Essay Two: Autobiographical Essay
Due Dates: 1st Draft:
9/11/01
2nd Draft: 9/13/01
Final Draft: 9/18/01
Your
purpose in this essay is twofold: first
to describe persons and narrate significant events in your life, and second to
analyze how these experiences relate to your attitudes toward the world and how
these attitudes have influence your thinking, values, and beliefs. This essay gives you the opportunity to
reflect on and analyze the personal experiences that have shaped your attitudes
toward yourself, your family, your community, and the world.
Your
are to reflect upon your life and choose a period of time during which you
experienced some type of change. The change may be either physical, emotional,
spiritual, or any combination thereof; the change is not limited to these
examples. The time period should be approximately a week or more (any period of
time longer than); one single day does not an event make, unless the single
day’s event is so dramatic that change occurs over a period of time as a result
of that single day’s event.
The
event may be as a result of a person’s actions or inactions, a geographical
move, a tragic accident, winning the lottery, winning a sports championship,
losing your best friend to cancer, etc. The possibilities are endless.
This
phase in time should begin with an example of how you were before the phase
began. Give the reader a good sampling of what you were like before; help the
reader draw a mental image. Describe the phase in detail, but do not overwhelm
your reader with irrelevant details. What was the initial "spark"
that started the phase? Was it a person? An animal? An event? A non-event? Show
how the phase progressed. During this, give a sampling of the change in you as
it began to take place. Then show your reader the difference in you now, after
the phase. Perhaps explain or comment on if this change was for the better or
the worse; we are not here to judge each other, simply improve our writing.
Give the phase a solid conclusion, perhaps a parable-type ending with a moral
(if applicable).
Possible
sources for topics include phases when you:
Played on a winning (or losing) sports
team.
Were a character in a school play.
Were trying to keep a New Year’s
resolution or a promise to someone.
Were recovering from a serious
accident or injury.
Were experiencing spiritual growth.
Were rebelling against your parents
and/or other authority.
Were influenced by a teacher, coach,
or other authority figure.
Were struggling to keep up in a
difficult class.
Were campaigning for an election
(either yourself or another candidate).
Were adjusting to a change in your
family’s situation.
Were learning to do something
completely new to you (swimming, hang gliding, playing guitar, underwater
basket weaving, etc).
Went to summer camp.
Were falling in (or out of) love.
Were moving to a new place (either
across town or the country).
Were becoming (un)popular.
Were joining a new social or civic
group.
Became a leader for the first time.
Changed schools.
Try to choose a phase that ended some
time ago instead of one that is still occurring or recently ended. This will
allow you to reflect, which is important to the autobiographical phase style of
writing.
Journal
Exercise for Autobiograhy Assignment
List two or three phases you could
write about. Be sure these are phases you went through some time ago, and that
each of them lasted for more than just a couple of days. They should be times
when you changed in a way that was important in your life.
Pick the one you would most like to
write about. Put a star by it on the list you made. Make sure you have chosen a
phase you are not still going through right now or one that only recently
ended. It is difficult to reflect and see clearly when we are still involved or
so close to the phase.
Write three or four sentences telling
why this phase is important to you, how you changed during this phase, and why
you would like to write about it. Now,
below the sentences you have just written, make a list down the page of the
main things that happened during the phase, from beginning to end. Don’t tell
the story yet. Just list the most important parts of the story.
Under your list, write one sentence
telling when your phase took place (what year, season, month for
example) and where your phase happened; this may be more than one place.
Here comes the big question: of all
the phases you listed back in step one, is this the one you most want to write
about? If you are not sure, if you are uncomfortable with it, if it brings back
too painful memories, you may wish to pick a different phase. It’s not too late
to change your mind.
If you do pick a different phase, then
do steps three and four above for the new phase.
Once you have chosen the phase you
will write about, freewrite on this topic for 5 minutes. Freewriting is a special kind of writing
that lets you use the act of writing to “discover" what you already know.
It works only if you write without planning and without looking back at what you
have already written. Set a specific period of time (say, five minutes) then
write non-stop, without worrying about spelling or grammar. Write as fast as
you can for as long as you can or until time expires. If you reach a point
where you can no longer think of anything to write, simply rewrite your last
word over and over again until something comes to mind. The simple plan is to
keep writing, no matter what.
You will be surprised at how many
ideas you can get down in five minutes.