The Autobiographical Essay Mrs. Hackworth Comp 1: Day 8 Pre-Writing

The Autobiographical Essay An autobiography is the story describing a person's life that is told by the individual herself. Sometimes, an autobiography can be written with the help of a co-author, as long as the story remains in first-person.

Autobiography: Prewriting Think about the major events in your life Try and quickly write down anything in your life that might have been important for you. Try and put then in order by time (chronologically)

Autobiography: Prewriting Write down five important events in your life 1.________________ 2.________________ 3.________________ 4.________________ 5.________________

Choose and Narrow a Topic From those five events, choose two that are most important to you. These should be events that you will enjoy writing about. When choosing, consider…

When writing an autobiography… Write… Something interesting Something that shows personal development Something that shows a good character

Autobiography: Prewriting In your notebook or on looseleaf, answer these questions about both events: How was this event important? How did you feel about this event? How did this event change you? What did you learn from this event?

Purpose Activity Choose your favorite event from the two. Tear out a sheet of paper. Write your initials in the upper right hand corner. Write a sentence (hook) on the topic/event. A hook catches the audiences attention, so make it interesting.

Activity Continued Pass your paper to another student. Read her sentence. Write a second sentence that transitions from her hook. Stay on topic Make the story realistic.

Activity Continued Pass three more times and continue this process. Transition from one sentence to the other, turning this into a story. The sixth and final sentence should be the conclusion sentence. Wrap it up. End on a positive.

Activity Continued Pass the story back to the original author. Read your story. Was this the story you had in mind for your event? What are the similarities? What are the differences?

Why did we do this?