MEMOIR/RESEARCH PROJECT

ENC 2301

Summer B – 2007

Our readings in this course have all concerned young people whose lives have been strongly influenced by large, often violent, world events. Although most of us have not endured as much violence as these children and young adults, everyone’s life is affected both positively and negatively by political, social, martial or economic forces.

This Seven-Step Project will yield two essays. One will be drawn from your memories alone. The other will require you to research events during the time you describe in your first essay and explore the relationship between yourself at the time and the larger world.

STEP ONE: Choose from among your childhood memories (age 5 to 13). Write a detailed narrative of a memorable event. Don’t be afraid to include dialogue. (750 words).

STEP TWO: Make two photocopies of your essay for peer review. You will review two fellow writers’ essays.

STEP THREE: Revise and submit your polished essay for grading..

STEP FOUR: Research relevant national or world events and trends that occurred at the same time as your memory.

STEP FIVE: Using the materials resulting from step one and four, Write and essay analyzing the effects of a larger force upon your life. You might, for example, show how economic conditions allowed or prevented your family from achieving certain goals, show how social conditions allowing, say, for divorce, affected you or your family, show how a medical breakthrough changed your life or even made your birth possible. (In ordr to show the effect of historical movements upon you as an individual, you might consider a compare/contrast approach in which you show how the live style of a person living, say, 30 to 50 years ago might differ from those living after the breakout of AIDS or the prevalence of birth control pills.) (Your resulting essay should be from 900 to 1200 words.)

STEP SIX: Make two photocopies for peer review. As in step two, you will review two fellow writers’ essays.

STEP SEVEN: Revise and submit your polished essay for grading. NOTE: The completed researched memoir should be clear on its own without your reader referencing the essay written from unaided memory.

Specific due days for each step TBA.