Reflective story/essay, Teaching Students How to Write a Reflective Narrative Essay

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Reflective narratives are often written as if you are telling a story to a close friend or a relative. The better you are at drawing in your audience and making the writing personable, the more you captivate your reader. If your write your narrative as if you are writing an instruction manual for a vacuum, your audience will become bored, lose focus and they may eventually stop reading. Reflective story/essay

BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog

Making Room for Both the Reflective and the Narrative Essay

By Lynette Benton

I often get excited about a call for submissions, especially if I have an essay in my files waiting, I feel, for just that opportunity—until I notice that only narrative personal essays will be accepted. It seems an increasing number of the personal essays published lately are narrative in form; some publications actually specify personal narratives, rather than simply personal essays.

What are we talking about when we describe a personal essay as narrative? It’s a first person essay that’s also a true story. Like a fictional story, a narrative personal essay can "recount a string of events," as essayist and editor Joseph Epstein writes in his Forward to The Best American Essays 2014. As in a fictional story, a narrative personal essay includes an inciting incident (or catalyst), conflict, obstacles placed in the path of the main character (or, in the case of a personal essay, the narrator), a climax, and a resolution.

Oliver Sacks’ gripping personal essay, "Bull on the Mountain," is narrative in form. Sacks describes his face-to-face encounter with an enormous white bull seated on a path in front of him when climbing a mountain alone in Norway. Sacks tried to flee "in blind, mad panic," and in so doing, seriously injured himself. The essay contains an inciting incident (the meeting with the bull), obstacles confronted by the narrator (getting himself, despite his bum leg, back down the mountain before darkness and extreme cold set in), a climax (just as it seems Sacks will pass out and in all probability die, hunters catch sight of him), and the tale is resolved (Sacks is rescued).

On the other hand, a reflective personal essay is true first person writing that explores a topic or idea, without being required to follow a narrative arc, include a climax, or come to a conclusion. In fact, it is notably inconclusive. Essayist Phillip Lopate, editor of The Art of the Personal Essay, considers personal essays the "incomplete or tentative treatment of a topic."

He goes on to point out the personal essay’s "digression and promiscuous meanderings," which I consider the hallmark of reflective personal essays. Roaming in the wake of the writer’s seemingly disordered thoughts, even down blind alleys towards apparent dead ends, feels comfortably like my own mental journeying. In the narrative form the essayist tells what happened—instead of inviting readers to make of his mental journey what they will.

A major difference between narrative and reflective personal essays could be that the former appears incident driven, the latter, idea driven. That’s not to say that either form excludes the other; narrative personal essays explore ideas and reflective personal essays frequently contain anecdotes—stories, like small gems—nestled in the platinum of the wandering prose. In Zadie Smith’s "Joy," originally published in New York Review of Books in 2013, Smith departs from her contemplation of the differences between pleasure and joy to tell a story about an evening she spent on drugs in a night club. She circles back to conclude that one has pleasure, while one enters joy.

In narrative personal essays, I often feel rushed to arrive at and over that pesky narrative arc that looms like a hurdle on an otherwise level path; There’s the unfolding of the plot and the determined trot towards the climax and resolution. An email from an editor made it clear where his interest lay. "I’m looking for stories where something happens," he wrote. [Italics mine.] The writer of the narrative personal essay is discouraged from wondering, meandering, or doubling back to poke at inchoate thoughts, or to reconsider questions that refuse to be easily, even glibly, settled.

In "The Personal Essay: A Form of Discovery," His introduction to The Norton Book of Personal Essays, Epstein writes "Literary forms, like stocks, rise and fall, not in value of course, but in prestige." Might the reflective personal essay be on its way out? Will there no longer exist room in our nonfiction universe for both narrative and reflective personal essays? Though I’ve enjoyed many narrative personal essays, such as the chilling "Angry Winter," by Loren Eiseley, my deepest appreciation is reserved for the reflective personal essay online buy. Am I to be deprived of this type of essay, which I not only enjoy reading, but write? I guess I’m also asking: Has the personal essay evolved beyond me? Is it time for me to pack up my pen and go home?

I cut my teeth on reflective personal essays written in the 1930s through the 1960s, decidedly less hurried times. Essays from that era feel relaxed and loosely structured, like the casual suits men wore in nineteen forties movies set in Hollywood or Havana.

