Abstract
In assigning her university memoir-writing class to locate documents of significance to their lives as a starting point for composing personal essays, this teacher compelled her students to search outside themselves for material—in effect, to undertake research in a genre that many initially approach as if the story is already there, complete, inside their heads. By immersing themselves in material that was personal but also concrete and exterior, students discovered that memoir writing calls for as much exploration outside the self as searching within. As it turned out, the assignment not only helped to clarify the role of research in memoir writing, it also served as a springboard for discussions on the nature of documents and on their various uses in conveying a personal story.
- Journal
- Pedagogy
- Published
- 2009-10-01
- DOI
- 10.1215/15314200-2009-014
- CompPile
- Open Access
- Closed
- Topics
-
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation context
Cited by in this index (1)
-
Brockman (2010)Pedagogy
References (0)
No references on file for this article.
Related articles
-
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Sep 2026Junhua Wang
-
Writing and Pedagogy Jun 2026Cultivating Genre-Based Writing Instructional Expertise in the TESOL Practicum: A Focus on Genre-Related Episodes ↗Lisya Seloni; Şebnem Yalçın
-
Journal of Response to Writing Apr 2026Mehrzad, Mohaddeseh; Rahimi, Mohammad; Link, Stephanie
-
Written Communication Jan 2026Clara Palm; Ann-Christin Randahl; Liss Kerstin Sylvén
-
Pedagogy Oct 2025modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter