Author: Saif Shahzaman

These educational narratives seem pretty simple. They basically create a lesson or educate the reader from a story based on a personal experience. From what I see. The authors choose a section of their memories that taught them a lesson. They narrate the memory, as much as they can remember, which shows a moment of struggle. They then talk about something that showed them the key to overcoming that struggle. They try to convey that key in a way that the reader can understand and take in the information, as well as learn from it.

When I think about it, there aren’t many grand experiences that I’ve learned from. Nor any minor ones that I can remember. Then again, I feel that one of the many insignificant memories I have can still be turned into a fine educational narrative. After all, as long as I learn a teachable lesson it should turn out well. Maybe I should start with something involving how I view relationships. I feel that the relationships I hold are very important to me, and that is something that I am passionate about. It would be a lot easier to inform my audience about something that I care about deeply. So I will look into topic ideas regarding that area.

A question I have is if my lesson has to be really important or not. Since I can’t think of any life-changing scenarios, it would make it easier on me if it didn’t have to be anything crazy.

When Mike Bunn writes “You are already an author” he is acknowledging our previous academic writings. Before attending college it is obvious that we have written numerous stories, articles, papers, texts, etc. The majority of my writing was done in sixth grade and throughout high school.

The reason I bring up sixth grade was that my entire year of writing was dedicated to argumentative writing and structure. We studied and practiced rigorously in order to perfect our ability to construct an argumentative writing piece. I can remember the many ways I would attempt to bullshit the assignments. I think part of the procrastination actually helped me because, in the end, I was forced to learn the skills quickly and apply them efficiently.

In high school, the majority of my English classes focused on academic writing, such as practicing for the regent’s exam, research papers, historical texts, poetry, older literature, and reviewing student writing. In my opinion, it was a lot more boring than what I did in sixth grade, however, it did equip me with a more sophisticated writing skillset. Breaking it down, it was pretty much essay after essay after essay. Anyways, that’s the summary of my writing experience.

I believe that a conversation is a form of authorship.“How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn, talks about how we should learn to orient our writing strategies in order to address our audience more efficiently. We do this more often than we realize. The language we use to communicate with our parents is usually different than what we would use around our friends.

I think something interesting in Bunn’s article was when he suggested the reader go back in the text and reread certain areas. I feel like that’s a very effective gesture to help your audience understand your point. If possible I would like to try that in a future writing piece. I tend to have difficulty translating my thoughts into words so I believe that utilizing this technique would be beneficial to me and my audience.

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