Eng IV - Nancie Atwell's Memoir Advice

Nancie Atwell is a rockin teacher from Maine (but originally from Western New York...she's a Buff State grad). She's like the Barry Bonds of English teachers...well...without the steroid allegations and general unfriendliness. Okay, overall, bad simile. Here's some of the advice she gives her 8th grade students, who do some fine writing up there in New England.


Qualities of Memoirs

• The voice is first person singular: I, not we, one, or you.
• The memoirist is the main character, the someone for readers to be with in the story.
• The writer's thoughts and feelings, reactions, and reflections are revealed.
• There's enough context - background information - to understand the events of the story.
• A reader can envision (see) the story.
• A reader can imagine the setting - where and when the event is taking place.
• A reader can imagine the relationships among the characters.
• The dialogue sounds like these people talking, both what they say and how they say it: "Boy, you're gonna be sorry," versus, "You will be sorry."
• There isn't unnecessary information. The writer leaves out what the reader doesn't need to know.
• The lead (introduction) invites the reader into the world of the memory.
• The conclusion is deliberate: it represents a writer's decision about how to leave his or her readers.
• The writer is telling the truth.
• The writer tells details that fit with the memory and the theme.
• The memoir sounds and feels like literature, not reporting.
• A reader learns something about LIFE by reading about a life.
• There is a reason for the memoir. A discovery of some significance in the memory.
• Use similes and metaphors! Use vivid verbs and descriptive adjectives!

- From In the Middle