Memoirs Project FAQ

What is it?
A year-long project where you write many memoir vignettes using various literary devices, arrange and revise several, and collate the result into a polished and cohesive collection.

What's a memoir?
I like the American Heritage definition: "a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation." The term is often used synonymously with "biography" or "autobiography" but William Zinsser1 provides some connotative clarification for our benefit:

Unlike autobiography, which spans an entire life, memoir assumes the life and ignores most of it. The memoir writer takes us back to some corner of his or her past that was unusually intensechildhood, for instanceor that was framed by war or some other social upheaval.... Think narrow, then, when you try the form. Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not; it's a deliberate construction. Thoreau wrote seven different drafts of Walden in eight years; no American memoir was more painstakingly pieced together. To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of halfremembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth. (136)

Zinsser, William K. On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 25th anniversary ed. Non fiction guide ed. London: Collins, 2001.
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What's a vignette?
"Vignette" was originally a visual design term that came from the Old French word for "vine" or "vineyard." It referred to the little curlicue flourishes and illustrations that marked off the sections of a book. Its definition expanded to include quick sketch illustrations, photographic snapshots, and, eventually, impressionistic literary scenes. Think of an artist's sketchbook, how he or she will constantly carry it around to hone their observation, technical craftsmanship, and point-ofview. Even though the drawings within may be fanciful, whimsical, experimental they also demonstrate grace and technical bravado. Literary vignettes can be stories, essays, poems, scenes, or descriptions. They don't have to have a plot and, individually, they don't have to have a point. As memoir vignettes, they are snapshots of your life, done to demonstrate and practice with various literary forms and techniques. Collected together and revised, however, they should, like an artist's portfolio, reveal an emerging point-ofview, an aesthetic statement of who you are.

Shelton, Dave. Sketchbook. 25 Nov 2005. 11 Sept 2011. <http://daveshelton.blogspot.com/2005/11/ sketchbook.html>.

Is it all writing?
In the past, we required several graphic accompaniments to your literary vignettes. Last year, we only absolutely required a cover illustration. This year, I will work harder to try to encourage and integrate visual design pieces to include with your collection, in keeping with expanding the notion of "text" within my classroom.

Does there have to be a theme?

Theme/thesis is an important and powerful rhetorical device, but doesn't often come up in the beginning of the creative process. Most of the year you'll write your vignettes without much of an idea of how they'll hang together. Around February or March, I'll schedule one-on-one conferences with each student to look at all your vignettes, suggest which ones should be pursued with further revision, and collaborate on possible themes. As you revise several drafts of your selected vignettes we'll continue to discuss the final direction of your collection so that its different elements seem cohesive and deeply threaded.

What's the Memoirs Project Celebration?

It is a late afternoon event, usually a few weeks before the end of the school year, where we present selections from our Memoirs Project collections. Each student will read one vignette from their collection to an audience of relatives and friends. Most students will read in fairly intimate simultaneous gatherings in classrooms throughout the Middle School. A few students will read to a large collective audience afterwards in the Balderston Commons.

Who gets to read in the Commons?

All the 8th grade English teachers gather to decide who should read what where. Please be aware that our decisions are based on multiple factors. Certainly we want the Commons readings to represent a certain level of quality, but we are also interested in representing a diversity of genres and viewpoints and take into consideration matters of flow, length, and presentation style.

Will we be graded on our reading?

No.

What if I can't come?

Please do come, and please make sure your family comes. If it's absolutely not possible, we'll try to make arrangements to have you read your selection at a Monday Morning Assembly.

When is the Project due?

The Celebration is scheduled to be on Friday, May 11, 2012. Two copies of your Project, completed and bound, are due Friday, May 4.

Any other questions? Please e-mail them to me at tkim@penncharter.com so that I'll be able to address them in future versions of this FAQ.