longer).
• A time when you experienced a historic event.
• Where you were when a major event happened. (Note: You don’t need to have been at the site of the event; this prompt is about where you were when you found out about the event and how you reacted.)
• A time when you rebelled against your parents or teacher.
• A dangerous experience.
• A misunderstanding between yourself and someone else.
• A difficult decision that you had to make.
• The end of a friendship or relationship.
• The beginning of a friendship or relationship.
• A time when you judged someone first and then realized that you were wrong about the person.
• A time when someone judged you first and then realized that he or she was wrong about you.
• A moment when you felt that you were starting to grow up.
• A time when you saw one or both of your parents in a different light.
• A time when you looked up to your older sibling.
• A time when your younger sibling looked up to you.
• A time when you were grateful to be an only child.
• An experience that you think has only ever happened to you!

Looking for more essay topics? Compare and Contrast Essay Topics Descriptive Essay Topics Cause and Effect Essay Topics Persuasive Essay and Speech Topics

How to Write a Literacy Narrative Essay Examples, Topics

If you need topics, examples, and an extensive step-by-step on writing a stellar literary narrative essay, then don’t waste your time and effort trying to look for a better guide because we’ve taken it upon ourselves to gather all the information you’ll need to know to achieve that.

In this article we will go through the basics, guide you through every step of the process, and provide you with topics and literacy narrative essay 2024 examples. We recommend not skipping anything. Read through the whole thing, and you’ll be sure to know the ins and outs at the end.

Finally, it’s time to finish the brain fog and confusion that surrounds this topic. But, writing can be tough for some. Well, did you know that you can hire a professional writer from our narrative essay writing service to handle some writing tasks for you? Now, you do. Get in touch with them ASAP by clicking that link.

In the quest to express personal journeys with literacy through a narrative essay, high school seniors are also stepping closer to a significant milestone - transitioning to higher education. This transition, however exciting, brings along a financial consideration that cannot be overlooked. As you delve into what is a narrative essay about your literacy narrative, exploring your relationship with reading and writing, it's also an opportune time to explore scholarships that can support your academic endeavors ahead.

A Few Things To Consider

We will teach you how to write a literacy narrative essay. We will be going in-depth and learning all the relevant details there are to know. Moreover, we’ll explore narrative essay topics. Even as a beginner, with just the right amount of practice and research, you can write up an excellent paper. 

This type of essay has a lot of elements that need to be included and to be taken into consideration, so to craft a well-rounded work that includes all these elements, we first need to know what we’re going to have to include in our writing.

Overview: What Is a Literacy Narrative Essay? 

So, what is a literacy narrative essay? This type of essay is an essay where the writer tells about their experiences in writing and reading. It’s meta. You can typically read about the writer’s sources of inspiration for their literacy, such as books, amongst other things. 

The content and experiences one can read from this type of essay are pretty broad since everyone experiences something different from the other. The goal of this essay is to examine the importance of literacy in one’s own experience, how it’s shaped them, and sometimes it serves as a lesson to those who read it. 

What to Include in a Literacy Narrative Essay

Firstly, let’s establish some basics, just like any other essay, this one will need to include: 

• An introductory paragraph with a hook and a thesis. 
• Body paragraphs to extrapolate on the points made in the introduction.
• A concluding paragraph to sum it all up.

And since this type of essay is about sharing an anecdote and trying to convey a lesson/message through one’s own experiences and realizations, it’s important not to write in a rigid and overly formal manner. 

A personal literacy narrative essay example would typically feature:

• A personal tone of voice since the main goal is to write about an anecdote related to literacy.
• A literacy narrative example essay will, of course, include personal stories.
• Dialogue and monologue if context-appropriate.
• Visual and colorful language.
• Literary tools such as metaphors and similes help the descriptive elements of this essay.
• Use of active verbs.

Go through these bullet points and try to remember them. Obviously, by including all of them in your writing, you have more chances of getting a higher score on what you turn in. Stick around for college literacy narrative essay examples and narrative essay outline guides. 

Outline Example 

If you want to know how to write a literacy narrative essay, here’s an outline example of what you can write in your introduction to your concluding paragraph. 

• Introduce the main issue/problem: in the introduction, highlight the issue you want to provide an answer to. This will typically revolve around being illiterate or the importance of literacy. 
• Give a solution: through sharing your own experiences, you can give a solution by sharing the realizations and lessons you’ve learned through these said experiences.
• Give further advice: write how your readers can explicitly apply the advice you gave for their problems. Help them understand how to use this knowledge. 
• Sum up: conclude the most relevant points you made to persuade your readers to care about the problem and consider your advice.

Literacy Narrative Essay Sample

Key differences between literacy narrative & narrative essay.

Don’t confuse a literacy narrative prompt with a narrative prompt. These two essays are very similar, but they’re not the same. Key differences are:

• A literacy narrative essay is strictly an essay that showcases a story/anecdote of how this person became literate. No matter how different the story may be from one person to another, it always revolves around this. 
• A narrative essay can be any story. It can be anecdotal, personal, etc. A narrative essay’s purpose is to show the readers that the writer knows how to use storytelling techniques.

Tips On Writing 

Now that you’ve looked at one of our college literacy narrative essay examples, it’s time to finish it off by reading our tips on writing. You’ve been taught the fundamentals and have seen a reference, and our tips will help your writing get better. 

Prepare and Find Sources

Be sure to do a proper amount of research. Try to find credible sources. Colleges usually don’t accept anything less. For example, scholarly articles and peer-reviewed works can be used. Gather these sources and filter through them. Now you can move on to your college literacy narrative essay outline and then write your college literacy narrative essay.

Also, note that literacy narratives discuss memories from time to time. So your personal experiences can be just as good of a source, provided the topic is fitting. Don’t be scared to add some flare to your literacy story. Take your audience on a rough and exciting journey. Your personal literacy story has the advantage of being written not just in your own unique style but also from your own unique perspective.

Shape your own story from a hilarious and witty ride you’ve had with your friends, talk about your bully, remember some of your own love stories, and let your vast imagination free. That’s what a literacy narrative takes. And don’t worry about carefully planned words. That’s not how reading or writing a personal essay works. Your entire journey is about personal exploration. With their creative juices flowing, college students can utilize only a few sentences of written words to hit the spot. Even the wrong way will get you somewhere on this literacy journey. So make it a personalized story.

One thing that can become a serious challenge is writer’s block. Simply sitting staring at a blank page can have disastrous consequences for your productivity. If you find yourself stumped for words - look for literacy narrative examples to get you inspired. Read about the writing life of your favorite author.

If you’re having trouble finding good sources, then don’t hesitate to get a writer’s help on EssayService, but you can also just extend your research by getting leads from your professor or your coursemates. They should know some useful links that can help you. 

Take Notes On Relevant Information 

Filter through your sources and note down relevant information in bite-sized chunks. The brain is better at remembering small blocks of information than it is at painstakingly long paragraphs. Do yourself a favor and segment your notes in this fashion - it will help you remember things much more easily. 

You can also use colored notes to streamline this process, and for some students, memorizing becomes even easier this way, but this is optional. Just remember to take down notes on what matters and use these in your college literacy narrative essay outline. 

Time To Write It 

After researching, figuring out your outline, etc. - it’s to write it all down. We hope you didn’t skip any of our prior tips since they truly do help the bigger picture. Use your notes and your research as a reference when writing. Don’t be scared to come back to them when writing, especially if you feel stuck. That’s what they are there for. 

Read the literacy narrative essay sample we’ve provided above if you need inspiration or fresh ideas, or if you just want to grasp the concept of this type of essay. But don’t forget to use your own experiences, and not just that of someone else’s; otherwise, the whole purpose of it is defeated. 

Write a rough draft if you need to, then polish it in the final version. Rough drafts are a great way to keep writing without overthinking since you know that you’ll easily erase the mistakes you’ll be making in the process. Don’t overthink. Just write. 

Proofread And Edit Your Essay

Lastly, it’s time to proofread it for any errors in your writing and edit if needed. A perfect paper can sometimes be unattainable, but perhaps you’ll get a perfect score by being meticulous. Don’t forget to reread our free literacy narrative essay sample above and some more free samples at EssayService to help you with learning. 

In case you want your writing to be perfect, ask your peer to proofread your paper for you instead of doing it yourself. Or you can proofread it and then let another person do the same a second time. Two are better than one sometimes, and one more person can detect errors you might have overlooked.

Literacy Narrative Essay Topics 

The good thing about this type of essay is that there should be no shortage of ideas or topics to write about since the majority of us in school have had experiences of coming into literacy one way or another. 

People might have become literate much faster than some, but unless you’re completely illiterate, you should remember one thing or two from the past that can be used for your essay. 

