It is my first time to write a memoir. It is hard for me, because I am used to write the persuasive essay, which has more formal language and format. When it comes to this kind of descriptive story, I become confused about vocabulary use and from time to time I cannot express myself efficiently and clearly. It is really hard for me to write a vivid story in English. Also, I have difficulty express my emotion and thoughts naturally without speak it out explicitly. However, when I finish this assignment, I find I learned how to write another form of essay that I have never tried. My goal for this project is to have the reader resonate with my feeling and advocate to be appreciative and treasure what you have.
When I got the assignment that required me to write a memoir to address the question of how place relates to and shapes me, I looked back to my life in recent years. The experience of traveling in Thailand immediately came to my mind. It is probably one of the events that had the most direct and strong influence on me. Therefore, I decided to write about this experience as my memoir.
In memoirs, authors should write the story more vividly through showing instead of telling. At first, I did not get this idea and just told the readers what I thought about and what I learned from my experiences in my memoir. However, when I revised my paper, I got rid of the “telling” part. Instead, I told a short story about my change to imply the lesson I learned from the experience. For example, instead of telling that I learned to be an appreciative person, I showed that I wrote an appreciation letter to my parents. Therefore, I imply that the orphanage changes my attitude towards my parents through this action instead of telling so.
Actually, for the first draft of my memoir, I just narrated the experience of visiting the orphanage. When I looked back and referred to the definition of a memoir, I found that my work did not quite meet the requirement of having a focus in my memoir and showing how the experience affected. Therefore, I revised my memoir by combining my thoughts and emotional fluctuations into the development of the story to show how the experience impacted me and changed my mind. For example, after writing the conversation between Jin and me, I added the description of my sympathy towards Jin’s wish, and how it reminded me of myself and affected my attitude towards my parents.
After I revised the paper, the focus of the memoir and the impact of the experience on me became clearer.
When I got the assignment that required me to write a memoir to address the question of how place relates to and shapes me, I looked back to my life in recent years. The experience of traveling in Thailand immediately came to my mind. It is probably one of the events that had the most direct and strong influence on me. Therefore, I decided to write about this experience as my memoir.
In memoirs, authors should write the story more vividly through showing instead of telling. At first, I did not get this idea and just told the readers what I thought about and what I learned from my experiences in my memoir. However, when I revised my paper, I got rid of the “telling” part. Instead, I told a short story about my change to imply the lesson I learned from the experience. For example, instead of telling that I learned to be an appreciative person, I showed that I wrote an appreciation letter to my parents. Therefore, I imply that the orphanage changes my attitude towards my parents through this action instead of telling so.
Actually, for the first draft of my memoir, I just narrated the experience of visiting the orphanage. When I looked back and referred to the definition of a memoir, I found that my work did not quite meet the requirement of having a focus in my memoir and showing how the experience affected. Therefore, I revised my memoir by combining my thoughts and emotional fluctuations into the development of the story to show how the experience impacted me and changed my mind. For example, after writing the conversation between Jin and me, I added the description of my sympathy towards Jin’s wish, and how it reminded me of myself and affected my attitude towards my parents.
After I revised the paper, the focus of the memoir and the impact of the experience on me became clearer.