This first step in building ideas to be used in creating your narrative essay begins with prewriting. Once you determine which storm you will write about, prewriting can help you explore the topic from multiple perspectives. What were your feelings before, during, and after the storm? What did you hear or see or smell? What thoughts raced through your mind? These and other questions can emerge through the process of prewriting, providing you with specific key points to cover within your narrative essay.

In unit 4, you took the first step toward writing your narrative essay, "The Storm". For the assignment that week, you described a storm you experienced and the lesson you learned from it.

There are two parts to this assignment: the freewriting content and the five (or more) key points listed after the freewriting.

Part 1 Freewriting

you will use the prewriting technique known as freewriting to generate content that can be used in the draft of your narrative essay about the storm you experienced and the lesson you learned as a result. Review the Unit 4 learning content about pre-writing for a refresher on what freewriting is. Remember, freewriting is less formal than a draft. Do not worry about grammar or mechanicsjust let the ideas and thoughts flow. Aim for page single-spaced or a full page double-spaced.

Be aware of the time spent in freewriting. Five minutes is enough for most writers, but you can go over if you find the words pouring out.

Part 2 Key Points

Once you complete the freewriting, use the listing or clustering/mapping technique to organize your thoughts and ideas presented in the freewriting. Look for potential key points to your story that could be people, events, sensory details, or descriptive details that mark the main events within your experience. The goal of the exercise is for you to identify key points that mark the main events within your experience of the storm. Aim for 5 or more key points that you could use in the upcoming draft. Write each of these key points/events in a full sentence.