Here are some prompts for your memory and general narrative essay topics/ideas for topics:

• The First Thing I Read
• The First Thing I Wrote
• Languages I Learnt
• How to Encourage Early Reading Skills
• Computer Literacy Among Teachers
• The Role of Public Libraries in Modern Education
• What Do Low Literacy Rates Imply?
• How Important Is Computer Literacy?
• The Impact of Instant Messengers on Literacy
• Cultural Impact of Online Communication
• Factors Affecting Literacy Rates
• Balanced Literacy Teaching Methods
• Literacy and Cultural Awareness
• Phonemic Awareness and Child Literacy
• The Role of Literacy in Research
• The Cornerstone of Early Literacy
• Literacy History Throughout Ages
• Defining Literacy Concept
• An Early Literacy Intervention
• Today’s Problems of Literacy

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Narrative Essay Writing

Narrative Essay Topics

Interesting Narrative Essay Topics and Ideas

16 min read

Published on: Mar 22, 2023

Last updated on: Mar 25, 2024

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Unlike other forms of academic writing, narrative essays focus on personal experiences, anecdotes, and reflections. They aim to engage readers through vivid storytelling, allowing them to connect emotionally with the narrative. 

However, finding the right topic can sometimes be challenging. 

In this guide, we'll look into the narrative essay topic examples, explore various themes, and provide valuable tips to help you choose the perfect topic for your narrative essay.

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Narrative Essay Topics for Students

If you're a student, you probably have to write an essay at some point. Getting an interesting topic idea is not easy. We have gathered some essay topics for different academic levels to help you with the task.

Let's dive right into the narrative essay topics list without any delay.

Narrative Essay Topics For University Students

• The worst interview of your life 
• A time when you discovered something precious 
• A time when you were insulted or disrespected
• A time you discovered one of your skills
• The moment when your loved one was hurt 
• The moment when your best friend had an accident 
• The day your father caught you smoking 
• A mistake that taught you something significant 
• An action you thought would help the person but got you in trouble.
• The moment when someone else's experience saved your life 
• The time when you underestimated a junior
• How has practicing helped you become a professional?
• The time when your beliefs were shaken
• An event that made you feel sorry about a person
• The time when you had to let go of one of your most important things

Narrative Essay Topics For College Students

• First experience of living in a hostel
• The worst roommate ever
• Frightening memory of your childhood
• Why you chose a specific major
• What studying in a dream college feels like?
• The most healthy part of your routine
• The time you inspired someone
• What should you tell your younger self?
• Your favorite author and his work that you most relate to
• A moment when your joke offended your friend

Narrative Essay Topics For Grade 12

• Your favorite activities in your leisure time
• How you overcome your fears
• The hardest thing you did in life
• What regrets do you have in life?
• Your biggest motivation to score well in academics
• Share a cherished family tradition and its impact on you.
• Recall a moment where you stood up for your beliefs.
• Discuss a tough decision and its impact on your character.
• Explore a memory that highlights the value of friendship.
• Reflect on a book, movie, or art that shaped your perspective.
• Overcome a setback or failure and what you learned.

Narrative Essay Topics High School

• The most interesting summer school memory 
• The moment when you saw your favorite actor in real life 
• The first time you helped a needy person
• How you became friends with your best friend 
• A person who left a deep influence on you 
• The day when you became a class representative 
• Your first speech on the stage
• Your first term paper
• Your favorite high school student’s profession 
• The first time you stood up for something you believed in

Narrative Essay Topics For Grade 10

• A time when you had to stand up for something you believed in
• The most significant challenge you have faced in your life so far
• A moment that changed your life forever
• A decision that you regret making and what you learned from it
• A person who has had a significant impact on your life
• A time when you learned an important life lesson through a mistake you made
• A trip that you will never forget
• A time when you felt like you had to prove yourself to someone
• A moment when you felt like giving up, but you pushed through anyway
• An experience that helped you discover something new about yourself.

Narrative Essay Topics For Grade 9

• A time when you overcame a fear
• The most memorable day of your life
• A difficult decision you had to make
• The first time you tried something new
• A moment when you learned an important life lesson
• An experience that changed your perspective on something
• A time when you made a mistake and what you learned from it
• A memorable trip you went on
• The first time you fell in love with a hobby or activity
• A moment when you felt proud of yourself for overcoming a challenge.

Narrative Essay Topics For Class 7

• My favorite sibling
• Betrayal in friendship
• Why is television so important in your life?
• A hobby of yours that you recently adopted
• The most memorable farewell
• A memorable encounter with a new friend
• The day when you became a class representative
• Your dream college
• Your favorite profession

Narrative Essay Topics For Class 6

• The time when you underestimated a junior 
• The time when your beliefs were shaken 
• An event that made you feel sorry about a person 
• The time when you had to let go of one of your most important things 
• Your favorite activities in your leisure time 
• The most adventurous thing you've ever done
• Your biggest motivation to score well in academics 

Narrative Essay Topics For Grade 5

• Your first day at school
• Your favorite teacher 
• Your best winter vacations
• The happiest day of your life
• Your best birthday ever
• The moment when you got lost in a mall 
• The most painful injury 
• Your first pet
• The feeling of losing loved ones
• The hardest goodbye 

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Short Narrative Essay Topics

• Exploring family traditions
• Narrating standing up for beliefs
• Recounting a tough decision
• Reflecting on the value of friendship
• Sharing shaping perspectives
• Reflecting on overcoming failure
• Revisiting meaningful places
• Delving into a social passion
• Narrating stepping out of comfort zones
• Reflecting on influential role models

Best Narrative Essay Topics

• An unexpected act of kindness
• A transformative travel experience
• The day everything changed
• Lessons learned from failure
• A secret that changed everything
• Discovering my passion
• The power of forgiveness
• A moment of serendipity
• Conquering my greatest fear
• Lessons from a cultural exchange

Topics For Narrative Essays on Themes

Narrative essay themes contain a range of subjects and ideas that serve as the central focus or underlying message of the narrative. These themes often reflect aspects of human experience, emotions, relationships, and societal issues. 

Here are some common narrative essay themes and their topic ideas:

Childhood Memories Narrative Essay Topics

• My favorite toy from childhood
• Exploring my grandparents' house
• Building forts and imaginary worlds
• The day I lost my first tooth
• Baking cookies with my mom
• Playing hide and seek in the neighborhood
• My first pet and our adventures together
• Celebrating holidays with family traditions
• Exploring nature in my backyard
• The joy of making new friends in kindergarten

Life Lessons Narrative Essay Topics 

• Overcoming stage fright during a school performance
• Finding strength through a sports injury
• Learning patience through gardening
• Embracing change after moving to a new city
• The value of empathy in understanding others
• Discovering inner courage during a difficult decision
• The power of forgiveness in healing relationships
• Finding beauty in imperfection and embracing flaws
• The rewards of volunteer work and helping others
• Overcoming self-doubt through creative expression

Personal Growth Narrative Essay Topics 

• Exploring my cultural heritage through food and traditions
• Overcoming language barriers in a foreign country
• Finding confidence through public speaking
• Rediscovering creativity through art and music
• Exploring new career paths and passions
• Finding balance between work, family, and self-care
• Embracing vulnerability and authenticity in relationships
• The journey of self-discovery through traveling alone
• Overcoming limiting beliefs and embracing personal power
• Learning to set boundaries and prioritize self-respect

Relationships Narrative Essay Topics 

• The bond between siblings: shared adventures and conflicts
• Lessons learned from a long-distance friendship
• Reconnecting with an estranged family member
• The influence of a childhood teacher on personal development
• Building trust and communication in romantic relationships
• Exploring the dynamics of multigenerational relationships
• Navigating friendships through life transitions
• Overcoming misunderstandings and repairing relationships
• The role of pets in family dynamics and emotional support
• Exploring the meaning of unconditional love through relationships

Social Issues Narrative Essay Topics

• Empowering youth through education and mentorship
• Exploring access to healthcare in underserved communities
• Addressing mental health stigma and promoting awareness
• Bridging the digital divide: access to technology and information
• The impact of climate change on local communities
• Exploring racial justice and equity in society
• Overcoming barriers to LGBTQ+ equality and acceptance
• Supporting refugees and building inclusive communities
• The importance of intersectional feminism in social justice movements
• Promoting diversity and inclusion in educational settings

Personal Narrative Topics 

A personal narrative essay is a type of essay in which the writer shares a personal story, experience, or event from their own life. In this section, we will look into some different personal narrative ideas: 

Personal Experience Narrative Essay Topics

• Overcoming a fear of public speaking
• The day I conquered my greatest phobia
• Learning to embrace vulnerability and authenticity
• A life-changing encounter with a stranger
• Navigating a crossroads: choosing between passion and stability
• Finding resilience through adversity
• The transformative power of self-reflection
• Lessons learned from a failed business venture
• Exploring the joys and challenges of parenthood
• Overcoming cultural barriers in pursuit of personal growth

