Narrative Theory and Stories that Speak to Us - by Cynthia L. Selfe and the DALN Consortium
With a winning smile, dressed in a stylish black shirt and neat tie, Kevin tells his narrative to another English composition teacher at the 2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco. Kevin orients his audience to the story with two major moves: First, he identifies himself by name; second, he identifies himself as a member of the teaching profession by claiming an institutional affiliation (a faculty member teaching composition at Old Dominion).
Kevin then provides an abstract of his story and states his rhetorical goal (“I’m here to tell you a story about my writing development.”). He begins by offering a brief analogy, a story about his coach in high school, a talented sprinter, who got “really, really frustrated” when working with sprinters because he had been “so good.” Evaluating the significance of this introductory analogy/story-within-a-story for his audience, Kevin explains,
I kind of brought that [the coach story and analogy] into writing because during my high school and even into my college careers, I was not considered to be a good writer, so that helps me as a writing teacher to have a little bit of empathy for where my students are at.
