Pastor Dan Stoneback and Alex Scott Berg, my nephew, at Alex's high school graduation party.

Imagine an embarrassing situation in which you found yourself. Now imagine that you are writing a narrative about the incident to Pastor Dan Stoneback or your own spiritual advisor. Next imagine that you are writing to Alex Scott Berg or some other teenager. It is unlikely that the two narratives will be the same. In this case, you are adjusting your story to fit the audience.

Even telling the story to the same person at different times, we might emphasize different details depending on our reason for telling the story. For example, you might tell a niece about a soccer game your team lost in order to make her feel better after her team lost a game. Later, you might tell her about the same game. But this time, you will emphasize the excitement you felt after making a goal. In this case, you are adjusting your story to fit the thesis (or main point) you want to make.

After you decide on the incident around which you want to base your narrative paper, you might complete the following diagram. Describe your audience in the first column. Then, in the second column list two reasons you might tell the person listed in the first column the story. Then, for each thesis listed in the second column, come up with three details you can include in your paper.

Why come up with two thesis statements when you only need to write one paper for this module? The reason is that it gives you choices. Maybe the first thesis is your favorite one. But you realize that you have better details—and will therefore be able to write a better paper about—the second one. In fact, I suggest you complete this chart for at least two or three different audiences.