But first…a little about QUESTIONING  Narrating Time But first…a little about QUESTIONING 

Opener: Let’s revisit questioning Why did the author choose to start the book off with an anecdote from after the war? What does the reaction of “cool” by the high school kids indicate about our current society? Why did the narrator smile when his friends said, “Cool”? Why did the author choose to put “cool” in italics? What makes the author uneasy about telling his friends his whole story? What does the fact that none of the narrator’s friends knew about his old life reveal about their relationship? Why is the narrator answering his friend’s questions in such brief sentences? What does this conversation imply about the author’s feelings about life in Sierra Leone?

Tips for writing awesome questions: 1: Avoid speaking in 2nd person  Why do you think the boy gives such short responses?  Why does the boy give such short responses? 2: Make the question as specific to the text as possible  At what point to mother’s give up on their children? (too broad; unclear connection to text)  What does the friend’s response of “cool” tell us about the perceptions of war in our society? 3: Avoid using unclear pronouns  Is he scared yet? (Who? Scared of what?)  Why is the narrator scared to tell his friends about his experiences in the war? 4: Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” answer  Will the narrator ever tell his friends the whole story of his boy soldier experience?  What does the narrator’s smile and avoidance of the war topic tell us about his intentions regarding whether or not to tell his friends more about the war?

Let’s apply what we just learned: Spend some time now revising your 3 questions. Then, choose the best one. You will be entering this ONE BEST QUESTION onto Pear Deck in a couple of minutes 

Memoir Element: narrating time How to PACE your memoir (college essay) purposefully and effectively

First…some definitions Memoir (or autobiography) contains stories about one’s life, usually on a very particular focus—a pivotal year after college; an affair and its aftermath; a relationship between mother and daughter. It’s impossible to write one’s whole life story; instead writers find a focus and then tell stories about people, events, or phases within that focus. Narrative refers to telling a story, the temporal sequence of how events are related to one another in time. Pacing is the technique by which we vary the passage of time, that is how slow or how fast we make the time pass dependent on the particular element of narrative writing we use, page by page.

The passage of time can be represented in 2 ways in memoir writing: 1. "narratives that comment extensively on experience…” We will call this SUMMARY “…narratives that present experience directly.” We will call this SCENE MOST MEMOIRS SWITCH BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE TWO OVER THE COURSE OF THE TEXT!

SCENE...like a quick flowing mountain stream Time moves faster for the reader (like a play-by-play): immediacy drama direct experience action participant emphasis on narrating the past actual time The writer is emphasizing action, drama, immediate experience; the time that passes is more like actual time, not exactly clock time, but an approximate time in which single events occur.

Memoirs must use scene… To write a scene we use: specific narrative action emphasizing the action with verbs and with sentence rhythm short sentences or parallelism dialogue, both between characters and within an individual character. Good times to use SCENE: a confrontation a turning point (climax) a crisis any other moments that are so significant they cannot be summarized

Summary…a lazy and meandering delta river Time moves slower for the reader aka SUMMARY: reflection meditation summarized experience commentary observer emphasis on understanding the past psychological time When narrative moves slower (or stops altogether), the writer is emphasizing commentary, summary, and observation about people, events or ideas: the time that passes is more like psychological time, in which time is exaggerated.

Summary is a useful and necessary device… To write SUMMARY we use: summarized action reported thoughts and feelings, which includes the author’s critical examination of an idea or analysis of fact author’s detailed observation of people, places, and feelings. Good ways to use SUMMARY: give information fill in a character’s background let us understand a motive alter pace create a transition leap moments or years.