Week #6 - A short week

 Week #6

I hope you enjoyed celebrating Presidents' Day!  Since this will be a shorter week, there will be fewer assignments! I can hear you cheering now!

One of the assignments will be for you to revise and post the final copy of your technology essay. I need a couple of days to review and give you tips before that happens. Please save time over the weekend to make the revisions as needed. I will finish by Friday afternoon or evening if not before.
 
This week you will be working on personal writing. Some books call this personal reminiscence. Others call it the personal essay. A few call it essay of experience. Still others refer to it as writing a memoir. Whatever you choose to call it, the instructions are somewhat the same.



Week #6 - Assignment #1 - What is a memoir?

Your first task is to find out how professionals write memoirs. Read "How to Write a Memoir."


https://theamericanscholar.org/how-to-write-a-memoir/#.WAhZ-48rKUk

Make a "Top 10" list of the best tips offered by William Zinssar. These tips should guide your own memoir writing. Explain how you will apply each tip to your own writing or share why it will improve your writing. 

Sample:  Zinssar noted about the history his own father wrote,  "He just wrote the way he talked, and now, when I read his sentences, I hear his personality and his humor, his idioms and his usages, many of them an echo of his college years in the early 1900s."  That line would make my Top 10 ." When writing a memoir, I try to remember that I am telling a story about me. I mentally pretend to tell the story to one of my own children or grandchildren, or someone far off in the future! I try to  talk on paper the same way I speak.

(30 points)

Week #6 - Assignment #2  - Sample Memoirs

If a picture is worth a thousand some sample essays are prieless! 

• • Read and analyze two samples:
  • "Working Cattle - We'd Hate to Love It" by Kevin Hoogendoorn  
  • http://english-iv-honors-e-block.sutton.hs.schoolfusion.us/modules/locker/files/get_group_file.phtml?gid=4440989&fid=26275658 
  After reading, summarize the author’s message. What was the lesson learned? What is the moral of the story? Do you agree or disagree?
  • "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan (handout and http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/dmsokol/101/files/amy_tan_fish_cheeks_.pdf
  Answer the questions that follow:
  Questions on Meaning – Numbers 2, 3, and 4
  Questions on Writing Strategy -  Numbers 1, 3, and 4
  Questions on Writing Strategy – Numbers 2 and 3

Week #6 - Assignment #3 - Memoir Writing (50 points)
Review:
1. A memoir is a true story.
2. You are the star of the story!
3. Conversation is more informal than formal. In other words, people sound the same way they talk. However, please used correct punctuation.
4.  A memoir is brief - 2 or 3 pages.
5. Use past tense - this is a story from the past. 
5. The memoir teaches a lesson of some sort. It makes a point. 

Some additional information and one more sample:   http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/personal.htm

Now,  it is your turn. Think of an event from your past that you would like to pass on to friends or family. I once wrote the story of the first fish I ever caught while fishing in Yellowstone with my dad.  I was about five at the time. I gave that story to my dad as a Father's Day gift years ago. He still talks about it. 

Here is a brief checklist to use after you have written your memoir. 

A. What is your point? What lesson did you try to teach?

B. What was the conflict> (You need one!)

C. Did you tell the story from your point of view? (1st person)

D. Did you tell where and when the story took place?

E. Did you tell the story in chronological order? 

F. What did you do to capture the attention of the reader in your opening paragraph? Look back at the sample essays for ideas. 

If you can check off A through F, then you are ready to post the draft! 

Week #6 - No Discussion Board - Just write!

Week #6 - Final Copy of the Technology Essay

Remember to save time this weekend to revise your technology essay. It will be due by midnight on Monday.