You will answer the same question a few times. The only difference is how long you have to answer. Use your Notebook to record (in writing, visually, or orally) your responses for review later on.
Take five seconds to answer this question: what did you do yesterday?
Take one minute to answer this question: what did you do yesterday?
Take five minutes to answer this question: what did you do yesterday?
Now take a look at your answers. Odds are, your answers are different. And that shouldn't be a surprise. After all, you had longer to reflect and write. However, did the focus change or did it just become more detailed? Did you remember things differently when you had longer to think about them? Are your answers about a single event or a series of different events?
Now take a moment to think about what you left out. Why do you think that was the case?
No matter what your answers are, you've just started the process of selectively telling a story. Why selectively? Because whether you did it intentionally or not, you chose which events were most memorable or meaningful to you...and odds are, you left out any time you spent daydreaming, or brushing your teeth, or sitting in traffic. This isn't surprising...after all, would you really want to read, listen to, or watch a story about the literal, moment-by-moment events in someone's life? It's likely your answer was 'No' since this would have been pretty boring. In fact, even so-called reality television is heavily planned and edited to allow for a storyline to surface.
However, this doesn't mean that selectively telling a story is wrong. On the contrary, good text creators and editors know how important it is to filter and focus the details in a story so that it strikes a balance between being engaging and effective. Throughout this activity, you will learn how to construct your own personal narrative.
Non-fiction stories come in all shapes and sizes. One that you use quite often, whether you know it or not, is an anecdote. (definition: An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.) Most times when you tell your friends about something that's happened to you, it's an anecdote. Take a look at the picture of the baby and the senior citizen. Imagine how many different stories could be told from the time occurring between her birth and current age. Who could tell them? What could these stories say? How could they differ?
Read this article, Examples of Anecdotes from Yourdictionary.com (Original article). In your Notebook, copy out an anecdote's four purposes for use later on.
If you want to view any links in this pdf, right click and select "Open Link in New Tab" to avoid leaving this page. (View the original article.)
When constructing anecdotes, people use a variety of different evidence types to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. To help you learn about different ways to use evidence to support a story, complete this Evaluating the Evidence activity. Be sure to save the information in your Notebook for use throughout the course.
Use the interactive below to learn about terminology. Drag the words in the blue boxes over to the correct example.
Throughout your life, you will gather anecdotes from your experiences and reflections. However, you don't need to have lived many years to have interesting stories to tell. Watch Tavi Gevinson's Tedtalk "Still figuring it out" to hear Geninson reveal that, despite her successes, she still has a lot to learn.
Before embarking on any long task or journey, a protagonist in a bildungsroman story will typically take time to prepare. These preparations can range from being physical (in terms of training), to mental (in terms of meditation), to emotional (in terms of parting conversations). Since you will read a variety of texts throughout ENG2D, you'll prepare by completing the following Reading Strategies interactive.
Write down your ideas on the following:
Of course, while anecdotes are always personal, they aren't necessarily always accurate. No doubt you've had situations where you and a friend were explaining the same situation to someone and your stories sounded different. Different perspectives - or weltanschauungs - alter the way we understand and create anecdotes.
To understand this better, identify a situation that happened to you and describe it in your Notebook. Then ask any three people involved to tell you what they believe occurred. Record what they said. How did their accounts differ? Why do you think that was?
If you want to view any links in this pdf, right click and select "Open Link in New Tab" to avoid leaving this page. (View the original article.)
It's time to learn more about how different perspectives change the stories we tell.
Use the Narrative Planner to choose an event, perspective, and audience. The event is what has occurred, the perspective is who is telling the story, the audience is who is listening to the story, and the purpose is the anecdote's reason for being shared. After using the Narrative Planner, copy out the three categories into your Notebook and then generate a 200 to 300 word narrative from it.
Now that you've created your anecdote, complete the following:
“
If the legends fall silent, who will teach the children of our ways?
~ Chief Dan George, My Heart Soars
Anecdotes do more than just tell stories, though; they can also preserve and capture culture. To learn more about the power that anecdotes have, you can choose (of course, you can choose both) how you would like to receive the following Aboriginal anecdotes about surviving Canada's residential schools.
If you would like to learn by reading, then read this article, 14 first-hand stories underlining how residential schools tried to “get rid” of Indigenous cultures from Pressprogress.ca. (Original article)
If you want to view any links in this pdf, right click and select "Open Link in New Tab" to avoid leaving this page. (View the original article.)
If you would like to learn by viewing, then watch this video, Stolen Children: Residential School survivors speak out.
After reading and/or viewing the residential school survivors' anecdotes, select the one that you felt was the most moving. Share a short summary of that anecdote with the class and briefly explain why you believe that anecdote was the most effective. Your explanation should consider and include some or all of the ideas contained above, such as:
Now that you've had a chance to read and create anecdotes, it's time to expand your skill set to include memoirs. A memoir is an extended story of someone's life, but not their entire life's story (that's a biography, which you'll learn about later). As Joe Kita from The Globe and Mail puts it, "you can only ever write one autobiography, but you can write countless memoirs." To learn more about what makes a memoir, read this article, "How to Write Your Memoir" from The Globe and Mail. (Original article)
If you want to view any links in this pdf, right click and select "Open Link in New Tab" to avoid leaving this page. (View the original article.)
After learning what makes up a memoir, it's time to read one. Ishmael Beah is a novelist famous for his harrowing memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The following article selects some of Beah's anecdotes to make a memoir. Read this article, "The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier" from The New York Times. (Original article)
If you want to view any links in this pdf, right click and select "Open Link in New Tab" to avoid leaving this page. (View the original article.)
Now that you've read Beah's, "The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier," it's time to extend your analytical reading and writing skills by answering the following questions. This isn't a test, so you can return to the article as often as you'd like.
Want to read more memoirs but not sure where to begin? Are you interested in writing memoirs of your own? Here are some resources to get you started.
Now that you've had a chance to write your own anecdotes and read a memoir, it's time to put your skills into practice. For this assignment, you will write a memoir. It can either be about you or someone you know personally. If you are writing about someone else, please make sure that you get her or his approval first. Be sure to change any information necessary to protect this individual's privacy. For this assignment, you should ensure your memoir includes the following:
Your memoir should be proofread, edited, and revised!
Checklist Items | |
---|---|
I have proofread my work for spelling errors. | |
I have proofread my work for punctuation errors. | |
I have proofread my work for grammatical errors. | |
I have proofread my work for sentence structure errors. |
Now that you've written your memoir, it's time to reflect on your learning by answering the following questions. You can complete this assignment by either writing out the answers or recording (orally or visually) them.