Personal Narrative Essay About Friendship

• The unlikely friendship that changed my life
• Weathering storms together: the strength of true friendship
• Navigating the ups and downs of high school friendships
• From strangers to soulmates: a journey of friendship
• The power of empathy in strengthening friendships
• Exploring cultural differences through friendship
• The art of forgiveness: repairing broken friendships
• Lessons learned from a childhood best friend
• Finding support and laughter in friendships across generations
• Celebrating diversity: embracing friendship beyond borders

Personal Narrative Stories Ideas on Traveling and Holidays

• A solo journey to self-discovery
• Living with locals in a foreign land
• Traveling alone to remote destinations
• Exploring culinary delights around the world
• The joy of spontaneity
• A holiday to remember
• Traveling through time
• From backpacker to business class
• Discovering hidden gems off the beaten path
• Family road trips

Fictional Narrative Essay Ideas

• Lost in a parallel universe: A journey through time
• The last survivors of a post-apocalyptic world
• A magical creature's quest for home
• The secret society of time travelers
• Escaping from a dystopian society
• Adventures in a virtual reality game
• Discovering a hidden portal to another dimension
• The mystery of the abandoned spaceship
• Guardians of the enchanted forest
• A quest for the legendary artifact of power

Literacy Narrative Essay Topics

• How a childhood book shaped my imagination
• Learning to read and write in a second language
• Discovering the power of poetry through personal experience
• The influence of storytelling in family traditions
• Overcoming dyslexia: My journey to literacy
• Exploring literary classics through different cultural lenses
• The impact of technology on reading habits
• The role of libraries in nurturing a love for reading
• Finding my voice through creative writing workshops
• Using literature to navigate life's challenges

First-Person Narrative Essay Ideas

• My journey through a haunted house on Halloween night
• A day in the life of a street performer in New York City
• Surviving a wilderness adventure in the Rocky Mountains
• Exploring the abandoned mansion at the edge of town
• My experience as a volunteer in a refugee camp
• Racing against time: My first marathon experience
• Finding love in unexpected places: A summer romance
• The night I spent stranded on a deserted island
• Becoming a detective for a day: Solving a mystery in my neighborhood
• My encounter with a UFO: An unforgettable extraterrestrial experience

Funny Narrative Essay Topics

• The misadventures of my clumsy pet cat
• Embarrassing moments during family gatherings
• My hilarious attempt at learning a new dance
• Surviving a disastrous cooking experiment in the kitchen
• The comedy of errors: my unforgettable road trip
• Accidentally sending a funny text to the wrong person
• The day I accidentally wore mismatched shoes to school
• My awkward encounter with a celebrity lookalike
• The unintentional pranks I played on April Fools' Day
• When auto-correct turns texting into a comedy show

Tips to Choose the Right Narrative Essay Topic

When selecting a narrative essay topic, consider the following tips:

• Authenticity: Choose topics that align with your personal experiences and values.
• Relevance: Select topics that are relevant and meaningful to your intended audience.
• Engagement: Opt for topics that are engaging and thought-provoking, sparking curiosity and empathy in readers.
• Scope: Ensure that the topic allows for sufficient depth and exploration within the confines of a narrative essay.

If you want to get an idea of writing a narrative essay, visit our narrative essay examples blog and get access to free PDF examples.

Summing it up!

Essays provide a unique opportunity to share personal experiences, insights, and reflections with readers. By choosing the right topic and crafting a compelling narrative, you can engage and inspire your audience. 

Remember to infuse your writing with authenticity, emotion, and vivid detail to create narratives that resonate long after they're read. 

If you find yourself short on time or unsure where to begin, seeking professional assistance is always an option. The custom essay writing service at CollegeEssay.org is here to help you with your writing needs. 

Additionally, don't forget to try our essay writer AI tool for further assistance!

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Home ➔ What's an Essay? ➔ What is a Narrative Essay? ➔ Literacy Narrative

Literacy Narrative Essay Guide

A literacy narrative essay is a first-person account of learning how to read or write. It often discusses the significance of books and other written materials in a person’s life and the role of literacy in society.

Most literacy narratives discuss memories, which means they are based on actual events from the writer’s life. However, some may choose (if possible within the assignment requirements) to fictionalize their stories to explore the theme of literacy more deeply.

The purpose of a literacy narrative is to reflect on the role of literacy in your life and to examine how it has affected you as a reader, writer, or thinker. In some cases, a literacy narrative may also be used to teach others about the importance of literacy, using your or someone else’s personal literacy story.

What is a Narrative Essay? – learn more about narrative essays in general.

Key characteristics of literacy narratives:

• Genre – A literacy narrative is usually a short, first-person story about a significant event in the writer’s life, which can be a rough and exciting journey. It is usually non-fictional.
• Tone – The tone of a literacy narrative is usually reflective and introspective.
• Purpose – A literacy narrative is written to reflect on the role of literacy in the writer’s life. It may also be used to teach others about the importance of literacy.
• Audience – A literacy narrative is typically written for a general audience.
• Structure – A literacy narrative typically has a chronological or linear structure.
• Language – Vivid language and concrete details create a strong sense of place and time.

Common themes and topics examples in literacy narratives:

• The importance of literacy in society
• The power of books and other written materials
• The role of literacy in the writer’s life
• How literacy has affected the writer as a reader, writer, or thinker
• The challenges and triumphs of learning to read or write
• The significance of a particular book or writing experience
• How culture affects writing (based on your experience)

The following are some questions you may want to consider as you write your literacy narrative:

• What are some of the most important moments in your journey as a reader or writer?
• What has literacy meant to you in your life?
• How has literacy shaped who you are as a person?
• What challenges have you faced as a reader or writer?
• How have you overcome these challenges?
• What role has literacy played in your success or failure in school or your career?
• In what ways has your literacy level affected your personal or professional relationships?
• What are your hopes for the future of literacy in our society?

What is a Personal Narrative? – learn more about personal narrative essays.

Features of a Literacy Narrative

Several key features are often found in a literacy essay:

First-person point of view: A literacy narrative is typically told from the first-person point of view, which means that it is written in the first person (I, me, my, we, us). This point of view is used to personalize the story and to give the reader a sense of the writer’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

The theme of literacy: As mentioned previously, the central theme of a literacy narrative is usually the importance of books and other written materials in a person’s life. However, some writers may also explore how literacy has affected them personally, such as how it has shaped their identity or their view of the world.

A focus on a particular moment or event: A literacy essay often focuses on a specific moment or event in the writer’s life that was significant to their development as a reader or writer. This event could be something as significant as learning to read for the first time, or it could be a more mundane event, such as realizing the importance of reading to one’s education.

Reflection: A literacy narrative often includes reflection on the writer’s part. This reflection can take the form of discussing the writer’s current relationship to literacy or a more general discussion of how literacy has affected the writer’s life.

A message or moral: Many literacy narratives end with a message or moral, usually about the importance of literacy or the power of words. This message may be explicit, or it may be more subtle.

Short Literacy Narrative Example

Below is a very simple and short essay example of a literacy narrative to give you a basic idea about this assignment.

I remember the first time I ever read a book. I was in kindergarten, and my teacher had us all sit in a circle on the rug. She then brought out a big book and began to read it to us. I was fascinated by the story and the pictures, and I remember thinking to myself, “I want to learn how to do this.” From that moment on, I was hooked on reading, and it changed my life for the better.

Reading has always been an important part of my life. It has helped me to imagine new worlds, learn about different cultures, and understand the world around me. It has also been a source of comfort and escape during difficult times in my life. Whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I can always count on a good book to help me relax and escape my problems.

Books have also played an important role in my success in school. I have always been a good student, but I credit much of my success to my love of reading. Reading has helped me to improve my writing skills and to understand complex concepts better. It has also allowed me to develop a love of learning that has stayed with me throughout my academic career.

While reading has always been important to me, it wasn’t until recently that I realized how much it had shaped my identity. I have always considered myself shy, but I now realize that my love of reading has helped me become more confident and outgoing. Reading has given me the courage to express my own ideas and to share my thoughts with others. It has also helped me connect with people with similar interests and find my voice in the world.

Reading has indeed been a lifelong journey for me, one that has taken me to places I could never have imagined. It has taught me about the world, myself, and the power of words. I am grateful for the role that literacy has played in my life, and I hope that others can find the same joy and satisfaction in reading that I have.

Famous Literacy Story Examples

Here are some original and famous examples of one’s literacy journey that you can read to get inspiration before writing your own story.

“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass

Short description: In this essay, Frederick Douglass describes his experiences learning to read and write as a slave in the United States. He discusses how literacy gave him a sense of power and freedom and how it ultimately helped him escape slavery.

“The Lonely, Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez

Short description: In this essay, Richard Rodriguez discusses his love of reading and how it has helped him overcome his life challenges. He describes how books have given him a sense of companionship and how they have helped him to develop his own identity.

