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ILA: Autobiographical / Biographical Essays
The autobiographical (and biographical) essay is frequently
identified as an effective way to introduce freshmen to academic
writing. The personal subject helps the student writer to
invest in the assignment, allowing the instructor to focus on ways
to elevate the content to the college level.
The following resources were developed after ILA instructors agreed
to include some component of autobiographical / biographical writing
in the course:
 | Introduction: Autobiographical / Biographical
Writing: Personal writing--like students do in autobiographical
and some forms of biographical essays, can ease students into
academic discourse. Importantly, for a college setting,
personal writing need not be limited to stream-of-consciousness
freewriting. Instead, students can be challenged and
encouraged to grapple with their own experiences, looking at them in
new ways and finding new significance in their own lives.
Writing from personal experience can help students to build
confidence for the writing they will do not only later in the
semester in ILA but also throughout their college careers.
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Resources in the St. Martin's Guide to
Composition (7th ed.)
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Supplemental
Autobiographical Reading Suggestions
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| Supplemental Communication Activities: These
activities use verbal and written communication as a way to help
students analyze, synthesize, and internalize--that is, actively
learn--material from the classroom more effectively. You might
use these activities before, during, or after the autobiographical /
biographical essay.
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Literacy
Narrative: Sample Writing Assignment: The literacy narrative is
a more specific, targeted version of the autobiographical and
biographical essay. Its emphasis on literacy and knowledge
would seem like a natural fit not only for the current ILA theme but
also with the overall goals of the course. This assignment (as
with all in the resource collection) is meant to be representative
of a possible approach rather than prescriptive of one single
approach.
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| Autobiographical Essay: Sample Writing Assignment:
The autobiographical essay (sometimes called a remembered event
essay) is similar to the literacy narrative, in that it draws on the
students' personal experiences. The main difference is its
open-endedness, which appeals to some students and which might make
it easier to adapt to certain ILA sections.
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Autobiographical Essay: Revision Guide:
This guide represents one approach to revision. Students are
given some guidance by the prompts, which encourage them to read
specific parts of their drafts closely. The handout also helps
to focus our own comments on drafts, which tends to save time.
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Biographical Essay: Sample Writing Assignment:
The biographical essay (sometimes called a profile essay) asks
students to write about a living person whom they interview and
observe firsthand, with this information forming the content of the
essay. The assignment can be adapted for historical figures,
in which case the students would use more traditional primary and
secondary sources for their content.
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Biographical Essay: Peer Critique Guide:
The peer critique approach to revision creates a real audience for
the student writers. During the critique session, students will
receive a variety of comments that they'll need to consider,
actively, as they revise. Peer critiques can be arranged during a
class meeting, or the groups can complete the work outside of class.
Also, writing center tutors are available to help facilitate peer
critique groups. There are many ways to adapt an activity like
this to the various ILA sections. |
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