The Assignment: Recalling a Personal Experience

Write about an experience that changed how you acted, thought, or felt. Use your experience as a springboard for reflection. Your purpose is not merely to tell an interesting story but to show your readers—your instructor and your classmates—the importance of that experience for you.

We suggest you pick an event that is not too personal, too subjective, or too big to convey effectively to others. Something that happened to you or that you observed, an encounter with a person who greatly influenced you, a decision that you made, or a challenge that you faced will be easier to recall (and to make vivid for your readers) than an interior experience like a religious conversion or falling in love.

These students recalled experiences heavy and light:

One writer recalled guitar lessons with a teacher who at first seemed harsh but who turned out to be a true friend.

Another student recalled a childhood trip when everything went wrong and she discovered the complexities of change.

Another recalled competing with a classmate who taught him a deeper understanding of success.

Generating Ideas

You may find that the minute you are asked to write about a significant experience, the very incident will flash to mind. Most writers, though, will need a little time for their memories to surface. Often, when you are busy doing something else—observing the scene around you, talking with someone, reading about someone else’s experience—the activity can trigger a recollection. When a promising one emerges, write it down. Perhaps, like Russell Baker, you found success when you ignored what you thought you were supposed to do in favor of what you really wanted to do. Perhaps, like Robert Schreiner, you learned from a painful experience.

Try Brainstorming. When you brainstorm, you just jot down as many ideas as you can. You can start with a suggestive idea—disobedience, painful lesson, childhood, peer pressure—and list whatever occurs through free association. You can also use the questions in the following checklist:

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Try Freewriting. Devote ten minutes to freewriting—simply writing without stopping. If you get stuck, write “I have nothing to say” over and over, until ideas come. After you finish, you can circle or draw lines between related items, considering what main idea connects events.

Try Doodling or Sketching. As you recall an experience such as learning to drive, try sketching whatever helps you recollect the event and its significance. Turn doodles into words by adding comments on main events, notable details, and their impact on you.

Try Mapping Your Recollections. Identify a specific time period such as your birthday last year, the week when you decided to enroll in college, or a time when you changed in some way. On a blank page, on movable sticky notes, or in a digital file, record all the details you can recall about that time—people, statements, events, locations, and related physical descriptions.

Try a Reporter’s Questions. Once you recall an experience you want to write about, ask “the five W’s and an H” that journalists find useful.

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Any question might lead to further questions—and to further discovery.

Consider Sources of Support. Because your memory both retains and drops details, you may want to check your recollections of an experience. Did you keep a journal at the time? Do your memories match those of a friend or relative who was there? Was the experience (big game, new home, birth of a child) a turning point that you or your family would have photographed? Was it sufficiently public (such as a community catastrophe) or universal (such as a campus event) to have been in the news? If so, these resources can remind you of forgotten details or angles.

Planning, Drafting, and Developing

Now, how will you tell your story? If the experience is still fresh in your mind, you may be able simply to write a draft, following the order of events. If you want to plan before you write, here are some suggestions.

Start with a Main Idea, or Thesis. Jot down a few words that identify the experience and express its importance to you. Next, begin to shape these words into a sentence that states its significance—the main idea that you want to convey to a reader. If you aren’t certain yet about what that idea is, just begin writing. You can work on your thesis as you revise.

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Notice that Russell Baker describes a positive, life-changing experience, while Robert Schreiner focuses on a more disturbing recollection. To help identify the significance or slant of the experience you want to recall, you might state the most positive or troubling aspects of the experience and make a few notes about why you made these choices.

Establish Your Chronology. Retelling an experience is called narration, and the simplest way to organize is chronologically—relating the essential events in the order in which they occurred. On the other hand, sometimes you can start an account of an experience in the middle and then, through flashback, fill in whatever background a reader needs to know.

Richard Rodriguez, for instance, begins Hunger of Memory, a memoir of his bilingual childhood, with an arresting sentence:

The opening hooks our attention. In the rest of his essay, Rodriguez fills us in on his family history, on the gulf he came to perceive between the public language (English) and the language of his home (Spanish).

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Show Your Audience What Happened. How can you make your recollections come alive for your readers? Return to Baker’s account of Mr. Fleagle teaching Macbeth or Schreiner’s depiction of his cousin putting the wounded rabbits out of their misery. These writers have not merely told us what happened; they have shown us, by creating scenes that we can see in our mind’s eye.

As you tell your story, zoom in on at least two or three specific scenes. Show your readers exactly what happened, where it occurred, what was said, who said it. Use details and words that appeal to all five senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Carefully position any images you include to clarify visual details for readers. (Be sure that your instructor approves such additions.)

Revising and Editing

After you have written an early draft, put it aside for a few days—or hours if your deadline is looming. Then reread it carefully. Try to see it through the eyes of a reader, noting both pleasing and confusing spots. Revise to express your thoughts and feelings clearly and strongly to your readers.

Focus on a Main Idea, or Thesis. As you reread the essay, return to your purpose: What was so important about this experience? Why is it so memorable? Will readers see why it was crucial in your life? Will they understand how your life has been different ever since? Be sure to specify a genuine difference, reflecting the incident’s real impact on you.

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Add Concrete Detail. Ask whether you have made events come alive for your audience by recalling them in sufficient concrete detail. Be specific enough that your readers can see, smell, taste, hear, and feel what you experienced. Make sure that all your details support your main idea or thesis. Notice again Robert Schreiner’s focus in his second paragraph on the world outside his own skin: his close recall of the snow, of his grandfather’s pointers about the habits of jackrabbits and the way to shoot them.

Follow a Clear Sequence. Reconsider the order of events, looking for changes that make your essay easier for readers to follow. For example, if a classmate seems puzzled about the sequence of your draft, make a rough outline or list of main events to check the clarity of your arrangement. Or add more transitions to connect events more clearly. Here are some useful questions about revising your paper:

After you have revised your recall essay, edit and proofread it. Carefully check the grammar, word choice, punctuation, and mechanics—and then correct any problems you find. Here are some questions to get you started:

Also check your paper’s format using the Quick Format Guide. Follow the style expected by your instructor for features such as the heading, title, running head, page numbers, margins, and paragraph indentation.