ENGL 122

Creating the Institutional Autobiography

Unit 1 Project

Quick Rundown❖ Goal: Create an institutional autobiography by

locating your personal text in conversation with larger institutional forces, Miller, and one other author studied in this unit (Said, Cole, Armendariz).

❖ Thesis of project: You’re crafting the argument from what you see as the connection between these texts.

❖ Format (Medium.com): Digital format of essay will help place this writing in a more contemporary medium and allows you to expand the reach and capabilities of an argument

At this point

❖ Potential selection of “personally significant” texts

❖ A sense of how these personal texts open a larger institutional, cultural, or social dialogue.

❖ Beginning to map out connection to one other text from our readings (Miller, Said, Cole, Gessen)

Example : A genealogical record & a letter from my grandfather explaining his research on family

history

19th century movement to

the West

The Census as an institution

Gender and documentation

or archival records (who is

or is not recorded in the

past)

Example: Connecting to another text

19th century movement to

the West

Writing & recovering the

Past

Gender and documentation or archival records (who is or is not recorded in the

past)

Richard Miller’s examination of Mary Karr and confronting the

memories of the past

Richard Miller’s examination of the significance

or insignificance of information

(428).

Selecting Quotes❖ My thinking: How can I connect the sense of an “unknown” or

undiscovered past with Miller’s question of does writing matter?

❖ “We live in the Information Age and all the information is telling us that whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever we plan to do will never have any lasting significance” (Miller 428). My Thinking: On the one hand, the idea of the “unknown” girl tells us that information may be insignificant. Whoever this girl is on the family record, she is lost in history. On the other hand, perhaps in confronting this unknown past, I can make her life more meaningful.

❖ “In Karr’s hands, the memoir thus becomes a vehicle for arriving at an understanding that produces forgiveness” (Miller 440). My Thinking: This life may not be able to be recovered, but it can be used to confront a history of lost women’s lives. What erases or silences their pasts? How can we better understand their roles?

Finding the thesis of your project

❖ I can see that I am beginning to focus on confronting and representing the past.

❖ What does my set of texts and Miller’s tell me about confronting and writing the past?

❖ What does my text selections and Miller’s essay tell me about confronting and writing the past?

❖ Potential Thesis (DRAFTY): While writing about the past does matter and can be a vehicle for arriving at an understanding of that past, it can also be a fragmentary experience in the sense that certain lives remain undocumented.

Finding the thesis of your project

Individually❖ In as much detail as possible, describe your text

❖ **While you should definitely decide what you want to share, you will need to sufficiently describe your text so that we—the readers—receive a good image and sense of your selection.

❖ In what ways can you see this text connecting to Miller? Is there a particular quote, idea, etc. that you can relate to your text?

❖ What other writer are you considering connecting? In what ways do you see this connection playing out? Is there a particular quote, idea, etc. that you can relate to your text?

In Groups❖ Roundtable these brainstorms/text descriptions

❖ Each person should walk through their ideas out loud as a practice in clarifying and focusing your project.

❖ As a group, give feedback

❖ What is clear?

❖ What needs more detail? (Mark your initials next to your comment

❖ Are personally significant text selections clear?

❖ Is the connection to the “institutional” clear?

❖ Is the connection to one of our class texts clear?

MediumAllows you to

combine images and

text/visual and verbal

Asks you to think about writing as a

design challenge

“To Russia With Love”

❖ What design features do you see on this particular article? Design features can include—images, text spacing, bolding, links, italicizing, colors, etc.

❖ How does it affect the reading experience?

Medium Sign Up and Workshop

❖ Go to makingwritingmatterspring2015.wordpress.com

❖ Go to today’s class post

❖ Download Medium.com instructions

❖ Follow & complete workshop

Due Next Class—Feb. 24

❖ Full Draft on Medium.com