1. EN100-722, Composition Dr. Thomas Eaton Southeast Missouri State University

2.  Much literature is made up of memory components. Within this style of writing, flashbacks, flash forwards (time jumping) Monologues, internal dialogue and even standard dialogue are engaged to outline a specific memory.  See Elizabeth Burg’s “What we Leave Behind.”

3. Did you know that a memory essay that doesn’t show how you have been changed by it will get a “so what” response from your reader?  Be Specific in Time.  Be able to answer the “So What” question.  Create specific scenes.  Note Conflicts or changes – what made you different afterwards?  Connect your memory to life today.  Provide a learning or experiment theme.

4.  SPECIFIC IN TIME means that you choose a component of a memory and “Scope” in on it. Try to focus on the events of an hour or maybe an afternoon. Keep it tight and narrow – this is just like a main focus of a paper.  EX: A hospital scene – choose the time where you learned something about life.  A romance – choose the time and place where you realized it was not going to work  A Challenge/fight. The moments it occurred and the aftermath.

5. Saving a life at summer camp and how it scared you – Priceless… Burning a marshmallow at summer camp – “so what”  Your text is right – if you write about a memory that doesn’t matter to you, your audience will know. If there is no growth or no understanding, or if it is trivial, your reader will be bored.

6. Did You know: Descriptors are actually adjectives and adverbs in grammar. A talented writer can “create” a real world through words.  Take me to the place you want me to go. Describe it to me. Not just “a room” – what type of room? Use details: colors, shapes, light (or dark) lighting, shadows, materials, smells, temperature – all of these will help me to “See” your setting.

7. What might they be fighting about – I want to know Did You Know : Hard academic writing often doesn’t have conflict – is it what you read in your spare time?  A memory has to have some conflict to it. We want to know about your life – a reader is nosy. We want all the dirt – what conflict makes this memory one that you learned from?

8. REMEMBER – Internal conflict is good too – you learn from it YES – You can have a happy memory. How does it make you happy now?  A successful Memory paper has to bring us from the point that it happened to where you are now.  What’s different in you  What did you learn  What would you do differently if you could do it again

9. PlanningWriting with passion  Take me to the time.  Take me to the place.  Introduce people if they belong.  Take me to the moods of the people and the “mood” of the setting.  In the opening paragraph, let me know that this is an important memory.  As your scenes develop, so must the conflict and the resolution.  Entertain me by celebrating your SPECIFIC, scoped and focused memory.  Show me what you learned, both then and now.