READthis Handout from The Writing Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2. COMPLETE the following:

Select one of the two options (Narrative or Description) and begin to tell your Miami Story. The key here is to capture a moment in as much detail as possible. Use the rhetorical structures you have learned so far.

Narrative (1 page, typed, double-spaced) FIRST PART:

Tell a story of significance to your family. Tell it in a scene.

For Miami Stories Event:

Theme — Tell us your story:

• How you or your family came to Miami”How did you and/or your family come here, to this city? Tell the story in a scene, moment to moment. Include setting, dialogue, gestures, names of people and places. Tell us the year, the season, the moment-to-moment sensations of your journey.

or

• My first time in Miami. . .”Give us a scene that you remember from when you first arrived in Miami. If you settled in Miami, describe where you (and/or your family) settled: address, physical description of the place where you lived, neighbors, landscape, streets. Give sounds, colors, names of places and people. How old were you? What was the year? The season? The weather? Give us a specific account of one moment in your life then and your impressions of the place. Include dialogue, setting, gestures.

or

• What it’s like to live in Miami. . .”Give us a scene about living in Miami now. Give sounds, colors, names of place and people. Give us a year, the season, the weather. Include dialogue, setting, gestures

The story you tell could be one that you witnessed or one that was told to you. Do not state the story’s significance. It must emerge from the details or actions narrated.Tell the story as it comes to you, but tell it in a scene, moment to moment. It could be a memory or a story of when you were a child or a story told about a relative or sibling or a parent.

Be sure to have:

1. setting/ location
2. time of day,
3. year,
4. season,
5. gestures (people sit, stand, move),
6. dialogue (one line per speaker, tags;he/she said;)

NOTE: Use past or present tense but be consistent.

Remember that your stories need to be on scene. Create a movie in the mind of the reader, moment to moment.