Autobiography Composition

One of the most important milestones in our lives is when we first learn to read. Of course, our exposure to books happens from almost the moment we’re born, when our parents read us bedtime stories or put squashy baby books in our hands for us to chew on. Even before we know the alphabet we’re exposed to the written word, and once we unlock the power to read them, then entire new worlds are open to us.

For your first assignment, I’d like you to take a look back at the reader you once were. In this essay I want you to describe the reader you are today and how you got there. Think about the earliest moments you remember of reading or being read to. How did they shape you? Did your mother reading you a certain book teach you to love reading? Or was there a moment in school that caused you to dislike it? If you don’t like to read, it’s ok to write about that. Above all, I want you to write honestly about your connection to literature and books. Think about the person you are now and the person you were when you were small, and how those early exposures to reading changed you into who you are now.

I would also like you to choose one book that made a significant impact on you and use this essay as an opportunity to critically examine why that book is important to you and how you see it influencing you and your life. You’ll want to properly introduce the book, give a brief background or history of it and your relationship with it, and then incorporate this book into the larger essay’s concerns. Remember, this is your autobiography; therefore, you have a significant amount of freedom in terms of scope and content. Just be sure that your final essay is explorative, inquisitive, critical, and most of all: engaging and well-thought-out.

Papers should be: 2-4 pages, single spaced (roughly 500-1,000 words, though more is okay) It is not necessary to use outside research, but if you choose to cite books, internet sources, articles, etc., you must correctly cite your sources with both in-line citations and a works cited page.