“The Writing Life” by Annie Dillard ( Excerpt )

Short description: In this essay, Annie Dillard discusses the joys and challenges of the writing life. She describes how writing can be both a source of great satisfaction and a frustrating endeavor. She also reflects on how her own writing has changed over the years and how her life experiences have shaped it.

“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie

Short description: In this essay, Sherman Alexie discusses how reading and writing helped him to overcome the challenges of growing up on a Native American reservation. He describes how literacy allowed him to connect with the world outside his community and find his place in it.

We hope these literacy narrative examples will help you write one on your own.

Writing Tips for Literacy Narratives

No matter what your experience with reading and writing is, you can write your personal essay on literacy that is meaningful and interesting to you. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Start by brainstorming your experiences with reading and writing. What are some moments that stand out to you? When did you first start learning to read and write? What did you find challenging about it? What were some of the highlights for you?
• Once you have a list of experiences, start thinking about how they relate to each other. What is the overall story you want to tell? What are some of the themes you want to explore?
• Start writing your personal literacy story. Don’t worry about making it perfect; just write your thoughts down. You can always revise and edit your essay later.
• Make sure to include sensory details in your essay. What did you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel during your experiences? This will help your readers to connect with your story.
• Be honest and open in your writing. Tell your story from your own perspective and allow your personality to shine through this interesting journey.
• Have fun with it! Writing a literacy narrative can be a great way to reflect on your own journey with reading and writing. Allow yourself to explore your memories and emotions as you write.

How to Write a Narrative Essay – essential steps required to write a good narrative essay.

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The Power of Literacy Narratives

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I first learned to read at the age of three while sitting on my grandmother’s lap in her high-rise apartment on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, IL. While flipping casually through Time magazine, she noticed how I took a keen interest in the blur of black and white shapes on the page. Soon, I was following her wrinkled finger from one word to the next, sounding them out, until those words came into focus, and I could read. It felt as though I had unlocked time itself.

What Is a “Literacy Narrative?”

What are your strongest memories of reading and writing? These stories, otherwise known as “literacy narratives,” allow writers to talk through and discover their relationships with reading, writing, and speaking in all its forms. Narrowing in on specific moments reveals the significance of literacy’s impact on our lives, conjuring up buried emotions tied to the power of language, communication, and expression.

To be “ literate ” implies the ability to decode language on its most basic terms, but literacy also expands to one’s ability to "read and write" the world — to find and make meaning out of our relationships with texts, ourselves, and the world around us. At any given moment, we orbit language worlds. Soccer players, for example, learn the language of the game. Doctors talk in technical medical terms. Fishermen speak the sounds of the sea. And in each of these worlds, our literacy in these specific languages allows us to navigate, participate and contribute to the depth of knowledge generated within them.

Famous writers like Annie Dillard, author of "The Writing Life," and Anne Lammot, "Bird by Bird," have penned literacy narratives to reveal the highs and lows of language learning, literacies, and the written word. But you don’t have to be famous to tell your own literacy narrative — everyone has their own story to tell about their relationships with reading and writing. In fact, the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a publicly accessible archive of personal literacy narratives in multiple formats featuring over 6,000 entries. Each shows the range of subjects, themes, and ways into the literacy narrative process as well as variations in terms of voice, tone, and style.

How to Write Your Own Literacy Narrative

Ready to write your own literacy narrative but don’t know where to begin?

• Think of a story linked to your personal history of reading and writing. Perhaps you want to write about your favorite author or book and its impact on your life. Maybe you remember your first brush with the sublime power of poetry. Do you remember the time you first learned to read, write or speak in another language? Or maybe the story of your first big writing project comes to mind. Make sure to consider why this particular story is the most important one to tell. Usually, there are powerful lessons and revelations uncovered in the telling of a literacy narrative.
• Wherever you begin, picture the first scene that comes to mind in relation to this story, using descriptive details. Tell us where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing in this specific moment when your literacy narrative begins. For example, a story about your favorite book may begin with a description of where you were when the book first landed in your hands. If you’re writing about your discovery of poetry, tell us exactly where you were when you first felt that spark. Do you remember where you were when you first learned a new word in a second language?
• Continue from there to explore the ways in which this experience had meaning for you. What other memories are triggered in the telling of this first scene? Where did this experience lead you in your writing and reading journey? To what extent did it transform you or your ideas about the world? What challenges did you face in the process? How did this particular literacy narrative shape your life story? How do questions of power or knowledge come into play in your literacy narrative?

Writing Toward a Shared Humanity

Writing literacy narratives can be a joyful process, but it can also trigger untapped feelings about the complexities of literacy. Many of us carry scars and wounds from early literacy experiences. Writing it down can help us explore and reconcile these feelings in order to strengthen our relationship with reading and writing. Writing literacy narratives can also help us learn about ourselves as consumers and producers of words, revealing the intricacies of knowledge, culture, and power bound up in language and literacies. Ultimately, telling our literacy stories brings us closer to ourselves and each other in our collective desire to express and communicate a shared humanity.​

Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein is a poet, writer, and educator from Chicago, IL (USA) who currently splits her time in East Africa. Her essays on arts, culture, and education appear in Teaching Artist Journal, Art in the Public Interest, Teachers & Writers Magazine, Teaching Tolerance, The Equity Collective, AramcoWorld, Selamta, The Forward, among others.

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Narrative Essay Topics — Prompts & Ideas For All Grade Levels

N arrative essays can present a serious challenge for even the most seasoned of writers, but fear not, we’ve compiled some great narrative essay topics to inspire your next paper! Follow along as we explore prompts relating to life, school, and more. By the end, you’ll be prepared to tackle narrative essays from a variety of different angles.

Good Narrative Topics

What is a narrative essay.

Before we jump into our narrative essay topics, we have to first answer the question: what is a narrative essay ? A narrative essay is a prose-written story that’s focused on the commentary of a central theme.

Narrative essays are generally written in the first-person POV , and are usually about a topic that’s personal to the writer.

Everything in a narrative essay should take place in an established timeline, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. 

For more on narrative essays, check out this video on literacy narrative topics and structure:

Narrative Essay Topic Ideas  •  Narrative Essay Titles

In the world of literature, narrative essays are held to a rigorous structure. We’re not going to enforce that rigor here! So, follow along as we (hopefully) inspire you with a variety of narrative essay topics and argument essay ideas. 

Narrative Ideas

Narrative essay ideas for kids.

Narrative essay topics for kids usually focus on family, school, and friends.

Here are some easy narrative essay topics that work well for kids:

• Describe your most recent birthday party.
• Tell the story of your first day of school.
• Who is your best friend?
• Have you ever helped others?
• Describe your favorite animal(s)
• What is your dream for the future?

This next video from “Teaching Without Frills” explores narrative essay topics for kids in further detail. 

Narrative Essay Ideas  •  Titles of narrative essays

Sometimes it can help to visualize narrative essay topics with pictures, especially for younger kids. If you’re a teacher, consider using pictures to inspire your students!

Narrative essay ideas for teens

Middle school and high school students are often asked to write narrative essays too. But whereas narrative essay topics for elementary school students are usually structured around simple, positive topics, narrative essay topics for teens are generally more contemplative.

Here are some personal narrative essay topics that work well for teens:

• Describe a moment of loss.
• Describe a moment of serenity.
• Recount the story of a lost friend.
• Detail your greatest creation.
• Tell the story of your favorite teacher.
• How would you change the world?

Remember: not every person has the same circumstances as others. That's why they're called personal narrative essay topics.

It’s important to frame narrative essay topics for kids in a way that every kid can relate. For example: the prompt “a lost friend” could mean a friend who moved away or a dead pet. Make sure to word your prompts in such a way that participants can glean their own interpretation.

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Narrative Essay Ideas

Narrative essay ideas for young adults.

Young adults are sometimes asked to write narrative essays for school and or job applications. Narrative essay reviewers typically want to see writers demonstrate maturity and growth in their work. As such, their questions are generally structured around challenges and problem management.

Here are some narrative argument essay topics for young adults:

• Have you ever failed at your job?
• If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be?
• What is something you take pride in?
• Describe your childhood.
• How will you grow this year?
• What is the most important element of success?

Of course, the topics above are mostly focused on success and failure. Young adults can certainly respond to the other prompts too!

Narrative essay ideas for adults

Adults aren’t generally tasked with writing narrative essays unless they’re writers. But that doesn’t have to be the case! There are a lot of positives to writing narrative essays, whether you’re a literary professor or a wrestler looking to articulate your thoughts.

So, here are some things to write a narrative essay about for adults:

• What was your worst job?
• What (or who) was your first love?
• Who do you take care of?
• What is your most prized possession?
• If you could tell somebody who’s now gone from your life one thing, what would it be?
• Paint a picture of where you find peace.

Narrative essay titles  •  Easy narrative essay topics

In recent years, companies have been selling books with narrative essay prompts for adults (particularly elderly adults) to reflect on their lives.

