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.  Please post your rough  draft here AND post your rough draft also in the Turnitin assignment box  under Module 1 — Writing assignment.

Narrative (1 page minimum,double spaced, MLA style format and minimum of 5 paragraphs):

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

OR

• Tell the story of how you or your family came to Miami.
  How  did you and/or your family come here, to this city?  Tell the story in  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 to 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 the 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 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’)

Use past or present tense but be consistent.

Which one is a scene? A or B?  Remember that your stories need to be in scene.  Create a movie in the mind of the reader, moment to moment.

1. I remember when my sister  announced she was getting married.  It was New Year’s Eve in 2004.  She  was very young and our family was concerned.  My mother cried and my  father got upset.
2. My sister Katya walked in the  kitchen, where we’d gathered – Mom, Dad, Tio Alberto and his second  wife– to bring in the New Year. Mom had handed out the champagne  glasses.  Katya said, “I’m getting married.”  It was 2004.  She was  sixteen.

   Tio Alberto, who  was already drunk, raised his empty champagne glass to her.  Dad held  his close to his chest.  “Sure, my love,” he said.  “You’re getting  married.  Some day.”

The answer is B. Please write your essay in scene as shown in example B.