“Language Narrative” – Jonathan Cabera

I think it is important to share stories because they help us to connect and share experiences with other people. The author of “Storytelling is not just entertainment” brings up a good point that storytelling “reminds us of how we are part of something enduring or something bigger.” In other words, storytelling reminds us that we are not alone. Someone else may be going through the same situation as you and can provide advice or you can help each other out. It is important to share these stories for our own well-being and enrichment. It’s like having anger for someone but keeping it bottled up and never telling them why you’re angry at them. This will be in your subconscious mind and can make you bitter. It’s the same when you have a story to tell. Sometimes we just need someone to listen to us so that we can get things off of our chest and know we’re not alone. Sometimes life can get hard and you will feel hopeless, but conveying your thoughts to someone else can give you relief.

Language narratives always contain a point of view, plot, characters, theme, setting, and specific style. For example, in Lysicotts speech, she came from a point of view of being judged based on how articulate she was. The characters mentioned were her mom, dad, and herself. Her style of portraying her narrative was by her accent switches. For some of the speech she talked in a professional “articulate” accent, she spoke in a Caribbean accent, and then she also spoke in a “street talk.” This accent switch emphasized her main point that there are multiple ways to utilize the English language while still remaining articulate. There is no right way to be articulate.

I think I can start my language narrative based on any impactful event that I have had in my life, whether negative or positive. From there, I’d recall everything that led up to that moment and pinpoint the most important details. This is your story. Everything that led up to that event, and the effect that it had on you after. A narrative will be a story based on your own personal experiences. People with similar experiences will be able to relate to your narrative.

I don’t have any specific questions about creating a language narrative, but during the writing process, I would ask myself the following questions to ensure that my narrative is as good as possible.

• Am I including unnecessary details in my narrative? How will this detail help me to get my main idea across?
• Are all of my events in an easy to read, chronological order?

Once I have finished my writing, I always revise to make sure my story is complete. A couple of days ago, I had an autobiography to write for a class but I ended on a cliffhanger. This is a fault on the authors part and must be addressed. You may have left out important details that can help your reader with comprehension.