Creative Writing Prompts & Exercises

Now that you're brainstorming good titles for personal narrative, time to learn about other forms of creating writing. A narrative essay is just one type of essay – there are dozens more! In our next article, we break down more creative writing prompts and exercises, including those suited to fantasy, romance, horror, and more. By the end, you’ll know a ton of different ways to approach your next story.

Up Next: Creative Writing Exercises →

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Narrative Essay Topics: Best Ideas List

When a lecturer assigns a narrative essay, some college students think they have to air out their personal stories, but that’s often not the case. You can create an interesting paper by making up a story, describing a memorable event, or writing about your role model. To create a masterpiece, take your time to come up with the right topic. There are numerous essay ideas you can find online, but none match our selection below. Before you come up with your own topic idea, check our list of the best narrative essay prompts that will inspire you in ways you’ve never imagined. Once you pick your topic, perform thorough research and ensure your content is 100% original. Don’t copy an example directly from the internet. Instead, cite your sources to demonstrate your competence as a student. Focus on the topic and take your reader through your best memories. If you allow your words to flow naturally, you will create a fascinating story. It is your responsibility to ensure that your narrative essay makes a great impression on the reader.

Choosing narrative essay topics is a great way to show your creativity and find an individual approach to the assignment. Fortunately, there are numerous inspiring topics to choose from, but even so, the selection process can be daunting. To make your life easier, you can always rely on the custom essay papers writing service and get the desired result.

Why is it important to come up with good narrative essay writing topics?

When students write a narrative essay, they typically choose between two options:

• Use the topic their instructor proposed, or
• Come up with their own topic

A strong topic choice determines the success of the whole essay. In the event you cannot do it yourself, you can find college essay help by clicking that link.

No matter what your institution assigns, a complete paper must be interesting to read. The best way to ensure that is to choose an essay topic you will want to write with passion. Narrative essay writing is the only genre of academic writing that allows the writer to explore their imagination and creativity to the fullest. While writing these essays you may omit strict structure regulations. That is why students like this essay sub-genre the most.

Narrative essay writing is the only genre of academic writing that allows the writer to expand his imagination and creativity to the fullest. While writing these essays you may omit strict structure regulations. That is why students like this essay sub-genre the most.

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Narrative essay topic ideas

1. experience.

The objective of the narrative essay is to teach you how to write about your experiences in a literary manner. To write a good essay, you have to brainstorm all thoughts concerning your life experiences with both negative and positive examples. Try to describe your experiences in as much detail as possible to attract the reader’s attention.

View All Essay Examples on Life Experience

• The most embarrassing experience of your life
• A frightening experience you’ve had
• An experience that taught you real-life values
• An experience that taught you to appreciate life more
• An experience that helped you overcome fear
• An unpleasant personal experience
• An event that taught you to appreciate what you have
• The most embarrassing moment of your life
• Memorable days with family members
• A success story

2. Childhood

Childhood is a period of bright memories and first experiences. As children are naive and sincere, they have a tendency to get involved in ridiculous situations. We are sure you have something of interest to tell the world about your childhood years. Let these next topic ideas jog your memories of childhood situations that can make a good foundation for your narrative essay writing.

View All Essay Examples on Childhood Memory

• Write about a time you got hurt on the playground. What happened?
• Talk about a childhood experience that helped you grow up
• Did you have a memorable birthday party? Share what made it memorable
• Who you dreamed to be when you were a kid?
• What was your favorite game during childhood and why?
• Talk about a time you were hurt playing with your friends
• What you miss about your favorite childhood games
• Your most valuable childhood possession
• What you loved about crafts when you were young
• Your favorite childhood fairytale characters or shows

3. School years

School is a path to adulthood, where children gain essential knowledge and experience. School years present challenges that contribute to the development of personality. Your school experience and the challenges you overcame are unique. That is why your unique journey through school would probably make a great narrative essay.

View All Essay Examples on School

• What was/is your favorite subject in school and why?
• Did some teachers become your role models? Show some examples
• Talk about the first time you took part in a big school event
• The most disastrous thing that ever happened in class
• Write about a teacher you would like to be friends with
• What subject did you love most in your elementary school?
• A childhood teacher you are still friends with
• How your best friend in primary school has influenced your life
• Did your teachers contribute to the person you are today?

4. Relationships

Everybody has personal memories of family, friends, and loved ones. Your story about them will always be personal, so if you are asked to write a narrative essay, your relationships are an endless source of unique ideas.

View All Essay Examples on Relationships

• Write about a friendship breakup you have experienced
• Talk about the person you are most afraid to lose
• An occasion when you experienced rejection
• A joke or ridiculous misunderstanding with another person
• Talk about the worst argument you’ve ever had with your parents
• How long can you be in love with someone?
• Talk about your first experience with love and its impact on you
• Discuss loyal and trustworthy friends in your life

5. Morality

In every country, people obey laws. But, there are other laws that regulate people’s lives on a larger scale. They are the laws of ethics and morality. In most situations where your morality is tested, you’re given a choice. You can either do the right thing or the wrong thing for your own personal reasons. Morality essay topics are a great choice because they are always interesting.

View All Essay Examples on Morality

• An example of a difficult decision you had to make
• An example of a rebellious act from your life
• Write about morality problems that bother you and why
• A moral choice that you regret
• Write about a recent personal morality challenge
• How many lies have you told in your life?
• How do you treat strangers?
• Have you ever eavesdropped?

6. Interests

Your interests will impact nearly everything you create. To write a narrative essay about your interests, ask yourself:

“What do I enjoy doing?” “What music do I like to listen to?” “How do I prefer to spend my free time?”

If you can speak passionately about it, you can write passionately about it. This is why your interests make a great source for essay ideas.

• Talk about a movie you watched that impressed you
• Write about a song that usually touches you emotionally
• What talent have you always wanted to have and why?
• Which book character do you see yourself as or relate to?
• If you were a director, what movie would you want to shoot?
• When did you discover that you had a particular talent?
• If you were a TV character, who would you be?
• TV stars you want to meet in real-life
• What’s your perspective on sports?

7. Traveling

Every new place you visit unlocks a new experience and a new story, no matter how many times you visit the seaside or mountains. You have your own journey with your own impressions. Why not share them with your readers? The narrative essay format allows you to write the second Odyssey – briefly, of course.

• Write about your first visit to the countryside (or a large city, depending on where you’re from)
• Your favorite mode of traveling
• What are your must-have items when taking any trip?
• Where would you like to travel if you had a large sum of money?
• What is the best place to take a vacation?
• The funniest way you met a friend
• Describe a day you were traveling and something bad happened
• What would you change if you revisited a camp with your classmates?
• The trip you loved the most

8. Student life

Life in college differs from high school. It is more adventurous and enriched with new experiences. You are introduced to new people, new routines, new subjects, new expectations, and new independence. All of these things combine to create epic stories! Student years are considered to be the best in one’s lifetime. So, why not write about them in your narrative essay?

• Talk about your most exhausting exam
• Write about a lecture that left a lasting impression on you
• Talk about the first day you moved into a dorm
• What was the most impressive hang-out during your college years?
• Write about times you felt depressed in college
• Do you mix well with students from different cultures?
• Who influences your social life in school?

9. Imagine if…

A narrative essay topic starts with the words “Imagine If…” and usually requires you to create a story about an alternate universe, or what your life could be like in the future. This subtopic is one of the most popular among students because it allows us to make up anything. The only limits are your imagination!

• Imagine you had a time machine. What time would you travel to?
• Imagine you were an animal. What animal would you like to be and why?
• Imagine you were born in another country. Where would you like to be born and why?
• Imagine you were filthy rich. What would you spend your money on?
• Imagine you were a comic book character. What superpower would you like to have and why?

Choosing a topic for your narrative essay or dissertation can be challenging. It is important to select a topic that aligns with your interests, has a significant research gap, and has the potential to contribute to your field of study. Furthermore, you may even consider the option of paying for a dissertation if you are unable to decide on a suitable topic or do not have the time to complete the research.

New And Outstanding Narrative Essay Topics [2022]

Finding a good topic is not easy. That’s why we have researched the most common categories and come up with a list of narrative essay topic examples to inspire you. This will make it easier to find the theme you are looking for.

• My Favorite Family Time
• The One Thing I Would Change in My Life
• Your First Day at a New Job
• My Time of Getting in Trouble Because of a Friend
• If Only I Could Turn Back Time
• My Most Impressive Prize Ever
• The Weirdest Thing I’ve Ever Seen in My Life
• My Best Memory With My Friend
• My Biggest Regret Is
• The Most Disastrous Moment I’ve Ever Experienced
• My First Encounter With Fear
• My First Time When Getting a Pet
• The Best Achievement I’ve Ever Accomplished
• The Most Annoying Habit I Have
• My Experience in Concluding a Relationship
• The Time I Shared a Secret With My Friend
• How Do You Differ From Your Parents?
• My First Love and the Experience I Got
• What Was the Most Joyful Moment of Your Life?
• How Good/Bad Are You at Time Management?
• The First Time I Experienced Love
• How Much Time Do You Spend Alone?
• The Most Memorable Day of My Life
• What Valuable Lessons Have You Learned From Adversity?
• The First Fight I Had With My Girlfriend/Boyfriend
• Do You Feel Pressured to Obtain a Perfect Body?
• My Grandma and the Family Food Traditions
• The Most Embarrassing Day in My Life

I have chosen the topic for my narrative essay. What’s next?

