You know, reading Ker's The Road from Coorain, you're likely to say to yourself:  "Wow, she's been all over the world and had all these wild, different experiences, so it's no wonder that she's able to fill a book!"  The truth is that Ker's book is remarkable not because she's been all over the world, but rather because he's able to look into what she's experienced -- even small, dull events -- and find something meaningful in them, for herself and for us.  It's not the exoticness of the places or people or events that matter; it's the significance of those elements which readers will remember.

That means, of course, that any life is worth exploring through autobiography.  So let's write one.

In your second essay for this course, I want you to write a personal narrative, telling us the story of something important in your own life.  It can center on a place, a person, or an event; it can be told in the past tense or the present; it can be serious, or sad, or funny.  All that I ask is that it convey something significant to a reader, something which you want them to experience and understand the way that you experienced it and as you've come to understand it. 

It's easy to think that there's nothing important enough in your life to write about, that you're "boring" and so is your life.  The truth of the matter, though, is that your life is only boring because you live in it daily.  Everyone else -- all those millions of people who aren't you, or even the fifteen or so who aren't you in this classroom -- doesn't live in it, and if you tell your story well, they're going to love to hear about your experiences.  So take your time and tell your story well.

In order to do this, remember the most fundamental thing about stories:  they have beginnings, middles and ends.  Yours should, too.  Moreover, since the people in the story are likely to be well-known to you but completely unknown to your audience, remember that you have to portray them like the characters they are:  describe them to us, as completely as you can (not just physically, but what they're like, as well).  Same thing with places; what's familiar, even second-nature, to you is alien to us and we need you to put us there in order to "get" your story.  (As you write, and revise, keep pulling yourself out of the story, pretending that you don't know any of the people, or the place, or the end of the tale -- would you get it?  If not, make sure to revise so that you would.)

This piece should be 4-5 pages long.

Due September 30, 2010