Assignment #1

Goals of a Memoir  To capture an important moment  To convey something about its significance

Key Features  A good story  Vivid language  Characters  Dialogue  Reflection / Significance

A Good Story  Your narrative need not be about an earth-shattering event, but your topic— and how you write about it—should interest your potential readers.  At the center of most good stories stands a conflict or question that needs resolution.

Vivid Language  Details bring a memoir to life by giving readers mental images of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the world in which your story takes place.  SHOW over tell. A narrative is more than simply a report of what happened; vivid details and dialogue bring the events of the past to life, thereby immersing readers in your experience.

Clear Significance  Memories of the past are filtered through our view from the present.  Avoid coming right out and saying why the incident is so important to you.  What and how you tell your story should implicitly convey this significance.

Purpose  What is the importance of the memory you are trying to convey?  How will this story help your readers (and yourself) understand you, as you were then and as you are now?  Beyond yourself, how will this story help your readers understand something about the human condition?

Audience  Who are your readers?  What do you want them to learn from reading your memoir?  How can you help them understand your experience, but also apply it / relate it to other similar experiences that they might encounter in their own lives?

Presentation  What impression do you want to give, and how can your words contribute to that impression?  What tone do you want to project? Sincere? Serious? Humorous? Detached? Self-critical?  How will your tone reflect your purpose and affect your audience?

Thesis  Your story is a vehicle for making some sort of argument  Don’t lose sense of your overall purpose and focus in writing a literacy narrative  Like any other form of writing, every element of your narrative should contribute to validating the thesis.

Structure of a Literacy Narrative  Introduction  Body  Conclusion

Introduction  Hooks readers by dropping them in the middle of an interesting situation or by presenting them with an especially vivid description.  Introduces focal point of your narrative  Introduces tension/conflict  Gets readers emotionally invested in your topic

Body  Develop conflict introduced in the opening paragraph(s).  Here is where the plot or major sequence of events leading up to the climax takes place.  Only include events that are the most meaningful to you and that best illustrate the point you want to make

 Develop characters through 1) vivid description and 2) dialogue aimed at revealing a character’s personality and his or her relationship to others.  Use dialogue purposefully to help readers attain deeper insight into the thoughts and emotions of your characters.

Reflection and Analysis  Encourage readers to notice particular details or help them understand the significance of a particular experience for a character’s self-development.  As you narrate events, look for places where you can briefly pause the action and provide a few sentences of reflection and/or analysis.

Conclusion  Reinforces the message of the story.  Be sure the elements of your narrative work together to deliver one clear, coherent message.  You might choose to end your narrative with a scene that perfectly captures the mood you want readers to experience or with an image you want them to remember.

Writing Tips  Specific sensory details and vivid descriptions help deliver a specific message.  Invite readers to emotionally connect with and invest in the lives and activities of the major characters in your narrative.

Show, Don’t Tell  Dramatize, dramatize!  Writing in a manner that allows the reader to experience the story through a character’s action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the narrator’s exposition, summarization, and description.

 Instead of stating a situation flat out, let the reader discover what you’re trying to say by watching a character in action and by listening to his or her dialogue.  SHOWING brings your characters to life.  SHOWING makes scenes vivid and immerses your audience in the experience.  Of course telling is sometimes necessary, but scenes that are important to the story should be dramatized.

Description

Concrete vs Abstract  Concrete language makes the story clearer and more real to the reader because it offers information that we can easily grasp and perhaps empathize with.  Abstract language makes the story difficult to visualize and leaves your reader feeling empty, disconnected and confused.

Examples It was a nice day vs. The sun was shining and a slight breeze blew across my face. Prof. Bubash is a great teacher vs. Prof. Bubash knows how to help students turn their thoughts into good stories and essays.

Practice  The old barbershop smelled.  Simpson sat down on a dirty bench and hunched over.

Sensory details  It’s not necessary to introduce details with “I could feel” or “I could hear”  Doing this detaches the reader from the experience by reminding him that it is being broadcast through another speaker.

Practice  As I walked into the room, I could feel my heart pounding.  I could feel butterflies in my stomach as I began to talk.  It was a very pleasant day, and as I walked down the road I could see a lot of action was going on.