Overview: Writing a Narrative composition appeals to one of humankind’s basic instincts, the impulse to share stories. Sometimes the aim of the story-teller is simply to entertain, to provide a moment of escape from the business of the day or the horrors of the night, but sometimes the aim of the story-teller is to instruct, to help others in their understanding of something. The best part of teaching in this way is that our listeners’ natural resistance to heeding the words of others is low and they are not always aware that they are being taught anything until it’s too late – we’ve got them.

The ability to describe something convincingly will serve a writer well in any kind of essay situation. The most important thing to remember is that your job as writer is to show, not tell. If you say that the tree is beautiful, your readers are put on the defensive: “Wait a minute,” they think. “We’ll be the judge of that! Show us a beautiful tree and we’ll believe.” Do not rely, then, on adjectives that attempt to characterize a thing’s attributes. Lovely, exciting, interesting – these are all useful adjectives in casual speech or when we’re pointing to something that is lovely, etc., but in careful writing they don’t do much for us; in fact, they sound hollow.

Prompt:

1. Select a fairytale from any time period that can be revised into a feminist fairy tale. Gain understanding of the story’s meaning and then create a descriptive essay that surrounds the meaning of the song. Your story should feature all of the elements of the stories we’ve read thus far this semester including, but not limited to: a protagonist, secondary characters, conflict, plot (beginning, middle, and end), etc. Some themes you may consider are: feminism in regard to economic opportunities, body issues, objectification of women, power and money, autonomy over the body, etc.. You will be graded on your use of sensory details, word choice, story development, character development, your ability to show and not tell details, and use of literary devices.

Format/Requirements:

Must be written in the third person. Avoid contractions, and do NOT use ANY dialogue.

UNIQUE Title, MLA Format, 12-pt. Times New Roman (or similar) font, standard 1-inch margins, Double-spaced text, Name, date, instructor name, and class at top left of page one, single spaced (no cover pages please), Pages numbered according to MLA format, 2 pages total. NO SHORTER, NO LONGER!