ARTIFACT MEMOIR
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Lee Torda, PhD Dean of Undergraduate Studies Associate Professor of English 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com |
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours.
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To get back to what this class is all about: We are returning to a version of the first assignment that we never quite got around to finishing. We started this project as an interview, but, as we have changed that, we are going to call this an artifact memoir. What that means is, you'll identify one or at most two "artifacts" of you, describe it appropriately, and then assign meaning to it in a way that tells your classmates something about who you are.
IN-CLASS
We'll work to draft this very short piece in class. In timed intervals you'll:
1) Describe the object or objects so that if someone was not looking at it they could still describe it.
2) Identify what meaning you've assigned to it (you'll have help from readers in class)
3)Bring all of it together in an short micro-essay about you.
Once you've written a fast first draft, you'll. get feedback from your classmates.
OUT OF CLASS
You'll take some time to revise as you wish, keeping in mind the goal of the project. Revise it into a 300 to 500 word micro essay. Post it to the appropriate assignment folder on blackboard (I'll figure out how to do that) by the start of our next class. And email to me an image of you that you would want included with your memoir on our class website and in blackboard. Make sure it is a .jpeg image. And make sure you are okay with other people seeing it.
DUE 25 MARCH 2026 BY CLASS TIME.
HOW YOU WILL BE GRADED
Your Archive Memoir is worth 10% of your grade. This is an A or F situation.
"Where I learned to Read" by Salvatore Scibona (books as personal archive)
"Take Me Home" by Rad Bradbury (books as personal archive)
"Around the Corner" by Sharon Byron (about someone other than the author, uses a variety of objects to understand her mother)
"Alone at the Movies" by Jonathan Lethem (uses movies--mostly one)
"Tino & Papi" by Norma Elia Cantu (two photographs)
IN-CLASS
We'll work to draft this very short piece in class. In timed intervals you'll:
1) Describe the object or objects so that if someone was not looking at it they could still describe it.
2) Identify what meaning you've assigned to it (you'll have help from readers in class)
3)Bring all of it together in an short micro-essay about you.
Once you've written a fast first draft, you'll. get feedback from your classmates.
OUT OF CLASS
You'll take some time to revise as you wish, keeping in mind the goal of the project. Revise it into a 300 to 500 word micro essay. Post it to the appropriate assignment folder on blackboard (I'll figure out how to do that) by the start of our next class. And email to me an image of you that you would want included with your memoir on our class website and in blackboard. Make sure it is a .jpeg image. And make sure you are okay with other people seeing it.
DUE 25 MARCH 2026 BY CLASS TIME.
HOW YOU WILL BE GRADED
Your Archive Memoir is worth 10% of your grade. This is an A or F situation.
- Students will earn an "A" for this 10% if they put together a micro essay between 300 and 500 words that 1) incorporates appropriate description of their artifact; 2) identifies why it is meaningful to them; 3) crafts it into a story that tells us something about hwo they are.
- You will earn and "F" for this project if you fail to turn something in and/or fail to turn in an appropriate .jpeg image for me to post along with it.
"Where I learned to Read" by Salvatore Scibona (books as personal archive)
"Take Me Home" by Rad Bradbury (books as personal archive)
"Around the Corner" by Sharon Byron (about someone other than the author, uses a variety of objects to understand her mother)
"Alone at the Movies" by Jonathan Lethem (uses movies--mostly one)
"Tino & Papi" by Norma Elia Cantu (two photographs)