4 pages essay

ENG 120: College Composition I

Memoir Assignment Sheet

“The words memoir and memory come from the same root word, but memoirs involve more than an author sharing his or her memories. While telling an autobiographical story, good memoirs explore and reflect on a central theme or question.”

--Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Charles Paine, Writing Today

For your first ENG 120 paper, you will compose a memoir. You will describe an event or series of events in your life that brought you to new insights about life or prompted a transformation. To help you get started, think of moments in your life when something important happened to you and/or when your worldview or way(s) of knowing the world changed. We will brainstorm ideas and discuss creative options in class.

Your memoir should adhere—more or less—to the guidelines presented in Chapter 4 of Writing Today. Your memoir should address a central theme or question and describe, evaluate, and resolve a complication. It should also have an appropriate title, an interesting introduction with a strong “lead,” and an engaging plot. Your writing should be polished, free of errors, and organized.

To prepare you for this assignment, we will create a reader profile of the audience for your memoir and practice writing short memoirs in class. We will also be reading and discussing several memoirs to help you get a better sense of the genre.

Your final memoir should be 3-4 pages (double spaced). It should follow MLA style guidelines.

Your partial draft is due on September 19th. Your full draft is due on September 23rd. You will participate in a peer review workshop on the 23rd. Your final version is due on September 26th. Please turn in paper copies of your first draft and your final version. Please staple each component and paper clip the bundle.

If you have any questions or concerns, please see me during office hours or email at [email protected].