Among my favorites is Natalia Ginzburg’s He and I, first published in 1962. In it, Ginzburg employs repetition, counterpoint, buy an essay online and hyperbole to describe the ways in which she is inferior to her almost preternaturally astute and buy essay online accomplished, though rather imperious, husband, only inserting glimpses of his weaknesses after we’re just about convinced he possesses none.

A more recent reflective personal essay that I cherish is Daphne Merkin’s, My Kingdom for a Scarf, first published in The New York Times in 1991. In this essay online buy, Merkin has left a favorite scarf in a New York City taxi she’s just alighted from. Her efforts to retrieve or replace the scarf are unsuccessful. Losing the scarf leads her to new insights. She writes, "[I]t should be clear …that we’re not talking scarves. We’re talking loss." The scarf only symbolizes that idea. So does a glove she lost. The heart of the essay lies in her memories of and tallying up of losses in her life. Merkin offers no climax or resolution. She simply tells us at the end, "When I am dead …I suppose I shall not care about the red suede glove I dropped in Central Park 15 years ago." Then, emphatically, "Meanwhile, I want everything back."

I like the way reflective essays begin in one place, and we readers have no idea where they might take us, and I bet that sometimes the author might not know either. The text is a winding road, with unexpected detours and surprises around corners that once were hidden from view. Joan Didion said, "I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, …and what it means."

And yet a writer and writing coach, who specializes in nonfiction informs me that some essayists confess that, "their essays mimic the randomness of thought, while they structure the essay during the revision process…deliberately to achieve this effect." That may be true, but the reason I apply my pen to reflective personal essays is that, like Didion: I’m not sure what I think or what I mean until I write it out.

Why is the narrative personal essay in vogue right now? Is it because of a belief that readers (and perhaps editors) abhor a state of uncertainty, preferring to be led along a discernible path to a firm conclusion? If so, shame on the writer if she’s not at all sure of the answers to the questions she’s implicitly raising in her essay.

Is this preference, if it is a preference, for narrative personal essays a result of our shortened attention spans? We no longer have the leisure of previous centuries, as Dinty W. Moore notes in his Crafting the Personal Essay. Do readers want us writers to just get on with it? Or is it simply that we humans are "wired for story" as Lisa Cron writes in her book by that title?

Perhaps I have reason to be hopeful. Many fine publications remain open to either treatment—narrative or reflective. But I still wring my hands over my personal essay writing. Perhaps what I fear is not only the demise of the reflective essay. It’s possible my apprehension stems from the way I experience my own life. Like reflective essays, my life’s got enough doubt and doubling back to evade all my attempts to force it into anything remotely like orderly certainties.

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Lynette Benton’s essay, "No More Secrets and Silence," was awarded first place in the 2016 Magic of Memoir Contest and subsequently published in the Magic of Memoir anthology. Excerpts from her memoir, My Mother’s Money, earned finalist status in the 2014 memoir writing contest sponsored by She Writes Press and Serendipity Literary Agency. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous print and online publications.

Teaching Students How to Write a Reflective Narrative Essay

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin reflects on different formative periods throughout his life. The literary work is divided into four parts: his childhood; his apprenticeship; his career and accomplishments as a printer, writer, and scientist; and a brief section about his civic involvements in Pennsylvania.

Franklin’s Autobiography is a historical example of a reflective narrative. A reflective narrative is a type of personal writing that allows writers to look back at incidents and changes in their lives. Writing a reflective narrative enables writers to not only recount experiences but also analyze how they’ve changed or learned lessons.

Reflective Narrative Essay Example

A reflective narrative essay consists of a beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning, or introduction, provides background and introduces the topic. The middle paragraphs provide details and events leading up to the change. Finally, the ending, or conclusion, sums up the writer’s reflection about the change.

The following is an excerpt from a reflective narrative essay written by a student entitled "Not Taken for Granted" (read the full essay in our "Reflective Narrative Guide"). In the writing piece, the writer reflects on his changing relationship with his little brother:

I guess I was spoiled. At first, I was an only child, cuddled and cooed over by parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Up until I was eight years old, life was sweet. Then along came Grant, and everything changed.

Grant is my little brother. I don’t remember all the details, but he was born a month prematurely, so he needed a lot of extra attention, especially from Mom. My mom and dad didn’t ignore me, but I was no longer the center of their universe, and I resented the change in dynamics. And at first, I also resented Grant.

