Memoir: Definition and Characteristics

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Memoir Definition and Characteristics

• Memoir a piece of writing that tells a story
  from your life. It is a narrative, and provides
  a specific snapshot of a single time in your
  life. It includes a reflection at the end of how
  this experience has influenced or changed you.
• Characteristics
• Told in first personuses I, me, we, us, etc.
• The time in the memoir follows a sequence of
  events over a short period of time.
• When does the memory begin and end?
• The memory is a slice of life focusing on a
  specific memory.
• What is the main memory in the story?
• The details show strong emotions that give the
  memory a heartbeat.
• What is the heartbeat?
• The memoir includes the lesson that author
  learned or the impact it had.
• How does the author reflect?

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Turning in pieces to Ackerman

• Typed, double spaced
• MLA heading
• Spell checked
• At the end of your piece (either handwritten on
  the back or typed as a separate piece of paper)
• What you tried (crafting moves that youve
  noticed from memoirs above or from quick writes
  that weve tried and discussed)
• What questions or concerns youd like
  help/feedback on
• What youre really proud of

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Crafting moves you might try

• Play with punctuation
• Example It was the best experience. Of. My.
  Life (Owen snapshot by Penny Kittle)
• Use of metaphor or simile
• Example Theres a scum clinging to her like a
  fine layer of dust after sanding the taunts that
  she endured in elementary school (Whitney
  snapshot by Penny Kittle).
• Onomatopoeia
• Example Shhhh heee, shhh heee, Mommas
  unconscious humming creates the music of my
  childhood (Momma snapshot by Kendra Ackerman).
• Use of Humor
• Variety of Sentence Lengths
• Hyperbole (Exaggeration for humor or effect)
• After the first hill, we were dead (Rios
  Secret Lion 184).
• Oxymoron

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Crafting Moves from Secret Lion

• Playing with dialogue structure to communicate
  tone
• GuyGodthis is perfect, thisisthis is perfect,
  its round, itsits the best thing
  weveeverseen. Whatisit?
• Variety of sentence structure short sentences do
  what?
• We dug up that whole bank, and we never found it
  again. We tried.
• Figurative language
• metaphor of golf course to Heaven
• thinking about the place you felt was heavenly as
  a child?
• Extended metaphor of the SECRET LIONmaking a
  connection to audience losing something
  important as a childgrowing up, becoming an
  adult.
• Use of humor
• Importance of concrete details and use of
  onomatopoeia
• When I wanted a drink, I lifted my neck a
  little, put out my lips, and tipped my Coke a
  little with the crook of my elbow. Ah.
• Value of being specific and concisewhats the
  heartbeat? Focus there. Cut out all the
  deadwood.

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Barrio Boy crafting moves

• Concrete details Even in the alleys, where
  people knew each other, the houses were fenced
  apart, without central courts to wash clothes,
  talk, and play with other children
• Lends to his first impressionseparation,
  clinical feel of place, alien
• Use of Spanish in the text
• Italics
• Add flavor
• Tone
• Sensory imagerysounds, smells, sights
• imitating the calls of the meadowlark, the water
  ouzel, the oriole, the and the killdeer
• La Lee-con
• Using phonetic spelling
• Gives us an understanding of his age and his
  feeling of being outside of a place

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Kaffir Boy pp. 223

• As you read, please notice and respond to in your
  Writers Notebook
• Specific things that you notice about how this
  text is writtenwhat structures or literary
  devices seem important?
• Sticky note repeating phrases or repeating ideas
  or images.
• Notice where there are details that enhance the
  bigger message of the piece? How are those
  details communicated?
• Where does the writer show us, use imagery or
  figurative language? Is it effective?
• Why do you think the author chose to organize the
  piece this way?
• Whats the point of view? How does this POV
  influence us as readers?
• How does the piece open? Why might he have
  chosen this way?
• What do you think the writer left out of this
  pieceor cut in revision?
• What did you notice that you might try in your
  writing?
• Try it out.