Now that you have learned about and read some memoirs, it is time for you to write your own!

Think about a memory that stands out to you. Something that you remember explicitly. It might be something very serious, like a time that your life took a turn in a completely different direction. Or, it might be a time that something very simple happened, but you remember it well.

You will need to find a memory that centers on a conflict or challenge that you had to overcome. Then, compose that memory in the form of a story. In order to fully develop your story, it should be between 700-1,000 words. Remember, this is not the story of your whole life! It will have two sections:

Section 1: Your story told in the first-person in 700-1,000 words

Section 2: What this story says about you and your qualities as a person

If that sounds daunting, it's because it is! This is not an easy task, so we are going to walk through the process step-by-step.

Examples

Before you start, take a look at some memoir examples from people you know. That's right....some of your favorite CA staff members wrote their memoirs! You can read them at the links below. Write a brief reflection - something that surprised you or that you shocked you....maybe something you learned about the person whose memoir you read/heard.

"Whose life am I changing?" Toni Fonseca

"Risk and Reward" Toni Fonseca

"The Set of the Sail" Brock Luginbill

Assignment #10

Step 1: Write your first draft in MLA format.

Step 2: Follow the revision guide and highlight your draft.

Step 3: Determine if your paper can be improved or revised depending on what you highlighted or didn't highlight.

Step 4: Make appropriate changes.

Step 5: Submit to turnitin.com

Step 6: Submit to SLATE.

Step 7: Work with your teacher on revisions to finalize this performance task.

Step 1: After revising your memoir, turn it in to turnitin.com.

Class ID: 31679685

Enrollment Key: pizza

Step 2: Turn it in to SLATE

Step 3: Get feedback from your teacher.

Step 4: Do any necessary revisions and resubmit.

Step 5: Fill out your credit slip.

Sensory Language

Humans and animals alike perceive the world through their senses; it’s how babies learn about the world before they can speak or think critically. In writing, sensory language is a way for a writer to help the reader see or connect with an image, description, action, or scene.

Sensory language is language that connects to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) to create an image or description.

Sensory language can be used in two different ways: (1) to create an image that we as readers are only meant to see (rather than experience); (2) to create a description that we as readers are meant to experience.

(1)As Beatrice came down the garden path, it was observable that she handled and inhaled the odor of several of the plants, which her father had most sedulously avoided.

The narrator is creating an image of Beatrice walking down the path. Rather than just say “Beatrice walked down the path” the author uses sensory words (observable, handled, inhaled, odor). Although we as readers are not meant to experience the touch and smell of the plants the way Beatrice does, we are meant to see her touching and smelling. In this instance, the sensory language is used to help the reader see the scene better.

Let’s look at another example!

(2)“By the bye,” said the Professor, looking uneasily about him,” what singular fragrance is this in your apartment? Is it the perfume of your gloves? It is faint, but delicious, and yet, after all, by no means agreeable. Were I to breathe it long, methinks it would make me ill. It is like the breath of a flower.”

In this second example, we are meant to imagine (or experience) the smell that the Professor is describing. The smell is described to us through the Professor’s words: faint, delicious, not agreeable, sickening, breath of a flower. From his words we can picture that the Professor is smelling the air, but the narrator never said “the Professor stopped and inhaled through his nose and then asked a question.” We see his reaction to the smell, as well as what he thinks it smells like.

Let’s look at each sense individually!

Touch: Sensory language that is associated with touch can be words like smooth, rough, wet, or dry, but it can also be words that trigger the idea of touch or texture: silk, wool, ice, glass, hot, cold. Sensory language can build an image of touch (for example, when two characters touch for the first time in a story, or when one character grabs another character). Remember: the writer can use words that focus on touch or build an image of touch.

Example: He could not quite forget the bouquet that withered in her grasp.

Example: Her iron fingers gripped tight around his shirtsleeve; he was caught.

Taste: Sensory language that is associated with taste can be words like sweet, spicy, bitter, or dry, as well as words that trigger specific tastes like lemon, cheese, milk, metal, mint, honey, etc.

Smell: Sensory language associated with scent or smell (olfactory), can be words like strong, faint, dusty, musty, flowers, baking, (words that have a strong connection to the sense of smell), but they can also be words that trigger smells but are hard to describe (the smell of rain, fire, burning rubber, babies).

Sight: Sensory language that is associated with sight can be a little tricky. Most often we see what is happening in a story because the narrator is giving us a description. The writer might say that the character looked at another character, or that a character saw something. The writer might also describe what a character looks like, or how a character sees something (each of which will use words like look, saw, watched, gazed, stared, gawked, etc.).

Ex: Giovanni gazed down into the garden. (The reader sees Giovanni gazing.)

Ex: There was a tall, emaciated, sallow, and sickly looking man, dressed in a scholar’s garb of black. He was beyond the middle term of life, with gray hair, a thin gray beard, and a face singularly marked with intellect and cultivation, but which could never, even in his more youthful days, have expressed much warmth of heart. (The narrator describes an old man's appearance; the reader is meant to see the old man.)

Sound: Sensory language associated with sounds and hearing can be words like hear, sound, hoarse, or pitch, but it can also be words that simply convey a sound like gurgling, buzzing.

Ex: a little gurgling sound

Ex: he heard a rustling behind a screen of leaves.

Ex: The telephone buzzed obsequiously in a low muted voice on his table.

Because sound is closely associated with vibration, writers will often combine touch with descriptions of sound.

Ex: his footsteps kept time with the throbbings of his brain

Directly quoted from: Bauer, Sydney. Sophia. Sensory Language Tutorial. https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/sensory-language