After you have found the best essay topic for your writing , study the instructions from your institution carefully. Be aware of the paper’s length and start writing the narrative essay outline . Also, check out the following writing tips that will make the writing process easier.

Tips on narrative essay writing:

• Focus on specific details that are essential to cover the topic. Try to avoid mentioning irrelevant off-topic information.
• Do not lie or embellish facts. Dig deep into your experience. Readers value sincerity.
• Connect your ideas. Use transition words to make your text coherent and easy to read.
• Do not omit the conclusion. No matter your topic, write a wrap up to state what you got from the experience.
• Keep things interesting to read. If you don’t like writing it, chances are good the text is not worth the attention of the audience.
• Be detailed and specific, but don’t overload your reader with information.
• Be creative. In a narrative essay, you can write in the first person and use different stylistic devices.
• Pay close attention to your instructor’s instructions when writing a narrative essay. Although it is a flexible type of writing, it still needs to be structured according to certain guidelines. Therefore, it is important to edit your paper meticulously, paying particular attention to spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation to ensure the highest quality of writing. Edusson can edit any paper, so make your work flawless!

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Writing Program at New College

Assignments - literacy narrative (1000 - 1500 words).

A Literacy Narrative is a type of autobiographical essay –“The Art of Eating Spaghetti,” for example – that focuses on personal experiences with literacy (speaking, writing, reading, and the like) in order to confirm the importance of these rhetorical experiences in a person’s life.

Begin by recalling a rhetorical moment from your life. Think back and reflect on significant situations that helped develop you as a reader and/or writer. Think about who helped you learn about and/or appreciate reading and writing. Think about particular experiences that effected how you thought about reading and writing.

Finding your Focus

Above all, try to recall a moment in your life when speaking, reading, writing, and the like had a big impact on your life. Answer the following questions to get you thinking:

• What is your earliest memory of reading and writing?
• How did you learn to read and write? Did you ever teach anyone else to read or write?
• Who encouraged you to read and write?
• What events interrupted and/or slowed down your ability and/or desire to read and write?
• Did you apply literacy skills to other content areas: sports, music, video games, etc.?
• What kinds of reading have you done in your past and what kinds of reading to you do now?
• What teachers had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
• What assignments had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
• Have different schools or other institutions had an impact on your reading and writing?
• How do you currently feel about reading and writing?
• What rewards have come from reading and writing?
• Did a special or important event from your past make you the reader and/or writer you are today?
• Was there a moment or moments that were especially empowering?
• Did you ever read a book or poem or song that made sense to you beyond the words on the page?

Organizing your Ideas

Discuss these questions with members of the class, and then post responses to at least seven (7) of the questions to Blackboard. The completion of this WTL assignment will provide you with more information about what to pursue for the writing assignment. As you look over this profile of your writing history, consider what “argument” or “so what” point will guide your literacy narrative. For example, you may learn that while you failed or did poorly on a certain assignment, this grade motivated you to work more diligently on your writing skills.

Writing Program

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1 Literacy Narrative

The foundation of our course is built on the ability to read closely and critically. To engage with this skill, and the multiple literacies we navigate on a daily basis, this first major essay is a personal piece in which you will explore a significant moment regarding your own literacy; you may approach literacy either in the traditional sense or using our expanded, modern definition. 

Course objectives

• Develop rhetorical knowledge
• Develop critical and creative thinking
• Develop experience in writing Recall previous experience with various types of reading

Module objectives

During the process of completing this assignment, writers will:

• Recall previous experience with various types of reading
• Identify personal goals for academic reading and writing
• Distinguish the different purposes for academic reading and writing
• Give examples of familiar genres

ASSIGNMENT SHEET

Assignment Sheet – Literacy Narrative

The foundation of this course is built on your ability to read closely and critically. To engage with this skill, and the multiple literacies we navigate on a daily basis, this first major essay is a personal piece in which you will explore a significant moment regarding your own literacy; you may approach literacy either in the traditional sense or using our expanded, modern definition.

Literacy is a key component of academic success, as well as professional success. In this class and others, you will be asked to read and engage with various types of texts, so the purpose of this assignment is twofold. First, this assignment will allow you to write about something important to you, using an open form and personal tone instead of an academic one, allowing you to examine some of your deepest convictions and experiences and convey these ideas in a compelling way through writing. Second, this essay provides us an opportunity to get to know each other as a class community.

For this assignment you should imagine your audience to be an academic audience. Your audience will want a good understanding of your literacy, past, present, or future, and how you seek to comprehend the texts around you.

Requirements:

Choose ONE prompt below to tell about an important time in your life when you engaged with or were confronted with literacy, using the traditional or broad definition. We’ll discuss various types of literacy, so you will identify and define the type of literacy you’re discussing.

• Describe a situation when you were challenged in your reading by describing the source of that challenge (vocabulary, length, organization, something else). How did you overcome that challenge to understand what the text was saying? What strategies or steps do you plan to take in the future to make the process easier?
• Describe the type of texts you read (watch, listen to, etc.) most often. What makes them easy or challenging to read and interpret? What strategies do you use to ensure that you fully understand them or can apply them?
• Describe what kind of texts you think you will have to read or interpret in the future and where you will encounter these texts (i.e. future classes, your career, etc.). How do you think they might challenge you? What strategies will you use to overcome these difficulties?

Formatting:

• Narratives should be between 500-600 words (around 2-3 pages). Be concise, and choose your details carefully.
• Your work must be typed in size 12, Times New Roman font and double spaced, 1” margins, following MLA requirements.

Week 1: Introducing Rhetoric

The foundation of our course is built on your ability to read closely and critically. To engage with this skill, and the multiple literacies we navigate on a daily basis, this project is a personal piece in which you will explore a significant moment regarding your own literacy; you may approach literacy either in the traditional sense or using our expanded, modern definition.

Exploring Literacy

What comes to mind when you hear the term “ literacy “? Traditionally, we can define literacy as the ability to read and write. To be literate is to be a reader and writer. More broadly, this term has come to be used in other fields and specialties and refers generally to an ability or competency.

For example, you could refer to music literacy as the ability to read and write music; there are varying levels of literacy, so while you may recognize the image below as a music staff and the symbols for musical notes, it’s another thing to name the notes, to play any or multiple instruments, or to compose music.

Or, you may be a casual football fan, but to be football literate , you would need to be able to understand and read the playbook, have an understanding of the positions, define terms like “offsides” or “holding” as they relate to the sport, and interpret the hand signals used by the referees.

Educator and writer Shaelynn Faarnsworth describes and defines literacy as “social” and “constantly changing.” In this unit, we’ll explore literacy as a changing, dynamic process. By expanding our definition of literacy, we’ll come to a better understanding of our skills as readers and writers. We’ll use this discussion so that you, as writers, can better understand and write about “…what skills [you] get and what [you] don’t, [and include your] interests, passions, and quite possibly YouTube.”

Checking In: Questions and Activities

• Consider our expanded definition of literacy . In what ways are you literate?
• When, where, and how do you read and write on a daily basis?
• Thinking of traditional literacy (reading and writing), what successes or challenges have you faced in school, at home, in the workplace, etc.?

Close Reading Strategies: Introducing the Conversation Model

Reading is a necessary step in the writing process. One helpful metaphor for the writing process is the conversation model. Imagine approaching a group of friends who are in the middle o

f an intense discussion. Instead of interrupting and blurting out the first thing you think of, you would listen. Then as you listen, you may need to ask questions to catch up and gain a better understanding of what has already been said. Finally, once you have this thorough understanding, you can feel prepared to add your ideas, challenge, and further the conversation.

Similarly, when writing, the first step is to read. Like listening, this helps you understand the topic better and approach the issues you’re discussing with more knowledge. With that understanding, you can start to ask more specific questions, look up definitions, and start to do more driven research. With all that information, then you can offer a new perspective on what others have already written. As you write, you may go through this process — listening, researching, and writing — several times!

This unit focuses first on the importance of reading. There are two important ways we’ll think about reading in this course. Close reading and critical reading are both important processes with difference focuses. Close reading is a process to understand what is being said. It’s often used in summaries, where the goal is to comprehend and report on what a text is communicating. Compared to critical reading, an analytical process focused on how and why an idea is presented, close reading forces us to slow down and identify the meaning of the information. This skill is especially important in summaries and accurately quoting and paraphrasing.

