Autobiographical Writing – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
Autobiographical Writing Presidents, actors, and astronauts have done it. In fact, anyone can do it! Even you can write an autobiography because who knows the story of your life better than you? Capturing moments from your life with words is autobiographical writing. Which moments from your life would you include? What title would you choose? Consider the titles of these autobiographies by famous individuals: Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin, astronaut Hawk: Occupation Skateboarder by Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder During this lesson, try writing your own autobiographical piece.
answer
Prewriting: Choosing Your Topic "What did you do on your vacation?" "What happened in school today?" "How was work?" Everyday questions like these are an invitation to tell an autobiographical narrative—a true story from your life. In response to these questions, you would explain what you did or experienced and tell the story from your own point of view, using I and my. Sift through your memories to come up with a topic for your autobiographical narrative.
question
Strategies for Generating Topics Try one of these strategies for choosing a topic: Blueprint Draw a diagram of your home or school. Label each room. Then, jot down memories or associations that come to mind when you recall each place. Choose one of these ideas as the basis for an autobiographical narrative. Timeline of Your Life Beginning with your earliest memory, write important events and dates in chronological order on a timeline. Include significant people and places. Review the timeline for possible ideas, and choose one as your topic. Sentence Starters Finishing an unfinished sentence helps generate writing ideas. Complete these sentence starters. Then, choose one as the starting point for your narrative. The funniest thing happened when ____. My favorite holiday was ____. The strongest memory from childhood is ____. Notebook Copy these strategies in your notebook.
answer
Prewriting: Narrowing Your Topic If the topic you have chosen is very specific—for example, the time a cake you baked exploded in the oven—you may not need to narrow it further. On the other hand, if your topic is fairly general—such as your first year in high school—you'll need to narrow it down. You can do this by writing a sentence in which you describe the highlight or main focus you want your narrative to reveal. Refer to this focus as you gather details for and revise your writing.
question
Prewriting: Your Audience and Purpose Decide who your audience is and how you want them to respond to your writing. For example, if you plan to share your autobiographical writing with your family, you may want to include lots of "inside information" that they will understand and appreciate. If, on the other hand, you plan to share your narrative with a general audience, you may have to more fully explain the characters and situations you describe.
answer
Choose Details to Suit Your Purpose In real life, you automatically adjust your word choice depending on your purpose. If you were telling someone about a terrible case of the flu and wanted to get sympathy from that person, you'd choose dramatic words and emphasize details about your illness. If, however, you wanted to reassure your audience, you'd choose more neutral language and de-emphasize details about your illness. Take a look at the chart to see how your purpose affects the types of details you'll gather for your writing.
question
You have been given the assignment of writing an autobiographical piece, but you have no idea what to write about. What is one useful strategy to help you get started?
answer
Plot the memorable events on a timeline.
question
Prewriting: Gathering Details As the writer of an autobiographical narrative, you have an advantage: an intimate knowledge of your subject. This can help you create a compelling story, but only if your writing is vivid and detailed. There is a strategy available to you for gathering specific details that will bring your writing to life. It is called the Self-Interview.
answer
Interview Yourself On talk shows, guests often relate stories from their lives. If you were being interviewed about the topic of your narrative, what would you have to say about it? Write It! Make a list of interview questions, and answer them in writing in as much detail as you can recall. Take a look at the illustration. It is an example of a self-interview you could use to generate details for your own narrative.
question
Review Your Responses Read through your responses to the Self-Interview. Note where there are gaps of information. Fill those gaps by using these strategies: Look through photo albums and memorabilia that relate to your pick. Jot down details that relate to your topic. Interview someone who was also present during the time and place of your autobiographical narrative. If you like, base your questions on the Self-Interview form. Next you will examine how to prepare a draft for your piece.
answer
Drafting Giant Panda 1 It is the rare writer who does not draw from his or her life in some form. Acclaimed writer Isaac Bashevis Singer often drew upon his own life as inspiration for his stories. He believed that one's life experience would find its way into one's writing: "Writers always go back to their young days, to their young lives. If a writer writes about his life, and he is serious, he will go back there...."
question
Critical Viewing You've just read the quote by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Now take a look at this photo. How might photographs such as this one inspire autobiographical writing?
answer
Photographs of past events can bring back a flood of memories.
