Structure to the Personal Narrative

Chronological approach

you tell the story in the order that it happened:

“When I was eleven I discovered I had ADHD. It was an explanation for why I

behaved the way I did, but it soon became my excuse; my crutch. At the age of

fifteen I already knew my teachers would brush off my misbehavior as this disorder. I knew what I could get away with it so I

did.

Flashback Sequence

you begin a story in the present and then take the reader back to something that happened earlier:

“I’ve often felt that gossip affected the way we live our lives. It wasn’t until last may when a piece of misconstrued information led me to question who my friends were. Emily, Raquel, & Brianna had been my best friends since 1st grade…”

Reflective Mode

You tell the story by reflecting on a theme or lesson or idea and use the story to illustrate it: “I cannot stay in one place for too long before I get itchy and have to pick up and move. I think this wandering seed was planted within me in the summer of my tenth year, the summer my family moved to Nevada…”