Life+Graph+and+Memoir+Assignment

//“You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If one carries such memories into life, one is safe to the end of one’s days, and if one has only one good memory left in one’s heart, even that may be the means of saving us.”// //~ spoken by the character Alyosha in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers//

What is a Memoir? "Memoir comes from the Latin word "memoria" meaning memory. A memoir is an evolution of the autobiography. An autobiography is a story written by yourself about your life. Your life story so far. A memoir, in the style which the publishing market are flooded with at the moment, tends to d__eal with a more specific period or theme in your life."__ (__**[|Dulcinea Norton-Smith] **__, Apr 9, 2008)





__What Makes and Effective Memoir?__

• A memoir is not a hideously boring report of a life lived. It does not begin with a birth date, time, or place, but rather right in the midst of a situation, when the author was eight or eighty.

• The memoir does not need to stretch throughout time. Instead, it is a slice-of-life story.

• A memoir is different from a diary because of the distance, both physical and mental, the writer has from the event. In memoirs, the writer tries to make meaning of the past and present. ls In the process of looking back, memoirists seek to figure something out about themselves.

• Memoirs are reflective, and they reveal the writer’s thoughts and feelings. Writing about memories without reflecting on them can sound boring and shallow. What readers want to learn about is the interior life of the writer.

• The memoirist may write about events and conversations that are not really all that interesting, but what she makes of them, the feelings she uncovers if she allows them to surface, helps make the scene significant.

Still Need Help? Here are some Examples: http://www2.aes.ac.in/mswebsite_07/teachersites/mtabor/2_LA/Memoirs/index_memoirs.html#models (P.S. this is a link to another teacher's page. I have not read all of these memoirs.)

Memoir Planning Guide:

Rubric for Evaluation **:**

Due Dates: Life Graph: Friday, Feburary 11th Memoir: Friday, February 18th