Leslie D. Hannah

Department of English

University of Oklahoma

English 1113    English 1213    English 2413

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The writers’ purpose in this essay is twofold: first to describe persons and narrate significant events important in the writers’ lives, and second to analyze how these experiences relate to the writers’ attitudes toward world view and how these have influenced their thinking, values, and beliefs. This essay allows students to reflect on and analyze personal experience that shaped their attitudes. By analyzing these experiences, students not only understand past attitudes toward writing, but also come to know the history leading to their current attitudes. Such an understanding is the initial step in reevaluation of the importance of 1113. In this essay, students try strategies for inventing, drafting, revising, and editing in essays employing description, narration, and analysis. The essay is next in the sequence to allow students to work from memory rather than the more difficult task of working from texts. It also further develops the initial context for the course. Readings for this unit: chapters 2, 3, 14 and 15 from The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing.

The Writing Assignment

You are to reflect upon your life, and choose a period of time through 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 May 3, 1999 tornadoes are a good example of this.  Since you will be writing from memory, no sources are required for this essay.

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).

Use MLA style for this essay, and give it a GOOD title; My Change is boring. Make your title grab the reader by the eyes and say, "READ ME!"

This material will guide you in writing about a phase in your life. A phase covers a period of time, a week, several weeks, months, or maybe even a year or more, and may include one or more persons who influenced you. During this time your life changed, and you became different than you were before the phase. Here are some suggestions for phases or persons who influenced your development into the person you are. Note that none of these phases happen overnight; your instructor will discuss with you several of the following examples and why they qualify as phases. A phase could be a time 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.

Choose a phase that happened over a period of at least a week. It may be a happy period or an unhappy one, a good time or bad. But please keep in mind that this is no place for confessions; if you are uncomfortable with the phase, choose another. 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. When you write autobiographical phase, you become an autobiographer. You write a story about yourself.

Your instructor will ask you to respond in writing to these ideas. Keep your answers. They will help you write about the phase you choose.

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.

Your instructor will next ask you to quickwrite to help you remember more about your phase. As you explore these questions, you will discover many helpful ideas to use in your essay. Quickwriting (sometimes called 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.

For each of these questions your instructor will tell you how long to quickwrite. Usually it will be about five minutes. You will be surprised at how many ideas you can get down in five minutes.

How did you change during the phase? How were you different before the phase than you were after it ended? Maybe your appearance changed. Maybe your actions changed. Maybe your feelings changed. Maybe your ideas changed.

How do you feel when you remember your phase? Happy? Sad? Angry? Sorry? Anxious? Worried? Relieved?

At home or during free time, you may wish to add more ideas to your quickwrites.

Exploring details:

The first list you wrote told what happened during your phase. Then you wrote a sentence telling when and where your phase happened. You have done quickwrites about how you changed during the phase and how you feel about it now.