question
Drafting: Shaping Your Writing So how do you begin to write a draft for you autobiographical narrative? Of course, all parts of your writing are relevant, but an interesting beginning is vital to an autobiographical narrative. An effective beginning grabs the reader from the start. After all, you want your readers to think your life is as interesting as you do. Using the notes and ideas you have gathered, begin drafting your narrative. If you are having trouble getting started, it's all right. Thankfully, there are a number of approaches to help you identify the starting point for your story.
answer
Find a Starting Point Because your narrative is autobiographical, its organization can be at least partially determined by the order of actual events. The starting point, however, is up to you. Here are some ideas for beginning your narrative: Start With a Character—If your personal narrative centers around a relationship, begin with a vivid description or revealing anecdote about the dominant character. Example My Aunt Estelle wrapped her arms around my life, sheltering me from a world she believed was too harsh for her beloved niece. Start With Dialogue—Opening with dialogue immediately captures your readers' interest while, at the same time, provides insight into a key character or situation. Example "Hold on to the reins, honey!" shouted my father as he angled to get a snapshot of me and my sister on our first pony ride. Notebook Take notes on the different starting points on these two pages.
question
Start With the Setting—If the setting in which your narrative occurs is a critical element, begin with a colorful description that evokes the time and place. Example Sunlight blistered the walls of the shed in back of our little cottage by the seashore. Start With Your Theme—Beginning your narrative with a statement of your theme—the story's main message—can focus your readers' attention as well as whet their curiosity about what's to come. Example Don't count your chickens until they've hatched. On the morning of my tenth birthday, I woke to the sound of party preparations. . . .
answer
Drafting: Providing Elaboration As you write your draft, flesh out your narrative by incorporating the details you gathered earlier as well as new details that come to mind as you write. There are many possible ways of developing your narrative and giving it more depth. One way is to include dialogue through "thought shots."
question
Add Dialogue With "Thought Shots" A thought shot is a passage that reveals the inner workings of a character's mind. One of the most effective ways to bring forth a character's thoughts is through dialogue. Dialogue enables you as the writer to show, not tell about, interesting aspects of characters. To create a thought shot, write lines of dialogue that reveal a character's inner thoughts, motivations for his or her actions, or personal reactions to what is happening in the narrative. If you finish a paragraph and then decide to add a thought shot, write the dialogue on a self-sticking tag and place it according to where it will go.
answer
x
question
What is a "thought shot"?
answer
a passage that reveals the inner workings of a character's mind
question
Revising Your Overall Structure You have generated a topic for your autobiographical piece, narrowed the topic down, and written a draft that contains elaboration of your characters to bring the narrative to life. Now it is time to revise your draft. As you may recall, revision of any work falls into four categories: revising the overall structure, revising your paragraphs, revising your sentences, and revising for word choice. Each of these steps will now be examined in turn. To revising for overall structure, review your narrative to be sure that it has a definite beginning, middle, and end. Its beginning should capture the readers' interest, its middle should develop the story, and its end should leave the readers satisfied with the story's conclusion.
answer
Strengthening Your Narrative's Ending Next look at strengthening your ending. Does your narrative end on a strong note or does it trail off? Below are some ideas for ending your narrative: Write an Epilogue—An epilogue is the concluding section that rounds out the literary work. When you write an epilogue, you tell what ended up happening to you or another character since the events of the story took place. Sum Up—Another way to end a personal narrative is to sum up your feelings or insights about your experience or state what you learned from your experience. Pose a Question—It is sometimes effective to leave the readers with a question, especially when your narrative explores the conflict in a situation or relationship.
question
Revising Your Paragraphs: Create Functional Paragraphs Next, revise your paragraphs. In contrast to topical paragraphs that develop the point of a topic sentence, functional paragraphs serve other purposes. They may arouse or sustain interest; present a special effect; emphasize a point; indicate dialogue; or make a transition. As you revise, analyze your paragraph structure. Look for places where material from a longer paragraph may be more effective as a functional paragraph. Restructure your paragraphs accordingly. Notebook Write down the definitions for the different kinds of paragraphs.
answer
Revising Your Sentences Review the sentences in your draft to be sure you have no unintentional fragments or run-on sentences. A fragment is an incomplete idea punctuated as a complete sentence. A run-on sentence is comprised of two or more complete sentences punctuated incorrectly as one. Make sure to eliminate both of these in your draft. Also, add transitions where necessary to connect the ideas in your narrative, and check to be sure that you've chosen correct verb tenses. If you are unfamiliar with these grammatical terms, make sure to write these definitions down in your notebook.
