Description: Write a 3-4 page (750-1000 word) autobiographical essay about an important event in your life.  The essay should reveal something significant about you (the purpose) to someone who doesn't know you well but who you want to know you better (the audience). The story should be entertaining, memorable, and controlled.  You should use vivid and specific details to describe events and people.  Here are some suggestions:

• Choose an event that is important to you and that does not sprawl over too much time.

• Don’t choose an event that is too personal (that you can’t discuss with people in the class) or that you are too emotional about.

• Make sure your narrative has some conflict and doesn’t drag; frame your event for your reader.

• Include relevant, telling details in your story and avoid irrelevant distracting details.

• Don’t establish the significance with heavy-handed, oversimplified passages.

• Make sure the event reveals something about you.

• Think about some of the strategies that Obama used in his autobiography and try to use them as models.

Topics: Finding a good topic is one of the keys to success for this assignment.  Choose an event that is very specific, that reveals something interesting about you, and that occurred at least three years ago.  Avoid drunken bar room brawls, car wrecks, encounters with policemen, religious conversions, graduations, and prom dates.  Try to come up with an incident that is unique but that others can identify with.