English 3090 Sample Course Outline - Memoir Writing

Sep 22, 2026

Sample course outline for University of Guelph, College of Arts, School of English and Theatre Studies (SETS), English 3090. The semester centers on memoir as a genre of resonant life slices, using lectures, discussions, and workshops to transform memoir essays into compelling narratives. Students learn dual perspective, language power, persuasion strategies, and craft techniques including scene making, character development, sensory details, metaphor, exposition, and reflection. Evaluation includes two memoir assignments, a major critical essay, a revision/final project, and participation activities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time2 min

AccessFree to download

Course Overview

Course Description

Learning Outcomes

Required Text

Methods of Evaluation

Assignments and Structure

Memoir Essay One: A Literacy Narrative

Critical Essay

Memoir Essay #2: A Coming of Age Story

Participation and Revision/Final Project

Schedule

University of Guelph College of Arts School of English and Theatre Studies (SETS) Special Topics in Creative Writing English 3090 Sample Course Outline Course Description: This course will provide students with opportunities to write in genres other than fiction, poetry and screenwriting. Each iteration will focus on a particular genre, which might include graphic novels, writing narrative of games, memoir or travel writing. This semester we will be focusing on memoir, a genre in which the writer recollects incidents from her or his life. A memoir, whether one essay or an entire book, focuses on a resonant slice of a life: a dramatic incident; a moment when something happened or came into focus; or a journey of some kind that changed you. This course will approach the genre of the memoir by using writing to examine how our past selves continue to inform our present selves. This class is structured around a series of lectures, discussions, and workshops to help you transform your memoir-essays into compelling narratives. Learning Outcomes: 􀁸 You will sharpen your writing, reading, and thinking skills. 􀁸 You will learn how to establish a dual perspective—you then and you now—through emulation (reading memoirs) and through practice (writing your own memoir essays) . 􀁸 You will gain a deeper understanding of the power of language and of the strategies that are used to move and to persuade us. 􀁸 You will read and write as a way of understanding who you are as an individual and as a member of a family and of larger groups. 􀁸 You will write to reach an audience with your ideas, your information, and your personal stories 􀁸 You will learn to substantially revise your own writing using instructor comments and peer reviews. 􀁸 You will learn to use writing techniques such as scene making, character development, sensory details, metaphor, exposition, and reflection as you explore your own history. 􀁸 You will learn to be part ofa conference group with classmates by analyzing and editing their work. Required Text: Claxton, Eve, ed. World’s Best Memoir Writing: The Literature of Life from St. Augustine to Nelson Mandela. Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2007. Methods of Evaluation: Memoir Assignment \#1 20% Memoir Assignment \#2 20% Major Critical Essay 15% Revision/Final Project 30% Participation 15% Assignments: Memoir Essay One: A Literacy Narrative (1500-2400 words) This personal essay explores the impact of learning—specifically reading or writing—on your early life. Examples: bedtime stories as an evening ritual; how Aunt Sally taught you to read; how you loved or hated your elementary school reading group; how Sunday school coloring books brought Bible stories to life; about how you read a book that changed your life in middle school; about how you loved or hated a high school English class or teacher (or, often, both). As with any memoir, it’s good to focus on a single event or experience that took place during a relatively brief period of time. Critical Essay (1500-1800 words): Pick the memoir that spoke most powerfully to you so far and explain how the author achieved her desired effects to draw you in using technique (e.g.: unfolding events, characters, voice, style, reflection, scene) . Examine how and where the writer comments from the present on the emotional import of past events. You can also use another memoir as a secondary source to show how another writer used the technique(s) . Memoir Essay \#2: A Coming of Age Story (1500-2400 words) We write memoirs to explore our past and to convey to others a key experience and our feelings about it. Memoirs capture an important moment, usually one involving conflict or drama or a question to be resolved. About seventy percent of memoirs deal with painful subjects and the rest are comic or humorous. Examples of all types include a death or divorce in the family, a defeat or triumph in sports, a major injury or illness, the experience

FAQs

What genre focus does English 3090 use this semester?

The course focuses on memoir, emphasizing how writers recollect incidents from their life and how past selves inform present selves.

What learning outcomes are targeted in the course?

Students strengthen writing, reading, and thinking skills; develop a dual perspective; understand language and persuasive strategies; and practice techniques such as scene making, sensory detail, metaphor, exposition, and reflection.

How is student performance evaluated?

Evaluation includes Memoir Assignment #1 (20%), Memoir Assignment #2 (20%), a Major Critical Essay (15%), a Revision/Final Project (30%), and Participation (15%).

Sep 22, 2026

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