TORDA'S SPRING 2021 TEACHING
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      • THE BIG IDEA: WE ARE BRIDGEWATER: FINAL PROJECT & PRESENTATION
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    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
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    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY >
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
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assignments ENGL513 READING & WRITING THE MEMOIR Your Final Draft

Need to be in touch with me? 
LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
ltorda@bridgew.edu
www.leetorda.com
SUMMER 2014 Office Hours:
are by appointment.
In your final portfolio, you will turn in a final, polished version of the memoir you've been working on for the past five weeks. We've read book-length memoirs that have a great deal of space to tell their stories. In comparison, the challenge you face is to tell your story in a much shorter space. You've been writing around five to seven pages of material each week of class--including both the writer's notebook and in-class material. Somewhere in there is your memoir. Thus, your final draft might be anywhere between 15 and 25 pages in length. Please note that while your final piece might be longer than that, it shouldn't really be shorter. Further, if it is a lot longer than 25 pages, please do not expect that I will read with the same kind of care I would otherwise. Grades are due within two days of the end of this class. 

In the portfolio, I will ask for the final draft and any drafts previous to this one--including things that might have showed up in your writer's notebook or from in-class writing. I will consider where you started with this text and where you ended up as I read and evaluate. 


Beyond a rough page number and the suggestion that your memoir draw from what we've read and worked on and talked about in class, I'm not sure what help I can offer you as writers. This, of course, has never stopped me from trying. I think a successful memoir will do some of the following:
  • Your memoir will have strong, interesting, believable characters engaging in the stuff of life.
  • Your memoir will have a clear plot--a beginning, a middle, and an end.
  • Your memoir will artfully move between showing the important events to me and telling me, when you need to, why it is important. So a blend of story-telling and reflection. 
  • Your memoir will demonstrate how your story is really the story of us all. 
  • Your memoir will have your own strong, clear, voice--whatever that sounds like. 

Other things? You might play with metaphor (a la Refuge); you might play with form (a la Suck City). You might write a funny memoir or a breathless memoir or a straightforward memoir. You might struggle with big philosophical questions or small, precious ones. You might play around with quotations and white space. You might include research. You might do some nature writing. 

Whatever you do, tell your story true. That's the real trick. 
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  • Home
  • ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio
    • ENGL 489 AUTHOR BIOS
    • ENGL 489 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 489 SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE
    • ENGL 489 PORTFOLIOS
    • ENGL 489 WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 ICRN (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 RETHINK/REVISE (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 Interview with An Author (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (ASSIGNMENTS)
  • ENGL 301 Writing & Teaching
    • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATES
    • ENGL301 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL301 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS DAY
    • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
    • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment) >
      • ENGL 301 LT WRITING AND STUFF
    • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment)
  • ENGL344 YA LIT
    • ENGL 344 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL344 CLASS UPDATE
    • ENGL 344 SPRING 2021 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL344 YA LIT SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE IN ENGL101
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment: Flash Memoir YA Edit
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment PECHA KUCHA
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL101 Writing Rhetorically >
      • 101 SYLLABUS
      • BOOK CLUB >
        • How to do virtual BOOK CLUB
        • BOOK CLUB OPTIONS
      • PARTNER INTERVIEW MINI-PAPER
      • 101READER'S NOTES
      • THE BIG DEAL: Archival Ethnography of Bridgewater State
      • THE BIG TALK: Alumni Interview Project
      • THE BIG IDEA: WE ARE BRIDGEWATER: FINAL PROJECT & PRESENTATION
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • 226 Writing & Writing Studies
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY >
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage