- Next, list a half dozen or so possible answers. Be open-minded and creative
in your approach, being careful not to rule out any option. Consider objects,
events, and people that may have influenced your answer. - Now select one answer that seems most accurate.
STEP 3: Prewriting—Choosing the Organizational Plan
The organization of an autobiography is usually either chronological or cause and
effect. Of the two options explained in the following sections, select the organization
most effective for your purpose.
Chronological. Chronological organization lets you write an autobiography much
the way you tell a story. The paper begins at the beginning and tells the story in a
straightforward manner through a series of events directly to the conclusion. The
conclusion offers some revelation about the writer’s actions, behavior, or beliefs.
A more sophisticated narrative may also include a flashback [see flashback in the
Glossary], a technique that allows the author to skip back in time to offer insight on
a current situation.
Cause and Effect. The cause-and-effect organization [see Chapter 6, Cause and
Effect] forces the writer to deal more specifically with events, situations, objects,
or people and how they affected reactions, behaviors, and beliefs. In this case, the
writer uses one of two approaches:
- In one approach, he begins with the effect and shows how it came to be. For
instance, he may admit that he always feels a kind of nagging terror when he
drives across the two-mile-long suspension bridge near his home. Readers
are left with the expectation that an explanation will follow. The remainder of
the autobiography relates information about some event, situation, object, or
person that explains the long-term nagging terror. - In the other approach, the writer reverses the process and chooses to relate
information about some event, situation, object, or person, allowing the reader
to follow in suspense. The suspense comes from the expectation of a new
insight into the writer.
Choose the organization most effective for your purpose.
STEP 4: Writing—Following the Plan
Develop your autobiographical sketch according to the plan you selected in Step 3.
Include details that allow readers to feel what you have felt, see what you have seen,
think what you have thought. In other words, use good description to involve read-
ers in your own experiences. [See Chapter 10, Description, and Chapter 3, Revising,
Sample Revision for Specific Detail.]
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