Story telling Narrative or article

Other than the research paper, the narrative is perhaps one of the more difficult
pieces to write. Rather than sharing a full opinion or idea, you are a reporter of
sorts and you are writing an in-depth piece on a particular issue, event or person.
Many examples of these exist and I will show you a few, but I strongly encourage
you to get a hold of a copy of a magazine like The New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly.
The purpose of the assignment is to allow you to write in narrative form and
complete an article that tells a storyor profiles and interesting person and what
they did that made them interesting, etc. For example, shortly after 9/11, several
articles appeared profiling then NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The profiles would
essentially attempt to paint a portrait of the man, what makes him tick and how
what he valued as his strengths helped him get through that day.
Your main task, of course, is to pick such a topica profile, an event, or some such
that you can describe, narrate and explain. The narrative is a documentary of
sorts. Most importantly, please note that while occasionally opinion of some kind
might seep into such an article, it is not the purpose of the piece. The focus is to
come off of you and come onto someone or something else. Youre the storyteller,
not the engine for the story. Using newspaper features as a guide is not generally
helpful unless they come from one of the bigger papers like The LA or NY Times,
The SF Chronicle, etc. For reasons that sound too snobbish, the simple fact is that
the larger papers have writers that do this sort of thing better than our local ones
do. There are some exceptions and those are a few of the articles by John Krist
(you can find these online) in the VC Star and Colleen Cason, also in the Star.
This narrative must be 4 pages or more in length, it must follow all ACHS style
sheet rules. You must cite sources (interviews, research etc.) intratextually ( e.g.
Giulianis good friend and NYC Police chief during Giulianis tenure, Bernard Kerik,
stated in an interview with Time Magazine that he did not believe the Mayor ever
actually picked up the phone to call the President, that someone else on the Mayors
staff did that.) as well as have a works cited sheet

Rough drafts of these pieces must be completed by October 23. Final drafts
will be due on November 6. Those dates are not in stone, but they are based
on the kind of work you do. If you are consistently not working on the piece
in class, or forgetting to bring work with youthen you can count on those
dates. If, on the other hand, your work indicates your focus, attention and
rigorous effort, Ill be glad to work with you on the flexibility of due dates.