Close reading, essentially, is like listening to the conversation. Both focus on comprehension and being able to understand and report back on what is written or said. In this project,

• Within close reading, your processes could be further broken down into pre-reading, active reading, and post-reading strategies. What do you focus on before and after you read a text?
• Have your instructors asked you to annotate a text?
• Do you find yourself copying down important lines, highlighting, or making notes as you read?
• What strategies do you rely on to actively and closely read?
• What are your least favorite strategies?

The Rhetorical Situation

You may have heard of “rhetorical questions” or gotten frustrated watching the news when a commentator dismisses another by saying “that’s just empty rhetoric” — but what does rhetoric mean? With definitions dating back to Aristotle and Plato, this is a complex concept with many historical and contemporary definitions. We define rhetoric as the ways language and other communication strategies are used to achieve a purpose with an audience. Below, we’ll explore the rhetorical situation, examining how many different factors contribute to how a writer can achieve their goals, and what may influence them to make different decisions.

The rhetorical situation is composed of many interactive pieces that each depend on the other. Let’s start by defining each component:

• Ask yourself: Who created this?
• Ask yourself: Who is likely to, or supposed to, see this?
• Ask yourself: What am I looking at?
• Ask yourself: Why was the text created?
• Ask yourself: When was this created? How did it get developed? Where was the text published? What shaped the creative process?

Each of these categories intersects and influences the other. When we think about a complete rhetorical situation, you’ll need to define all these different pieces to best understand the text. As we begin practicing close reading, drawing the rhetorical situation will be a helpful tool.

Let’s examine this project, the literacy narrative.

• Author : You! While you have a unique background, you’re a student in this course, and your individual writing experience will influence what you write about.
• Audience : Your classmates and instructor. This is a collaborative course, and your instructor will read what you produce.
• Text : Literacy Narrative. This type of text has different goals and requirements. We’ve examined literacy already, and we’ll review narratives soon. Together, these guidelines will help us construct this specific type of text (rather than a poem about reading or your personal memoir about how you became a writer!).
• Purpose : To reflect. To introduce yourself. To define your literacy. These are all goals of this assignment. Throughout your assignment, you’ll want to check in with yourself and ensure that you’re accomplishing these goals. If not, you won’t meet the demands of the assignment.
• Context : This assignment — the assignment sheet above has specific requirements that will influence what you create. Your writing background — no one else has the same life experience with reading and writing as you. The goals of the course — there are specific tasks to accomplish with this project that are specific to CO1 objectives. Each of these aspects will influence how you put the project together. Since you didn’t just wake up and decide to write about literacy, the context of this assignment will determine what you create.
• Which of the elements of the rhetorical triangle influence your writing decisions most? Why?
• Are there any elements you don’t consider? Why don’t they seem as important?

Week 2: Defining Narrative and Organization

This week, you’ll review the assignment more fully, begin drafting, and work more closely with feedback from others. A literacy narrative is a specific type of genre, so there are certain requirements for this text. Using examples from other students, we’ll begin to develop your first draft.

Introducing the Literacy Narrative

narrative : a method of story-telling  

A literacy narrative is a common genre for writers who want to explore their own experiences with writing. Just Google “literacy narrative” and find endless examples! While this assignment will respond to specific prompts and follow a more specific structure than some of the examples you’ll find on Google, there is a common theme in each essay that revolves around your relationship with literacy. Week one defined literacy ,  but what about narrative? Narrative can be defined as a method of story-telling. In the simplest terms, your goal in this literacy narrative, in this assignment, is to tell the story of your personal experience with literacy, either from a past event, something you’re working with now, or looking to the future. Let’s review the three sets of prompts from the assignment sheet:

Each of these prompts gives you the chance to tell your story and examine your experience with a specific type of literacy. As you consider the prompts, think about how you could tell a story to answer these questions. With this frame of mind, review the questions and activities below.

• Which prompt from the assignment sheet will you address? Why does this prompt appeal to you?
• Consider the brainstorming you did about the ways that you are literate. Which prompt matches those skills best? Are these skills you struggled with at first, skills you currently practice, or a skill that you’re learning and will use in the future? Use these notes to decide which set of questions you’ll focus on in this project.

Organization: PIE Method

Each prompt includes three questions, which we’ll use as the starting point for three paragraphs. In each set of prompts, your first paragraph will describe the text; remember, when thinking about reading a text, we can interpret this broadly, like with music and sports. The second paragraph will explore the challenges or successes you’ve experienced. Then, the third paragraph will focus on strategies and techniques for improvement. This way, you can tell a more complete story of your experience, sharing the details and emotions along the way and making readers feel like they’re right there with you. But how do you capture all this detail in a way that helps you organize your thoughts and keep your reader interested in the story?

We’ll use a formula for the paragraph structure called PIE, which stands for Point, Information, and Explanation. This method will help you plan what you want to say, and then give examples so you can show why each step was so important to you. Let’s review each part of the paragraph, and then we’ll look at how this applies to your literacy narrative with a student sample.

• In the literacy narrative: Since each paragraph responds to a question from the prompt, the Point of each paragraph should tell readers which question you’re answering. By rephrasing the question in your Point, you can signal to your classmates and instructor so that they know which question you’re answering.
• In the literacy narrative: Most of your evidence, in a narrative, will be from your experience. Report what happened, what you read, or what you learned. Naming these details can help your readers see through your eyes when you give specific examples.
• In the literacy narrative: Help your readers get inside your head and feel like they’re with you. Keeping the Point in mind and showing how all these ideas relate will bring the paragraph together by developing each example clearly and offering a thoughtful response to each prompt. How did you feel about the examples from the Information? Why was it was so significant? Why should your readers care about this experience? Answering these questions will help show your readers what you experienced so they can understand the significance and connect with you.

Together, these pieces all come together to create a strong, developed paragraph that responds to the question from the prompt more fully.

• Below is a sample paragraph that follows the PIE structure. It is coded for the different parts of the paragraph above, with the Point in bold , the  Information in italics , and the  Explanation underlined . The second paragraph has been shortened and has not been coded. First, review the parts of the coded example. Then, review and identify PIE in the paragraph.

Planning a Draft

Now that we’ve reviewed all the components and the foundation for this assignment, you’re ready to begin your draft! We’ll focus just on the first paragraph here, but you can use these steps for each paragraph to construct your draft.

Consider the first question from each prompt, copied below, to decide if you’ll focus on a past experience, the present, or the future:

• Describe a situation when you were challenged in your reading by describing the source of that challenge (vocabulary, length, organization, something else).  
• Describe the type of texts you read (watch, listen to, etc.) most often.  
• Describe what kind of texts you think you will have to read or interpret in the future and where you will encounter these texts (i.e. future classes, your career, etc.).  

Literacy Narrative Rough Draft

Using your brainstorming from previous weeks, and using the student sample as a reference, begin drafting using the PIE structure, following these steps below to build the first paragraph of your draft. This is just a first draft, so let yourself write freely! This doesn’t need to be perfect or even good — instead, the goal is to put ideas on paper.

• In your Point, rephrase one of the questions above. You can borrow some of this same language to signal to your readers and show which question you’re answering. Remember, this only introduces the main idea — no details yet!
• Review your brainstorming. Did you name specific examples? Add these to your paragraph to develop the Information. Name at least two examples. Each example you give should connect to the Point, providing evidence from your experience.
• Review the examples and start to Explain. How did you feel about the examples from the Information? Why was it was so significant? Why should your readers care about this experience? Ask yourself these questions for each example you include.
• Depending on your drafting process, it might be easy to tackle all three paragraphs at once and get everything down, or you might prefer to write one paragraph at a time.
• Throughout the course, practice with drafting one paragraph per day, or setting a timer to see what you can write in a specific amount of time.
• Review what you’ve written, and see if there are more details to add. Remember, the goal is to get as much as you can out of your head. Revisions will take place next.

Week 3: Peer Review and Revision

Peer review.

Peer review is an important part of the drafting process. It helps us learn from our classmates and see our own work in a different way. Writing can be a lonely and isolating experience that makes the process frustrating and unsatisfying. Getting to share your work with others can break that uncomfortable pattern!

That said, you may be new to sharing your work or have different experiences with peer review. Good peer reviews can spark creativity, help build on good ideas, and revise the rougher ideas. But, sometimes peer review can be challenging if your peer is too critical or too complementary, or maybe you can’t read and understand what they wrote! The tips below will help reinforce best practices, as well as avoid some common mistakes with peer review.

When completing peer review, one important rule is to focus on the big picture and NOT to edit. Think about it like this: If you add a comma, then you’ve helped make one sentence of the paper better. In a paper that’s 1,000 words long, that’s not so helpful! Instead, consider the rhetorical triangle. If you can make observations and ask questions to help your classmate understand the audience or the genre better, then the entire paper is going to improve, because you focused on a higher order concept that affects not just one sentence, but the paragraph and the whole paper. Throughout these projects, we’ll practice several strategies for peer review so you can see several example methods and find what works best for you.

