Assignment:
Overview:
Think of the stories you heard growing up. You know the ones...they have repeated over and over again until they took on an almost mythic quality. We all have stories that define us that are a part of us. Even a really good book or a movie is comprised of stories that draw the reader into them.
In this memoir, you will be focusing on three elements: actions, dialogue, and thoughts. You will select a real-life story, something that is non-fiction and true, to write about. Within that story, you will need to determine what happened, what was stated, and what you thought both at the time and now when you are writing this memoir. These three elements will come together to help tell your story.
Instructions:
• Create a Memoir about a specific positive event in your life.
• Consider the following questions when starting your essay:
o What was a specific past event that was particularly memorable to you?
o What was the significance of that event on you?
Action, Dialogue, and Thoughts - A memoir is a combination of the description of the action, specific dialogue spoken at the time, and your thoughts on what happened.
Think about this assignment like you are writing about a scene in your life. You will have to pick a scene that can be discussed in a short amount of pages.
• Begin by describing what happened. Allow the reader to experience the action of the story as you are writing it.
• During this scene, what important conversations did you have with people?
Consider the best of the dialogue you had and include that dialogue. You want the dialogue to move the scene along.
• Finally, be sure to offer your thoughts on the experience both as you were living through it and as you are now writing about it.
ENG110 - College Writing
Unit 1 Assignment: Memoir
Requirements:
• The essay should be one to two pages in length.
• You should include an APA-style title page and headers in addition to the one to two pages for the assignment. Please double-space the assignment, write it in 12 point Times New Roman font and use a 1-inch margin.
• You should include a title page in addition to the one to two pages for the essay.
• Utilize the senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) to help you tell the story.
Through description, show the readers what is happening in your memoir.
Include details that help paint a picture.
• You need an introduction and conclusion for this essay. The introduction should set up what specifically the reader needs to know before you get into the main action of the memoir. You also can include a thesis, or a controlling idea statement, that lets the reader know your purpose for writing the essay. Finally, the conclusion will wrap up the essay and show how the action in the memoir was resolved.
• Your body paragraphs should focus on one specific part of the experience each.
Please do not try to include too much information in each paragraph.
• Your writing should be free of punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors and contain appropriate word choice for an academic setting with a clear sentence structure.