Fortunately, Grant’s early birth didn’t cause any real problems in his growth, and he crawled, toddled, and talked pretty much on schedule. My parents were still somewhat protective of him, but as he got older, he developed the obnoxious habit of attaching himself to me, following my every move. My parents warned me to be nice to him, but I found him totally annoying. By the time I became a teenager, he was, at five, my shadow, following me around, copying my every move, asking questions, and generally being a pest.

Steps to Writing a Reflective Narrative Essay

How can Grades 3 and up students write a reflective narrative essay consisting of an engaging introduction, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion that sums up the essay? Have your students follow these seven steps:

1. Select a Topic

The first step in prewriting is for students to select a topic. There is plenty for them to choose from, including life-altering events (such as a new experience or failing or succeeding at a new task or activity) or people or moments that made an impact and caused a change in your students’ lives (a teacher or a trip to a new city or country). Another way students can choose their topics is to think of ways they have changed and explore the reasons for those changes.

A Then/Now Chart can help students brainstorm changes in their lives. In this chart, they should list how things used to be and how they are now. Afterward, they’ll write why they changed. After brainstorming various changes, students can mark the one change they wish to write about. See below for an example of this type of chart:

Then	Now	Reason for Change

2. Gather Relevant Details

After your students choose their topic, they must gather details that’ll help them outline their essay. A T-Chart is a tool that can help collect those details about their lives before and after the change took place.

3. Organize Details

The last step in prewriting consists of your students organizing the details of their essays. A reflective narrative may cover an extended period, so students should choose details that demonstrate their lives before, during, and after the change. A third tool students can use to help plot the narrative is a Time Line, buy an essay where they focus on the background (before the change), realization (during the change), and finally, reflection (after the change).

4. Write the First Draft

Now, it’s time for your students to write their first drafts. The tools they used to brainstorm will come in handy! However, though their notes should guide them, they should remain open to any new ideas they may have during this writing step. Their essays should consist of a beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning, or introduction paragraph, provides background details and events that help build the narrative and lead to the change.

The middle, or body paragraphs, should include an anecdote that helps demonstrate the change. Your students should remember to show readers what is happening and use dialogue. Finally, the ending, or conclusion paragraph, should reflect on events after the change.

Allow your students to write freely—they shouldn’t worry too much about spelling and grammar. Freewriting consists of 5–10 minutes of writing as much as possible. For more information on freewriting, check out our lesson!

5. Revise and Improve Draft

Revising allows students to think about what they wrote and ways they can improve their drafts. When revising, students should check for: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency. Here’s a list of questions they can ask themselves when reading their drafts:

Ideas

Is the topic interesting?

Are there enough details and events to support the topic?

Organization

Does the beginning provide background and introduce the topic?

Do the middle paragraphs show how I changed?

Does the ending reflect on how my life was altered by this experience?

Voice

Do I sound interested in the topic?

Does the dialogue sound natural?

Word Choice

Have I used specific nouns and vivid verbs?

Have I used descriptive modifiers?

Sentence Fluency

Do the sentences read smoothly?

Have I varied the lengths and beginnings of my sentences?

After identifying the parts of their drafts that need reworking, students should make another draft.

6. Edit as Needed

After revising their drafts, students should edit for conventions (spelling, capitalization, grammar, clarity, and punctuation errors). They could even exchange essays with one another to check each other’s work. Finally, after editing, they’ll have a final copy to proofread for any minor errors they or the other student might’ve missed.

7. Share with an Audience

Writing a reflective narrative essay is a meaningful way for students to reflect on their lives. Additionally, their writing pieces could help others understand more about them. Therefore, consider having your students share their essays. They could publish their writing pieces by making a class eBook or submitting them to relevant writing contests. Or students can read them aloud to their classmates or family members.

More Reflective Narrative Essay Writing Tips

Essay writing can be challenging as it requires proper brainstorming, organization, and creativity. That’s why it’s great for students to have writing guides to aid them in the writing process. This downloadable PDF handout for students provides tips for how to write a reflective narrative essay.

Try Writable to support your ELA curriculum, district benchmarks, and state standards with more than 600 fully customizable writing assignments and rubrics for students in Grades 3–12. Learn more.

Reflective story/essay, Reflective story/essay