ESL Essay, Writing World

Re: Autobiographical Incident

secretsuntold — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 05:52:37 GMT

=D I just wanted to thank you. I followed your second format, and your special golden rule. Now I have a perfect paper infront of me! My first perfect paper in highschool, finally...

Re: Autobiographical Incident

julielai — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 04:24:43 GMT

Interesting. That reminds me of those campfire stories we've seen in movies.

Everybody around the fire relates a supernatural experience...

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 02:53:22 GMT

MrPedantic,

Great, thank you!

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

MrPedantic — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 02:47:07 GMT

Hello MountainHiker

The Autobiographical Incident would be the quest for information about
how to write up an autobiographical incident.

The writer would ask his friends for advice. Each friend would tell a
story about himself.

The writer would return home in despair. He would seemingly never learn
how to write up an autobiographical incident.

There the story would 'end'.

But in fact, each of the embedded narratives would demonstrate a method
of writing up an autobiographical incident.

MrP

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 02:24:04 GMT

MrPedantic,

(Maybe you could use this in your essay. You asked people for help in writing
up your autobiographical incident, and instead, you just heard a lot about
theirs.)

Please expand and elaborate.

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

MrPedantic — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 02:04:49 GMT

Sorry, Secrets. But you have to admit, there is a certain irony to the
situation. And your screen name was asking for trouble...

(Maybe you could use this in your essay. You asked people for help in writing
up your autobiographical incident, and instead, you just heard a lot about
theirs.)

But back to business.

One simple structure for an autobiographical incident is:

1. X happened.
2. X led to Y.
3. If X had not led to Y, I would not now be (doing) Z.

Or:

1. X happened today.
2. X reminded me of Y, which happened some years ago.
3. Because I remembered Y, I did Z, which I wouldn't
otherwise have done.

Another trick is to find an anecdote that appeals to you - maybe a
story about a famous person. Work out how the story is structured.
Then use the same structure in your incident.

One golden rule when writing autobiography: it doesn't have to have
happened. Or if it did happen, you don't have to tell it exactly as it
happened. Take an incident and make it better. Autobiography is
simply a very special kind of fiction.

MrP

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 22:37:01 GMT

Lol. See you ask an innocent question, and you just never know where your question will lead.

As mentioned, I don't have any experience writing autobiographical essays. So I can't offer any insightful comments. But I would add, unless you're a professional, stay away from your own specially created words. English has a very rich vocabulary already.

Good luck.

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

secretsuntold — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 22:19:33 GMT

I guess er, thank you?

Re: Autobiographical Incident

julielai — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 02:45:20 GMT

haha. Your posts have always been so informative and amusing.

Re: Autobiographical Incident

MrPedantic — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 00:45:09 GMT

after a futile hunt for cheap lunchable gourmet

I misread it as 'a futile hunt for a cheap lunchable gourmet'.

Thus articled, it made perfect sense. I assumed that J. was looking for
a gourmet who would make a convivial lunching partner while
understanding the need for certain economies.

'Lunchable' by analogy with Dr Johnson's 'clubbable': 'a clubbable
fellow', a fellow one would like to have in one's club.

Most gourmets are not particularly 'lunchable', I would guess.

'Gourmet' for 'gourmet [food]' is intriguing. It seems to require a
dismissive tone:

'What's that you're cooking?'
'Oh, just some gourmet.'

MrP

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 22:36:23 GMT

Hi Julielai,

Just sloppiness on my part, I suppose. And you are right to call me on it. Now when someone else reads this thread, their understanding is increased. That's good.

Native English speakers don't always use the exact proper tense. Most of us never actually studied tenses. We just say and write as we normally speak. It wasn't until I learned a second language that I became aware of some of the nuances.

I could or should have written, "I corrected your prior post." Or, "I have corrected your post."

Hope that helps.

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

julielai — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 22:26:43 GMT

Thanks for respecting our differences. I do appreciate that.

Okay, I'll fire away:

You said: I had corrected your prior post. Why past perfect?

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 22:17:38 GMT

Julielai,

If you have a question about tenses, then by all means ask away.

You've expressed your point of view and I've expressed mine. Though I don't agree with your viewpoint on grammar versus content, I do think you put forward your arguments in a well written fashion. I think that is fair.

I know your position, and you know mine.

Peace!

MountainHiker

Re: Autobiographical Incident

julielai — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 22:00:25 GMT

We can quibble about this forever and ever. This is rather pointless.

People who will agree with me already do, and those who won't, won't.

As long as we practise what we preach, we are trying our best.

I wasn't playing typo tag, by the way. I actually had a question about your past perfect tenses.

Re: Autobiographical Incident

anon1 — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 21:32:13 GMT

Julielai,

As far as the socioeconomic aspects of your post are concerned, I have no opinion. I don't care if the person I am helping is rich or poor; black or white or yellow or purple or any other color. I don't care about their nationality nor their upbringing. I donât care about the person is a he or she, short or tall, thin or fat. I don't care about their previous teachers or their prior experiences. I don't care about their past essays or their past marks. I don't care if they skipped school or were writing champions. None of this makes any difference to me.

All I care about in this forum is that people learn by putting forward a strong effort. While content is important, a student needs to learn the basics as well. Without the basic constructs, students are unable to express more complex thoughts in a coherent and easily understood fashion. And unfortunately, when we have gaffes in our writing, other people notice our gaffes and then tend to dismiss the rest of our message. Fair or not, thatâs reality.

So I am going to continue to emphasize correctness. I am not going to skip over something that is overtly incorrect because most of us can decipher the authorâs true intent. I am going to call it out and correct it. Itâs important.

Judging by the reaction your post has received, you can see that correctness plays an important role. Inappropriate or incorrect words catch peopleâs attention.

So this isnât just a different opinion or different point of view. Rather, this is about trying your best. If you know something is incorrect, then change it. I reject argument that content is more important than grammatical structure because the latter is just mechanics. They are both important and you need to do both well in order to communicate effectively.

MountainHiker