Kapiolani Community College
Diamond Journal 2003Fall

DIAMOND JOURNAL

"Starry Night" By: Edith M. Leiby

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Diamond Journal, a publication of the Board of Student Publications (BOSP) at the University of Hawaii at Kapi‘olani Community College, is produced once each semester. Funding for BOSP is provided by student fees. The written works included in Diamond Journal reflect the experiences, opinions, and views of their authors, not those of the BOSP, journal editors, advisors, or staff. Authors are solely responsible for the content of each submission. While Diamond Journal invites all submissions, selection for publication is entirely at the discretion of the editors, who also reserve the right to edit for grammar, punctuation, and length.

The Scope of the Diamond Journal
Diamond Journal specializes in publishing works of non-fiction that take the form of personal narrative. The two types of writing that most commonly appear in these pages are the personal narrative and the personal narrative essay. A personal narrative is an autobiographical story about a specific incident or series of related incidents in a writer’s life which reveal conflict and often growth in the writer’s character. Personal narrative may be defined as a true account of personal experience. Rather than “autobiography,” which implies a rather comprehensive account of one’s life, the term “memoir” might more suitably describe this type of narration. The writer of this genre, who must inevitably be highly selective in choosing details to share with the reader, strives to draw the reader as fully as possible into an experience that is largely communicated through creative use of the following:

• Effective pacing and blending of summary and scene,
• Sharp, believable dialogue,
• Distinctive characterization that “brings characters to life,”
• A palpable setting (time, place, even atmosphere, and the details to give them meaning) that places the reader in the world of the story,
• Action verbs and concrete nouns that show instead of tell,
• An organizational structure and focus that help the reader stay with the story all the way to the end (usually, but not always, chronological).

In the personal narrative essay, experiences taken from one’s life are connected to an idea. Because a personal essay may be more idea-driven than story-driven, however, storytelling techniques used in personal narrative may be somewhat less prevalent than in the personal narrative. Occasionally, a good bit of research from secondary sources may be incorporated into a personal narrative essay in order to explore the subject more fully. Such essays, with their scholarly elements of textual citation and bibliography, are often identified as personal critical essays.

The common thread in all the types of narrative writing mentioned here is, of course, the word “personal.” Sharing personal stories is one of the oldest, most valued rituals of our species. Taken as a whole, these stories celebrate the diversity of our students at Kapi‘olani Community College. They also reaffirm our common connection with any brave, thoughtful person anywhere, anytime who has taken the time to tell a story worth sharing.