10/22/08

Autobiography Visual Aid
Your autobiography is an opportunity for you to express who you are based on the stories you tell. The reader should come away with a basic understanding of your values, ideals, characteristics, hopes and dreams. To further illustrate who you are, you will be required to turn in one visual representation of yourself along with your final draft. This visual representation can be anything you would like it to be—a drawn or painted picture, a photograph, a collage, a graph, a chart, a map, a diagram, a pattern, a diorama, a poster, an abstract drawing—anything that you feel represents you. The only requirement is that it be a visual representation. Be as creative as you can.

Autobiography outline
Directions: Use the outline form below to help you organize your autobiography. Choose three experiences and list the important points under each experience. Section I is for your introduction. Section II is for the body (including each of the experiences). Section III is for your conclusion. Be sure to include the meaning of your experiences in your conclusion. You will turn this outline in with your final draft.

I. Introduction
a. Experience #1___________________________________
b. Experience #2___________________________________
c. Experience #3___________________________________

II. Body
a. Experience #1___________________________________
i. Detail__________________________________________
ii. Detail_________________________________________
iii. Detail________________________________________
b. Experience #2___________________________________
i. Detail__________________________________________
ii. Detail_________________________________________
iii. Detail________________________________________
c. Experience #3___________________________________
i. Detail__________________________________________
ii. Detail_________________________________________
iii. Detail________________________________________

III. Conclusion
a. Meaning experience #1___________________________
b. Meaning experience #2___________________________
c. Meaning experience #3___________________________
d. Tie it all together_____________________________

Autobiography Structure
Times New Roman, 12 pt. font
Double-space (ctrl 2), no extra spaces between paragraphs (only hit “enter” once)
Indent each paragraph (hit “tab” once)

Paragraph #1
Introduction: start with a hook (always!) The opening paragraph is the first bit of writing our readers will experience. We want our readers to enjoy our writing, so we give them our very best writing in the first paragraph to convince them to keep reading. There are several ways we can hook our readers. Here are just a few ideas:
• start with a question
• create a scenario the readers may be familiar with
• put the reader in your shoes
• draw the reader in with dialogue (this helps the reader feel as though he/she is personally involved in the situation)
• paint a picture with your words (imagery)
• use words and phrases that appeal to the senses
Do NOT write any of the following, or any variation of the following:
• "I am going to write about . . ."
• “This is a paper about . . ."
• "This is my writing assignment . . ."
• “My autobiography is about . . .”
After your hook, briefly introduce your three experiences. Your three experiences should be separate events. They should not be similar kinds of experiences. For example, you should not write about three different football games you played in. Instead, you should focus on the lesson you learned about yourself in the most important football game and then choose two other experiences that taught you the same kind of lesson.

Paragraphs #2, #3, #4
Start paragraph #2 with a transition sentence or word. Describe your first experience in these three paragraphs. Be sure to explain who, what, when, where, why and how when you are describing your details. Tell why this experience was meaningful to you in paragraph #4.

Paragraphs #5, #6, #7
Start paragraph #5 with a transition sentence or word. Describe your second experience in these three paragraphs. Be sure to explain who, what, when, where, why and how when you are describing your details. Tell why this experience was meaningful to you in paragraph #7.

Paragraphs #8, #9, #10
Start paragraph 8 with a transition sentence or word. Describe your third experience in these three paragraphs. Be sure to explain who, what, when, where, why and how when you are describing your details. Tell why this experience was meaningful to you in paragraph #10.

Paragraph #11
The conclusion of your paper should summarize your experiences and tie them together to show how they were meaningful to you. You must have some sort of a meaning tied to your experiences in this paper. I will be taking off points if you do not give me some sort of a meaning in the conclusion. It is very important that you focus on the meaning of your experiences. Please, please, please focus on the meaning of your experiences in your conclusion. (Do you think it might be important to focus on the meaning of your experiences in this paper? Hint: the answer is YES!)

The first draft (11 paragraphs) will be due at the beginning of class on Friday. We will work all day today and tomorrow in the computer lab.