question
Writing about your past can be tricky, especially if your narrative moves back and forth in time. Here is an effective way to help eliminate confusion in verb tense. First, use different color highlighters to call out verb tenses in your draft. For example, use pink for present tense, yellow for past tense, and green for future tense. Then, review your draft to be sure that if you've switched tenses, you've done so intentionally. Avoid switching verb tenses in mid-sentence unless you mean to show that the events in the sentence did not occur at the same time.
answer
In which of the following sentences is the tense correct? A) We went to a show and visited the flea market.
question
Revising Your Word Choice: Circling the I's Before continuing with the writing process, quickly scan your drafts for pronouns. Do you notice any patterns? How many times have you used the pronoun I? The overuse of I may signal that the narrative focuses too exclusively on the narrator. Changes in pronoun usage will allow events and other figures in the story to appear more clearly. Additionally, the overuse of any word can become tedious and make the reader lose interest. Now, go through your draft and circle every use of the pronoun I. As a general rule, avoid beginning more than two sentences in a row with I. Use the same strategy to evaluate your use of we and my
answer
Why is it a bad idea to overuse any word? A) Your narrative may become tedious to read; the reader may lose interest.
question
Peer Review: Analytical Talk Work with a group of peer reviewers to get different perspectives on your writing. Peer reviewers may spot weaknesses or confusing jumps in your narrative that you missed. Use the following idea to get feedback from your peers: In a group, read your narrative twice, pausing between readings. Direct the other members of the group to simply listen the first time. The second time, tell them to listen and jot down words, phrases, images—whatever catches their interest. Then, ask your group to respond to these questions: Which parts of the narrative do you find most interesting? Which parts of the narrative need improvement?
answer
Editing and Proofreading: Correct Spelling You want your readers to become completely absorbed in your narrative. Don't let them become distracted by a glaring error in spelling, mechanics, grammar, or usage. Check for errors before you create your final draft. Because this narrative is autobiographical, be especially careful to spell the names of people and places correctly. Be especially careful with homophones. Homophones are words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. They are a common source of spelling errors, and need careful proofreading. It is easy to make a mistake when you are writing quickly. The following homophones are frequently misspelled: there, their, and they're; to, too, and two; its and it's; accept and except; affect and effect.
question
Which sentence uses homophones correctly?
answer
They're going to accept an award, too.
question
Publishing and Presenting: Building Your Portfolio The story of your life is unique. Share it with others. Consider these possibilities for publishing or presenting your work: Share With People Who Were There Send your personal narrative to people who played a part in the story you told. Possible recipients might include family members, relatives, old friends, teachers, or employers. Send to a Student Publication Submit your work to a student magazine for publication. This might be a school publication or a literary magazine for young people.
answer
Publishing and Presenting: Reflecting on Your Writing Take a moment to reflect on the experience of writing your autobiographical narrative. Then, answer the following questions. Save your answers in your portfolio. How did writing the narrative affect your attitude toward the topic you chose? Which part of the writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising, or editing—did you find most challenging? Why? Before you are finished, take a look at the rubric for self-assessment. Use it to evaluate your autobiographical narrative.
question
Read the passage from "Where Are You When the Dandelions Bloom?" by Melissa Sanborn. "Let's see, I know that number twenty-two is a good one. It's real close to the store, so it will be easy for us to go get ice cream sandwiches after dinner. . . . Oh, it's taken. What else is there? Ohhh, I forgot about number twenty-seven. It's right across from the swimmin' pool and game rooms. There it is, and there's even a big shade tree for the really hot days."
answer
The passage is an example of _____. A) a functional paragraph
question
Autobiographies I In this section, we have learned the following: Generate topics for your autobiographical narrative by using blueprinting, creating a timeline, or completing sentence starters. Describe the highlight or main focus you want your narrative to reveal to help you narrow your topic. Decide who your audience is and how you want them to respond to your writing. Gather specific details for your autobiography by interviewing yourself. Find a starting point. Add dialogue with "thought shots." Autobiographies II In this section, we have learned the following: Review your narrative to be sure it has a definite beginning, middle, and end. Give your narrative an effective and memorable ending. Revise and look for places where material from a longer paragraph may be more effective as a functional paragraph. Check to make sure you have chosen correct verb tenses. Avoid beginning more than two sentences in a row with the pronoun I. Work with a group of peer reviewers to get different perspectives on your writing. Proofread your narrative carefully to locate mistakes in spelling. Share your narrative with people who were there and send it to a student publication.
answer
x