Peer workshop

When you sit down with your peer’s paper, we’ll practice a three-step process. This gives you a chance to explain exactly what you mean while offering specific advice for your peer. Review the steps below:

• Observe : Make a statement or summarize what you see. Identifying a pattern in your peer’s work or repeating what you think your peer is saying can help your peer know if they’re communicating clearly. Using the rhetorical triangle to support these observations could be a helpful strategy!
• Explain : Critique what you see, explaining if the writer has a strong idea or if it might need work. U sing adjectives to describe what’s going well or what’s not working is important so that you peer can learn more about your observation. Was this “clear” or “confusing”? Is the writer “engaging and interesting” or is the writing “plain and repetitive”?
• EXAMPLE: 1) You give a few examples for information, then a sentence of explanation. 2) It doesn’t look like this meets the word limits from the assignment sheet, and I’m not sure which part you’ll focus on as the main form of literacy. 3) Could you clarify this? More explanation about why these are important could help you meet the word limit, too!

All together, these comments will need to be a few sentences long. Since we’re NOT focused on grammar or editing, the changes that your peer can make will have a big effect on the final product. With these more developed comments, your goal is to make 1-2 comments per paragraph. Give your classmate something to consider, using our course vocabulary, to really help them improve. As you read and practice this method, it’s likely that you’ll get ideas for your own paper, which makes this process doubly helpful!

Assignment Rubric

• Will clearly and accurately define a specific type of literacy, explaining the connection and development of literacy. Will clearly establish the identity of the writer and the influence and importance of literacy.
• Will communicate significant experiences to an academic audience. Will give the reader something new to consider. Will interest the reader through storytelling.
• Will remain focused on literacy and the individual prompts. Will include specific details from a variety of experiences. Will engage readers with details and examples. Will explain the connections and development of growth through chosen examples.
• Will follow PIE structure closely.
• Will be clear and readable without distracting grammar, punctuation or spelling errors.

A “B” (good) summary (80% +):

• The concept of literacy may not be as clearly connected or central  to the writer’s development.
• More attention could be paid to engage or interest the readers. May lack context to help the reader understand the writer’s experience.
• Focus may lack through discussing events outside of the prompts. May include few specific examples. May lack explanation to show connection between examples.
• PIE may not be followed in one paragraph. Either the point, information, or explanation could be further developed or clarified within a paragraph.
• The writer may need to work on communicating information more effectively. The narrative will be generally clear and readable but may need further editing for grammatical errors.

A “C” (satisfactory) summary (70% +):

• Literacy is not defined or explained clearly in connection to skill.
• Awareness of audience is lacking, making sections confusing for an unfamiliar reader.
• Prompts may not be clearly connected to the paragraphs. Examples are not included or are not clearly explained.
• PIE may be missing or underdeveloped in multiple paragraphs.
• “C” narratives may also need more editing for readability.

A “D” (poor) summary (60% +):

• Will show an attempt toward the assignment goals that has fallen short. May have several of the above problems.

An “F” (failing) summary:

• ignores the assignment.
• has been plagiarized.
• Review the same sample paragraph below from a previous student. Identify one strength and one area for improvement in the draft, following the 3-step method above. As you review, consider how to balance praise and criticism. Something is going well in your peer’s draft, and something can be improved!

Most of this week revolves around drafting activities. This week brings our first revisions and peer reviews, an important part of the writing process. With your peers, you’ll get to review what they’ve been working on while receiving feedback on your own work. Similar to the sample, it will be your responsibility to identify strengths and praise your peers’ writing, as well as identify areas for improvement and explain why this is an important revision they must make.

Applying Peer Review: Taking Suggestions and Revising

Once you’ve completed peer review, you’ll likely have lots of ideas — reviewing others’ work often ignites a creative spark for your own work! You should feel free to apply strategies from your peers and reexamine your work, but you want to focus on your peers’ suggestions for you. This way, you can see how your ideas and their commentary lines up. In our 3-step feedback process, the last step is to make a suggestion. While the notes from your peers should be valuable, it’s ultimately your draft and your decision about what feedback to include. As you read through the commentary, review the assignment sheet, and begin making changes to the draft. This is one of the most important steps in the writing process and what makes the difference between a rough first draft and a polished, complete draft.

Suggested schedule and pacing

This module is intended to take 3 weeks and would work well as a first, introductory assignment or as a final, reflective assignment. Each unit is designed to help instructors offer feedback at critical stages of the drafting process, assisting writers strategically before they offer their drafts for peer review. This does require a quick turnaround from instructors; for planning this three-week unit, drafts would be due to you after the two-week mark, and peer review is recommended to take place a few days after, once your feedback can be reviewed and used for revisions. This necessarily leads to less intensive feedback on the final drafts, helping to disperse workload and making for faster turnaround of final submissions.

Writers may experience typical growing pains throughout these assignments, especially when used as a first assessment and adjust to your style and teaching practice. Overall, writers seem motivated and engaged in the narrative aspect and less intimidated when starting the course with a less formal, less academic assignment. This is intentional so that everyone begins from a familiar place. As a last, reflective project, this can be used to help writers process and digest rhetorical concepts and their growth throughout the semester.

This unit focuses on close reading skills and introspection to allow students to orient themselves to writing in a constructive and open-minded way. By focusing on literacy and setting the tone for the semester, students tend to be more receptive to rhetorical concepts and understand the time investment required for this course.

Assessment notes

Through this three-week unit, students will explore their past  literacies and expand the definition of literacy  beyond  the traditional sense  to grow comfortable and familiar with the idea of reading and writing in academic English.   

the ability to read and write; more broadly, a specific ability to navigate a specialized discipline

Close reading is a process to understand what is being said.

the ways language and other communication strategies are used to achieve a purpose with an audience

a method of story-telling

First-Year Composition Copyright © by Leslie Davis and Kiley Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Picking a Topic: Personal Narrative Activity

Choosing a personal narrative topic can be a daunting task, especially for young writers in elementary and middle school. The prospect of selecting a single experience and turning it into a captivating essay can leave students feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. Make the process easier with the engaging and effective introductory activity explained below. It’s perfect for launching your personal narrative unit! 

This activity provides a structured approach to brainstorming, moving students towards meaningful and relatable topics for their personal narrative essays. By incorporating guided prompts and interactive elements, this activity helps students overcome the challenge of topic selection and encourages them to delve deeper into their own experiences, emotions, and perspectives.

Step 1: Define

Before diving into the brainstorming activity, make sure students have a solid understanding of the definition and purpose of a personal narrative.

Characteristics of a Personal Narrative 

A personal narrative is a true story about the writer’s life written in first person point of view. 

• engaging introduction
• chronological order (beginning, middle, and end)
• small moment in time
• signal words  
• sensory details
• figurative language
• meaningful conclusion

Click here to download the Personal Narrative Writing Unit!

• Step-by-Step Writing Unit
• Print & Digital 
• Anchor Charts
• Graphic Organizers
• Mentor Text
• Mini-Lessons

Everything you need to teach students how to write a personal narrative!

Step Two: Brainstorm

Students will spend approximately 30 minutes generating a wide-range of ideas and possibilities for their personal narratives. Completing this process will help students evaluate their memories and establish a clear direction for writing. 

Here’s how it works:

• Give students two minutes to answer each prompt listed below. Using a timer will add urgency, keeping students on task and focused. 
• For each prompt, students should record the first thing that comes to their mind. The goal is to identify the memory, not dig into the details. 
• When students have finished responding to all the prompts, have them circle one meaningful memory to use for their personal narrative. Remind students that a personal narrative is a true story about the writer’s life, so they should pick a memory that readers will find interesting and inspiring. 

Click Here for the FREE Personal Narrative Anchor Chart

Step 3: explore.

After the brainstorming activity, have students choose one meaningful memory to explore. 

• Ask students to summarize their meaningful moment using a “who, what, where, when, why” graphic organizer.
• Encourage students to dig deeper into their memory by recording details that appeal to the five senses.  When they think about their meaningful moment, what do they see, hear, smell, taste, and/or touch?  
• Finally, have students identify why the moment they chose is important or meaningful.

Mining for Memories Prompts

Write about a time when…

• you traveled somewhere new
• you performed on a stage 
• you rode a rollercoaster
• you were scared/you cried
• you were surprised
• you learned/tried something new
• you failed or made a mistake
• you were injured or sick
• a teacher or coach helped you
• you made a new friend
• you moved to a new place or school 
• you took a big risk
• you helped someone else
• you felt proud

Ideally, introducing your personal narrative unit with an engaging and student-centered activity will create an environment where students feel inspired to write meaningful narratives that captivate readers. 

Get this activity and everything else you need to teach students how to write a personal narrative! Download the step-by-step unit today!!