Write a personal memoir that focuses on a difficult experience or hardship that changed you in some way.

Memoir Assignment

Purpose: The purpose for this assignment is to practice the steps of writing a personal memoir.

During this semester, we will be exploring the idea of what we find to be true. To start of our exploration of truth, we are going to explore either a memory or a relationship in the form of memoir, our own truth from our subjective lens. You already have the material inside your memory to write this essay. You will not need to do research, and will use your own experiences to support your main ideas in this essay. Make sure you are clear onEssay Plans and Development Strategies and basic essay formatting by reading the course assignments carefully. You can find these assignment in the Schedule of Assignments document on the Content page under Course Information.

This assignment has 2 parts:

In part 1, you will turn a memory into a full essay with a minimum of 800 words. This essay will include an introduction with a thesis sentence, no less than two body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion.

In part 2, you will condense your essay into 6 words; you will compose a six-word memoir. Your six-word memoir needs to be posted into the discussion forum on the same day that the essay is due. Post your six-word memoir on the Discussion Forum at the same time you submit your essay into the Assignment folder for Essay 1. Some students in the past have chosen to use the six-word memoir as their title for the memoir, which is fine, but keep in mind that you still need to post your memoir on the discussion forum even if the 6 words are used as your title for the essay.

 

Here is a tutorial from Elizabeth McCrea, one of the excellent tutors in our Writing Center: https://tridenttech.knowmia.com/r68T

This video should be helpful to you for generating ideas for this assignment in particular.

Part 1- For this assignment, you have three choices for your memoir\’s focus:

1. Write a personal memoir that focuses on a difficult experience or hardship that changed you in some way. Show how you evaluated the complication and resolved it, being sure to include the lesson learned from the experience. Your thesis should be able to identify the lesson learned, while the essay illustrates the story behind the lesson.

OR

2. Write a memoir in which you explore a conflict within an important relationship. Choose an event or series of events that could illustrate that relationship and explore its tensions. Identify a complication or struggle of values, then show how you and this other person evaluated the complication or conflict and resolved it. Your thesis should be able to identify the lesson learned, while the essay illustrates the story behind the lesson.

OR

3. Write a memoir about an experience where you discovered that something you thought to be true was not. You could focus on a conversion of any sort, a break-up, a scam, an addiction, beliefs about political ideologies, anything really that fits the first statement in this assignment.

Part 2– Condense your essay into six words.

Here are some examples of six-word memoirs:

Some say lies. I say storytelling.

Covid gardening leads to neighborhood friends.

Asked to quiet down; spoke louder.

Felt okay, but called in sick.

Ride, crash, laugh: do it again.

I traded in God for god.

Requirements:

– This essay must be at least 800 words in length.

– This essay must be typed double-spaces, have a title, and appropriate, MLA heading the the left-hand corner.

– The standard MLA header of student\’s name, instructor\’s name, class title including section, and date, in the upper left-hand corner. The title for the essay should be centered on the top line of the essay.

– The title, centered on the top line of your essay, must reflect your essay and not the title of the reading. Do not put your title in quotation marks or underline it. Keep your title in the same font style and size as the rest of the essay.

– The essay is to be double-spaced, and you are to use indentation at the beginning of each new paragraph.

– The nature of this essay allows for the use of first person. Please do not use second person in any of your college-level writing for this class.

– Make sure you have a clear, well-developed thesis statement, usually the last sentence of your introductory paragraph. TTC English Dept. Video Presentation: \”Thesis Statements\”

– Make sure that you have topic sentences at the beginning of each body paragraph. Paragraph Structure and Topic Sentences

– Leave yourself time to explore your topic and complete your essay.

– No research for this essay. The ideas are coming from you!

– Your essay must be submitted to the Assignments Folder (which can be found under the Course Work tab). You are responsible for making sure that your essay has been submitted and can be read by the D2L Assignments Folder.

– The six-word memoir is to be shared on the Discussion Forum on the same due date as the essay\’s due date.

Requirements: 800 words