Memoir 3 Essays

Submitted By KNicole_0598
Words: 1912
Pages: 8
Open Document
Paper 1: Memoir
Introduction

The main purpose of this assignment is for students to showcase their non fiction prose, to present one incident, event, or experience that has changed their lives or made them into the people they have become today. This specific incident is called the memoir in the writing world. To get ideas and for a better understanding of the memoir, please read the model student paper below.
Assignment

Choose an event, situation, or experience that has had a tremendous impact on your life. Describe the event and then tell how it has changed you. The event/incident/experience which you describe may be as profound as the death of a loved one, or it may be as simple as making the varsity soccer team. The only requirement is that the event must have changed you or your view of life in some way.
For obvious reasons, this paper must be written in first-person point of view. The paper should be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced in 12 font, somewhere between 1000-2000 words, and emailed by midnight of the due date. As part of your grade you must write and circle the number of words at the top of the first page.
You must also identify the tone word that best describes your paper: serious, poignant, humorous, somber, angry, etc. Use the tone word list provided as a guide. Write your tone word also at the top of the first page.
Examples of Topics
* the first day of school (elementary, middle, or high school)
* a divorce or change in the family structure
* a transfer to a new town, school, neighborhood
* a memorable vacation
* an award or achievement which impacted your life greatly
* an important relationship which has changed you
* a religious experience or pilgrimage
* a physical challenge
* an illness or accident
* an embarrassing event
* an ambition or goal which you struggled to achieve
Please note that the event / incident / experience may have happened in one hour, or it may be an experience which took place over several years. Don't worry about whether or not the topic you have selected is acceptable for this paper. If the event or experience is important to you and impacted your life, it is a good topic for this assignment.

Organization and Questions
Think about your topic and make a list or outline of what you remember about this event or experience. Although students may organize this paper in many ways, all papers will answer these fundamental questions:
1) What is the event / incident / or experience.
2) How did the experience take place?
3) Who was with you at the time, and what did these people add to your experience?
4) What were your initial feelings, emotions, beliefs?
5) How did you react or change immediately because of this experience?
6) Looking back on the experience now, how did the event change you fundamentally? Have your feelings changed over time?
7) Why is this experience / incident / event so memorable today?
Remember to use sensory (sounds, sights, tastes, odors, feelings, etc.) and concrete details to describe your experience. Use descriptive language and dialogue which will allow your reader to feel as though he or she was there with you. Spelling, punctuation and grammar will count so be sure to edit for a final draft.
Note on Paradox: Some English teachers (like myself), will tell you that writing as if grade doesn’t matter usually makes for more powerful prose. Try that here. Most importantly, be unique in your words and ideas.

Lacey Griffin Word Count: 1219
Quahog High School Tone: Solemn
AP Language
February 30, 2011

Visits to the Home

The date was February 18, 2003. I woke up that morning thinking it would be another ordinary day in the life of a teenage girl in high school. Unfortunately, this day is now one that will be instilled in my memory forever. While sitting in class, a girl came into the room with a small, brightly colored piece of paper, and somehow I just automatically knew that it was for
Show More

Related Documents: Memoir 3 Essays

Biography Of Colin Powell

Reflecting on Quarter 3 assignments, the biography is hard since you can’t relate to person or subject’s life. In the memoir of Colin Powell and the biography of Colin Powell was hard to explain differences and to do CODE on those two stories. These helped me do CODE on how to tell differences and story plot. These are important when comparing and contrasting a memoir and a biography about the life Colin Powell. I will be comparing and contrasting the memoir and the biography since there are many…

Words 720 - Pages 3

How Does Satrapi Use Symbols In Persepolis

Flowers are seen again on the last page of the memoir, page 127. The last page contains one enlarged panel of Leavitt with paper flowers growing out of her shoulders. This graphic is drawn after the mother has passed away. The use of growing paper flowers indicates that although Leavitt’s mother’s life…

Words 1478 - Pages 6

An Analysis Of Frances Whipple's Memoirs Of Elleanor Eldridge

Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge is a collaboration piece written by both Eldridge and Frances Whipple, and was fairly recently recovered, and introduced by Joycelyn Moody. It tells the story of a bi-racial (African American and Native American) girl who, after the death of her mother (when she was ten), and her father being off fighting in the American Revolution, began working as a paid servant. She did housework, spinning, weaving and diary writing, and began saving her money and investing in property…

Words 919 - Pages 4

Night By Elie Wiesel Research Paper

In the memoir “Night’ by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel depicts the mistreatment that he and other Jews across Europe faced in the Nazi concentration camps. Throughout the story, Wiesel describes the beliefs of his Jewish culture along with the terrain and setting of the places he is relocated to. Description of belief and setting helps bolster the reader’s understanding and deepen he or she’s connection to the memoir in conclusion. By portraying these elements, the author also enlightens the reader to further…

Words 641 - Pages 3

The Horizontal World Rhetorical Analysis

Some believe that a home is a grateful place to reside in no matter where it is located, while others think otherwise, for example, throughout the midwest most believe that it is completely deserted, with massive farms etc. In her 2006 memoir titled, The Horizontal World, Debra Marquart uses imagery and juxtaposition to convey her home, the plains/upper midwest, that has been characterized by the rest of society as a dull and uninhabitable and convince her family and fans that although it has been…

Words 404 - Pages 2

Princess Dashkova Essay

Cassidy To Squeeze a Lemon Dry: How Princess Dashkova’s Memoir Reveals Common Themes Among Russia’s History Princess Ekaterina Dashkova was an intelligent, impressive woman who, at 18 years old (an age when many modern teenagers are still living at home with their parents), helped to stage a coup d’ etat for Catherine Alexeyvna, who was destined to become Catherine the Great.1 Ekaterina was actually called Catherine the Little2, because both women held the same saint namesake and both were considered…

Words 1836 - Pages 8

The Lovely Bones Analysis

the author best known for the novel The Lovely Bones, in her memoir, Lucky, details the traumatic events that effected not only her college experience but the rest of her life. In the process of telling her story, Sebold addresses issues of sexual assault, dysfunctional families, the legal system, and more. Sebold comes at these topics with brutal honesty and deep, personal insight from start to finish. Sebold jump starts her memoir with the statement, “In the tunnel where I was raped…”, a statement…

Words 732 - Pages 3

dbq essay

The student must use more than half of the documents — even if used incorrectly — by reference to anything in the box. To get credit for this point, documents cannot be referenced collectively (e.g., “Documents 2, 3 and 6 suggest”) unless the student goes on to discuss them individually. 3. Demonstrates understanding of the basic meaning of a majority of the documents (may misinterpret no more than one). The student must use a majority of the documents correctly and may not significantly misinterpret…

Words 529 - Pages 3

Freedom And Confinement In Elie Wiesel's Night

in Romania. Throughout his memoir Night, the confinement of the Jewish people increase as the days in the camp go by. The Jews of Sighet are confined to their homes. From the ghettos to spending uncomfortable days in cattle cars, they had finally arrived to what they thought would be a better place. Although they had reached the unimaginable. Upon their arrival, they lose their possessions, families, identities, dignities, and most of them lose their lives. In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel discusses…

Words 497 - Pages 2

Funny In Farsi Literary Analysis

and their reasons for immigrating to America initially. She does so in the following, “our move to Whittier was temporary. My father [was] an engineer with the National Iranian Oil Company [and[ had been assigned [work] for about to two years” (Dumas 3). After his two-year assignment was finished, Dumas and her family return to Iran. Her father’s job in 1976 brought them back to America, however, this was after the Iranian Revolution. Many Americans held prejudice towards Iranians due to the American…

Words 992 - Pages 4