ESSAY #1
PLANNING PAGE
Memory and Memoir

PURPOSES: Reflect and express
(Flesh out your specific purposes. For example: My purpose is to reflect on a painful moment in 1995 when my grandmother taught me a valuable lesson about respecting one’s elders.)

My purpose is to reflect on a time when

AUDIENCE (You know this one! Your audience is your English 1301 class, a community of supportive writers and readers. However, you might consider a wider HCC audience if you were to publish your memoir in our school newspaper The Egalitarian.)

English 1301 class and instructor (and West Loop Campus)

TONE (What are some words to express the mood, attitude, or feeling of your childhood/family experience? Perhaps you will select a single, consistent tone. However, you may prefer to switch tones. If you switch tones, like Langston Hughes, have a good reason for doing so.)

STRATEGY (Learning Web: Notes on Narration and Description):
(Your primary strategy is narration; your secondary or supporting strategy is description.)

narration and description

TENTATIVE THESIS :
(At this early point in your planning, try to articulate a tentative thesis, one that suggests, through your carefully chosen diction, your purpose and strategy. You can always go back and revise and refine this tentative thesis. Try to reveal the main point of your essay and suggest that a story is about to begin. Take a look at the thesis sentences in our sample essays (“Salvation,” “The