Autobiographical Incident

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Writing about your favorite person YOU!

• Autobiographical Incident

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Auto - Bio - Graphical

• Auto indicates self.
• Bio - indicates life.
• Graph - indicates write.
• You are writing about your life.

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What is an incident?

• An incident is an event that happens in a short
  period of time. For this type of writing, I will
  ask you to focus the body of your writing on
  something that happened on one particular day.

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What if what happened is longer than a day?

• Many of the events that happen in our lives
  unfold over a period of time. You will be able
  to write a little about things that led up to the
  actual day, or incident, in your background
  BEFORE you tell what happened on the day.

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What is Personal Significance?

• One of the things that makes this writing type so
  powerful is that after you narrate your story,
  you get to express why it was significant or
  important to you.
• That is called
• personal significance.

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What do I write about?

• When choosing a memory to write about, try to
  remember something that might have
• taught you an important lesson
• made you a better person
• gave you a new perspective
• was life changing in some way

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Organization Content

• This narrative-type essay has three basic parts
• Introduction (Background)
• Body (The Incident Itself)
• Conclusion (Your Reflection on
• the Personal Significance of
• the Incident)

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Multi-Paragraph Writing

• Because this is a narrative piece of writing
  where you tell your story, it is not necessarily
  a five paragraph essay. It will probably take
  a little longer than five paragraphs because the
  body, or story, part will be a series of many
  paragraphs.

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First, the Introduction or the Background Info

• This first paragraph captures the readers
  interest by introducing other events that led up
  to the day of the incident. We call that
  background. Background brings the reader up to
  the day the incident took place, but the
• background doesnt tell the story.

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Background Components

• Background should include
• a lead (first sentence that grabs
• the reader.
• Important people, settings,
• situations, or conflicts that have
• led to this incident.
• This paragraph does not start the day of the
  incident. It only brings the reader up to that
  day.

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Background Example

• La la la, doo be doo be doo...When I was a baby,
  my mom tells me, I sang before I could talk. If
  there was a song on the radio or on T.V., I could
  repeat it from memory almost instantly. As a
  toddler, I sang when I was bored, I hummed while
  chewing my food, and I even crooned myself to
  sleep. Why was it, then, that when I started
  school, I suddenly was afraid to sing in front of
  people? What unforeseen forces were at work,
  strangling this innate talent out of me?

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The Story Itself - BODY

• This part of the narrative essay is where to
  relate the story to the reader using many writing
  elements.
• It should reflect plot structure with problem,
  setting, characterization, rising action, climax,
  falling action, and resolution.

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Writing Elements

• Include all of the following in the body of your
  narrative essay
• focus on a single incident.
• (ONE day)
• use sensory details to describe
• people, places, times, etc.
• use pacing to build suspense
• sequence events logically.

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More Writing Elements...

• Include these as well
• use dialogue to show what others said during the
  incident.
• show your inner thoughts and feelings as the
  incident unfolds.
• provide an end that is well-integrated and makes
  sense.

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Now, take a step back...

• To write the conclusion, you need to separate
  yourself from the story. The incident was the
  then. Put yourself in the now. Now look at
  it from todays perspective instead of how you
  looked at it while it was happening to you.

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Writing the Personal Significance part...

• In the last paragraph, you need to express, in
  present tense, how you feel or think TODAY about
  the incident, showing how it
• taught you an important lesson
• made you a better person
• gave you a new perspective
• was life changing in some way

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Personal Significance Ex.

• When I look back on that day, I now realize that
  being brave doesnt mean Im not going to also be
  scared sometimes. It just means I need to not
  let the fear control me. I can sing in front of
  people, and even if my voice cracks or I forget
  the words, Im not giving up on my dream. I am
  going to keep sharing my talent and gift with the
  world. Im also not going to let others define
  who I am or keep me from doing what Im born to
  do. I thank Monica for teaching me that. So,
  bring on the music! Im ready for my cue...

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Dont Forget Conventions!

• Just like with any writing, you must remember to
  proofread for
• spelling
• grammar (does it sound right?)
• punctuation and capitalization
• paragraphing form (indent with
• each new paragraph, especially
• when using dialogue!)

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How to start writing...

• First, decide what the day of your incident is.
  When did that day happen? Anything before
  that day is background.
• If you started a quickwrite already, reread it
  and decide which parts to use for the background,
  the body, and the conclusion.

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For Homework

• Make a list of basic elements in the body
• Main Problem of story
• Setting When and Where
• Characters (people in story)
• Rising Action events that drive story
• Climax high point in story/addresses problem
• Falling Action events that help solve problem
• Resolution Final Solving of Problem

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Now, map out story

• Using your list, write key words and phrases that
  identify what you will write about in each of the
  parts of the body/story.
• Remember that the incident is ONE DAY in your
  life!
• Tomorrow in class you will use your map to
  begin your first draft.

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Plan it out on paper...

• Divide your prewriting paper into thirds. Write
  down BRIEF notes to plan what will go into each
  part
• Intro/Background
• Body/Story/Incident/The Day
• Reflection/Personal Significance

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Write your first draft...

• Once you have a general plan, youre ready to
  write.
• Remember that all good writers are open to
  revision as they go, so stop often to read your
  work and make changes. At this point, neatness
  doesnt count! Cross out and revise as needed!