Celebrities VS Heroes

Base XP: 240

Learning Target(s):


  • Recognize and appreciate how different forms, formats, structures, and features of texts enhance and shape meaning and impact.

  • Use writing processes to plan, develop, and create engaging and meaningful texts for a variety of purposes and audiences.

  • Explore how language constructs personal and social identities.


"A memoir is a written factual account of somebody’s life. It comes from the French word mémoire, which means “memory,” or “reminiscence.” This literary technique tells a story about the experiences of someone’s life. A literary memoir is usually about a specific theme, or about a part of someone’s life. It is a story with a proper narrative shape, focus, and subject matter, involving reflection on some particular event or place" (https://literarydevices.net/memoir/).

Memoirs and personal narratives are very closely related. Both involve written depictions of personal experiences. The two are so closely related that Merriam-Webster.com defines a memoir as "a narrative composed from personal experience." A key difference is that a personal narrative focuses on an event, while a memoir centers on an individual, who is usually the writer of the memoir.

In a narrative, you describe a significant life experience. Then, you share your reactions, feelings and lessons learned in conjunction with the experience. A memoir is often written about oneself, though it can also have another person, object or place as the subject. A personal narrative is an essay about a personal experience that tells a story, and a memoir is a true story about something that happened in your life that has had a profound impact on you., Both are usually written in the first person. You might share an exciting, surprising, or scary experience, like the time you went camping and saw a bear. Or you might share a moment when you learned an important lesson.

To maximize its impact, the memoir should:

  • Be written to have an emotional impact on the reader

  • Include a lot of references to sensory perceptions and emotions

  • Use many vivid details and imagery

  • incorporate dialogue

HINT: Read more Tips for Writing a Personal Narrative.

Review here an example of an ineffective memoir and an effective memoir. Watch the video below.

Source: https://education.seattlepi.com/difference-between-memoir-personal-narrative-5228.html


Go through the mini lesson on how to write a memoir in each of its stages:

  • Brainstorm

  • Draft

  • Revise

  • Review

  • Polish

  • Publish

“Once I lose all ability to communicate with the world outside myself, nothing will be left but what I remember. My memories will be like a sandbar, cut off from the shore by the incoming tide. For what is a person without memories? A ghost, trapped between worlds, without an identity, with no future, no past.”

“Are all of us the same…navigating our lives by interpreting the silences between words spoken, analyzing the returning echoes of our memory in order to chart the terrain, in order to make sense of the world around us?”

TanTwan Eng The Garden of Evening Mists

TASK:

For this quest, you will write a fictional memoir based on a modern hero that you have researched. The memoir will be written from your chosen hero's point of view. The memoir should be based on fact, but you will be required at times to imagine the hero's inner thoughts and character traits that helped make a successful journey. Use the information you have just read about writing a memoir including its length and style (around 500 words).

Write about ONE event in the hero's journey, rather than writing an entire biographical story. Consider the hero's journey discussed in earlier in this quest and focus on one stage. The memoir, directly or indirectly, should reveal what traits you believe led to this particular journey and what you think the hero learned from the experience. Remember that this is fictional but should be based on real events. Although the memoir is about one event there may be background information provided leading up to the event and/or after. Here are some examples which you may decide to use or create your own.

Write from the point of view of...

  1. Malala Yousafzai receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as she reflects on her journey.

  2. Ghandi starting off his campaign of passive resistance.

  3. Kerry Brodie hearing a story about her grandparents' experience in the war that prompted her to start a foundation.

Step 1 – Explore these sites to choose to help choose the person on which to base your memoir. Once you have made a selection you may need to do some further research to find details about one important event in their journey. Remember it can be from any of the three stages: Departure, Initiation and Return.

1. Time 100

2. My Hero

3.Conduct your own search to find several articles from news sites that have ranked certain Canadians as the "top" heroes. Keep in mind this is only an opinion. You decide who you think is worthy!

Step 2 – Complete the research and planning outline that you will use to help draft your memoir. Hand this in with your memoir.

Step 3 – Write a draft of the memoir. Then revise, review, polish, and publish. It should be at least 2 pages long.

Submit your completed quest here.

Let me know when it's ready, and if/why you require additional XP.