Writing+Assignment

**Guidelines for Writing A Memoir** Writing a memoir is different from just writing an autobiography or a simple story. Use the following tips from Lattimer'//s////Thinking Through Genre//   to help you in writing your memoir.

Characteristics
 * A memory; a description of an event from the past
 * Written in the first person; told from one point of view
 * Based on the truth
 * Focused on one event; about one point in the author's life

Planning a Memoir
 * Every text has to have a purpose
 * The memoir needs to show attitudes or feelings //before //, so that the reader understands the author's learning at the end
 * //<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: 21px;">The memoir needs to show the //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">after: //<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">How did the learning change the author's life? Why was it significant? //
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal;">Every text event needs to build toward, show, or explain the significance of the author's learning. If it isn't doing one of those things, it shouldn't be included. //
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal;">Focused on one event' about one point in the author's life. //

<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ways to Show Meaning in Text
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Through the character's thoughts. "I feel the warmth of the kitten through my shirt and start thinking of names."
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Through comparisons. "This time I was alone. Lucky for you I was, I think to the kitten. Otherwise, David or Claude might have decided you'd be good practice for their slingshots."

<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">**Models of Memoirs** <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">** To help you get the feeling of memoirs, how they flow, and how word choice can enhance the story, I have provided you with a couple examples. Pay attention to the feeling of the stories and what words the author decided to use. **

<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">** The uploaded file is my own memoir. If you would like to look at all the drafts it took me to write it, feel free to ask. ** <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;"> [|Facing Accidents on the Prairies Long Ago]



<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">**Rubric for Memoir** <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: small; line-height: 24px;">(Inspired by and drawn from Spandel, 2009) <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Read through the rubric that has been uploaded in the file below. Your memoirs will be graded according to this rubric so you will want to be familiar with all of the criteria.



<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 24px;">**Memoir Prompt** <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Imagine you are an item (non-human) traveling on the ancient Silk Road. You are going to write your memoir based on your adventure along the Silk Road as this thing. You may chose any article you would like to pretend to be--anything from a Bible being carried by European missionaries to the Chinese silk the path was named after. When thinking about what to write your memoir on, consider the following questions in order to include the maximum amount of detail:
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Where did you come from?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How were you made? <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Did it take a long time? Who were you made by?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Are you now traveling with that same person on the Silk Road?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">By what means are you traveling?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">How long have you been on the Silk Road?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">How much longer do you have until you're at your destination?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Where are you going? Is that your final destination or will you likely be traded again to another person?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Who will you be traded to?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">How much are you worth?
 * <span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">What kind of obstacles have you faced/will you face along the way?

<span style="color: #271d95; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">**NOTE** Despite being a fictional memoir, the details of the story should be historically accurate. If your item is traveling with a peasant, it probably should not be the finest in the land. If the country you are from has not yet domesticated horses, you should not be traveling the Silk Road on a horse. If for some reason details need to be fabricated, make sure they are reasonable and please run them by me first.