Personal Essays
| In the
introductory (non-research) English Composition courses I teach, I have
often asked my students at some point to write an educational
autobiography. So many students come to college unsure of themselves,
unsure of what they want to do with their lives, and unsure of what
learning really means and how it happens. The educational autobiography
gives them an opportunity to reflect on times in their lives when they
have learned something--about themselves, about a subject, about life.
The process of writing the essay itself often helps teach new lessons as
well.
To help students gain an understanding of what kinds of reflections I am looking for in the essay, I have written a couple of samples over the past few years. I have discovered that I learn a lot about myself and my experiences in doing so and enjoy writing this form. I share here two examples, one dealing with spending time abroad and one dealing with the roles reading has taken in my life. |