Writing Portfolio: An Autobiography

Your final assignment in this class will be an Autobiography. Each assignment should be approximately a single page. You will write a page a day and complete a book by the end of the marking period.

❒ A COVER-- Your cover should include your selected title, your name, and an illustration

appropriate to your book. For illustrations, consider a word pattern, graphic design, collage, original drawings, photographs, magazine pictures, quotations, etc. Use rubber cement or a glue stick to mount items, and be sure that your cover design hides price tags and brand names.

 

❒ A TITLE PAGE-- Select a word or phrase particularly meaningful for you to serve as your

title. Browse through a thesaurus, listen to music you love, think of special people and places and interests, and then submit several possible titles. “A Book about Me” or “My
Autobiography” are poor titles because they are vague and impersonal. Illustrate the title page with the title, name, hour, and date due.

❒ A TABLE OF CONTENTS-- List the assignment number and title of all assignments in your

autobiography. Title each contents page.

❒ AN INTRODUCTION-- Explain the significance of your title, making clear why it is

relevant to your life in particular. Also include a brief description of this writing project and its purposes -- in your own words.

Every assignment should be:

✔ a thoughtful response to the assigned topic

✔ revised as necessary

✔ typed

✔ in order according to this assignment booklet

✔ in black ink

✔ titled on the top line

✔ numbered by assignment (not page) in the upper right corner

COMPLETION counts! But your writing should also demonstrate appropriate word usage,

sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

WRITING PORTFOLIO: Specific Assignments

1. Prologue (or Introduction): Explain the significance of your title, making clear why it is relevant to your life in particular. Introduce yourself gracefully to your reader and capture our attention. Include a brief description of this writing project and its purposes — in your own words.

2. What’s in a Name?: Names are an integral part of who we are. They shape our sense of who we are.

Explore your feelings about “the unity between [your]self and [your] name.” Are these the names you would have chosen for yourself? Surname, middle name, Christian name? Is there a story behind your naming? Someone famous, a family member, weird initials? Does your name have symbolic meaning? Is it ethnic or historic or literary? Did your parents consider other names? In short, how do you live with your name?