- Create a “Marigolds” interview narrative by completing the writing prompt provided below.
- Include an example of parallel structure (parallelism). Point this out by underlining, highlighting, or writing “parallelism” in the margins.
1The previous week’s homework tasked you with creating an interview between you and a character from “Marigolds,” and it should have been written as a series of questions and answers. This is an interview transcript, and it is the basis of an interview narrative. I want you to take this transcript and craft a narrative from it. This means telling a story that has a beginning, middle, and end, with the content of that story coming from the interview you did.
There are a couple ways you can approach this:
- Narrate the Interview
In this version of the narrative, you tell a story of sitting down to interview someone and try to capture a picture of who the person is today. You mix in details of their life (based on the answers from the interview) to help the reader understand how those details helped your interviewee become the person they are today. You do not include your questions, but you will include both direct and indirect quotes. Direct quotes will be included as dialogue (like you would do in a fiction story). The setting of the narrative is where the interview took place and includes details of this environment and the actions the interviewee takes. A conclusion includes final thoughts on who the interviewee is and/or what they have learned from their experiences.
- Narrate the Interviewee
In this version of the narrative, you tell a story of the interviewee’s experiences, to try to capture what it was like to go through what they have gone through. You mix in details of the interview (based on the answers from the interview) to help the reader understand how they learned to understand their experiences after they were over, even while you show the experiences as they happened. You do not include your questions, but you will include both direct and indirect quotes, although most of your quotes will be indirect. Direct quotes will not be used as dialogue, but will be included as parts of sentences you write to show how your interviewee looked back on their experiences. The setting of the narrative will be based on the experiences of your interviewee; if they describe going Bingo on Saturdays, you might describe what the weather was like and how the building looked. A conclusion includes final thoughts on who the interviewee is and/or what they have learned from their experiences.