CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Editing and Publishing Personal Narratives

Editing Personal Narratives

After making big changes to improve your personal narrative, you need to make little changes (editing) to correct any remaining errors. You'll look for problems with sentences, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and spelling. The following activities will help you edit your narrative.

Editing to Punctuate Dialogue

Dialogue, or written conversation, works only when it is punctuated correctly. Use the examples that follow as a guide to punctuating dialogue.

Put quotation marks around spoken words.

Martha whispered, “What page are we on?”

Use a comma to separate the speaker from the spoken words.

Martha whispered, “What page are we on?”

If the comma comes after the quotation, put the comma inside the quotation marks.

“Pay attention,” Lupe said.

If a period comes after a quotation, put the period inside the quotation marks.

Martha insisted, “Just tell me.”

If the speaker interrupts a spoken sentence, use two commas to show the interruption.

“Lupe,” Martha pressed, “I thought we were friends.”

If the speaker comes between two sentences, use a period to end one sentence before beginning another.

“We are friends,” said Lupe. “I just don't want to get in trouble for whispering.”

OR

“We are friends.” Lupe added, “I just don't want to get in trouble for whispering.”

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Revising Personal Narratives

Revising Personal Narratives

After you've completed a first draft of your personal narrative, take a break before you begin revising. You need to see your work with a fresh perspective because when you revise, you make big improvements to your ideas, organization, and voice.

Revising to Show Instead of Tell

Study the two passages that follow. The “before” passage only explains the action, telling about it. The “after” passage uses action, dialogue, personal feelings, and details to develop the action, showing it. The second passage is much more interesting to read.

BEFORE (only explains the action)

Once when I was little, I got ready to ride on my dad’s motorcycle. Just as I was getting on the seat, I burnt myself on the cycle! It really hurt and I started to cry. My mom checked the burn. I didn’t want to go back on the motorcycle, but my dad took me anyway.

AFTER (develops the action with dialogue and personal feelings)

When I was little, one of my favorite things to do was riding on my dad’s motorcycle. It was always fun for me.

“Come on. Get up,” said my dad cheerfully.

“Okay,” I answered. But just as I was getting onto the seat, I burnt myself on one of the accelerator pipes!

“Ow!” I yelled as I started to cry.

“Are you all right?” asked my mom.

“No,” I answered.

“Come here,” said my mom. “Let’s take a look at that burn. It’s pretty red. I don’t think she should go for a ride on the motorcycle.”

I felt really glad that she had said that.

“Aw, come on. It won’t hurt her any more than she’s already hurtin’,” said my dad. I started to get really angry. I mean, I was only five years old. I hurt! Why should I have to ride a motorcycle?

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Writing a Personal Narrative

Writing a Personal Narrative

Once you finish prewriting, you are ready to tell your story in writing. These activities will help you hook the reader's attention at the beginning, build interest through a sequence of events, and lead to a strong ending for your personal narrative. You'll also read another student's narrative to see how all of the parts came together.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The first few sentences in your narrative should grab the reader’s attention. They are called the lead. The following activity will help you write an effective lead.

Write a lead.

For each strategy that follows, write a lead that could work for your personal narrative.

  • Start in the middle of the action.

    Suddenly, I heard a crash downstairs and the sound of breaking glass. “Hey, who’s down there?” I yelled.

  • Have the characters talk.

    My brother’s lips were so swollen, it sounded like he said, “Mine guess who fur hiss!”

    “What?” I said.

    He glared at me and said louder, “I’ll get you for this!”

  • Begin with a surprising statement or fact.

    When I was nine, I started my dad’s car and drove onto the street. I thought I was going to New Jersey.

  • Give some important background information.

    It was a beautiful August morning. The sun was brightly shining on my sunglasses while my mother drove the U-haul truck to a warehouse in Santa Ana, California. As my mother drove down the streets of Santa Ana, I looked out the window and began to realize that the mixture of people was no longer a mixture; there was only white.

By Anonymous (not verified), 12 March, 2026

Prewriting for Personal Narratives

Prewriting for Personal Narratives

Prewriting is your first step in writing a personal narrative. These prewriting activities will help you select a topic to write about, gather important details about the topic, and organize your thoughts before you begin a first draft.

Prewriting to Select a Topic

Explore topic ideas.

The goal for your narrative is to share a personal experience that taught you something or left a lasting impression. To help you think of topic ideas, complete as many of the sentence starters that follow as you can. Each complete sentence could become a topic for your narrative.

  • My friendship was tested one time when . . .
  • My worst day in school was . . .
  • I had to stand up for myself once when . . .
  • I remember the time I won . . .
  • I told a secret, and . . .
  • My most embarrassing moment in school happened when . . .
  • I wanted to be part of a certain group, but . . .
  • A neighbor helped me (scared me, surprised me), and . . .

Choose your topic.

Choose a topic for your narrative. Pick from the topics suggested by the sentence starters above, or choose another topic you have in mind.

Prewriting to Gather Details

Before you can share a story, you need to remember all the important things that happened. Asking and answering the 5 W’s and H questions can activate your memory and help you record important details about your experience.

  • Who was involved in the experience?
  • What exactly happened? (the actions or events)
  • Where did it happen?
  • When did it happen?
  • Why did it happen? (the background)
  • How did you change because of the experience?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3