What is an obituary?

Option 1: Create your Obituary
What is an obituary? Your answer will no doubt include the word “death” in it, and “death” might even be that one word which attempts to control your thinking and steer you toward the potentially gloomy side of this assignment. However, nothing should be further from your thinking than the idea of “death.” An obituary is the written acknowledgement of a person’s life, not death. Plain and simple: this assignment is about life not yet lived – the life you want and dream about living.
DIRECTIONS: You will be writing your own formal obituary. It must be written in the third person (he, she, it) and past tense (“He lived a long and happy life”), as if you have already lived the life you are writing about. You may have moral or religious reasons for not wanting to complete this option, and therefore, you will want to choose Option 2 (See below).
Your paper should be at least 2 pages in length, double-spaced, and clearly written.
You must include the following information in order to receive full credit:
Birth date and birth place (e.g. April 3, 1987 – Saint Vincent’s Hospital.)
Death date, death place, and how you died (e.g. January 1, 2080 – Mars – atmosphere diving?)
What you did (e.g. painter, doctor, plumber, teacher, pilot, politician, poet, musician)
Who you leave behind (e.g. wife, husband, children, friends, etc.)
You should also consider additional things you did or enjoyed in your life. Here are a few things to consider before you begin (that you may choose to include):
What do I like or love to do?
What subjects or activities interest me the most?
Can what I like or love to do be turned into a full-time activity, job, or hobby when I grow older? (Example: If I love to listen to music, I could become a musician or music producer.)
Do colleges/universities offer it as a subject I can study further and get a degree for?
Where will I live? (Remember, in this assignment, as in life, you may live wherever you choose – and ask yourself this: Do I have to live on Earth?).
Does where I live reflect who I am or what I want to do? (e.g., If I want to work with Alaskan Polar Bears, living in Los Angeles probably won’t help my career.)
What do I do in my spare time (e.g. read, play soccer, dance, paint, hike, etc.)? And ask yourself, “Will I still like to do when I’m older what I like to do now?”
Am I married? Do I have a life partner? Do I prefer to be alone?
Do I have children? How many? (Remember, having children takes a lot of responsibility and a lot of time, so try and be serious about what you do for a living and how you will be able to afford having children.)
Do I have grandchildren? Great Grandchildren? Nieces and nephews, cousins and aunts and uncles? Who will I leave behind when I die?
Option 2: Writing a Memior
You may choose this option if you have moral or religious reasons for not choosing Option 1, or simply because you prefer it as an option. For this option, you will write a memoir. A memoir is not the same thing as an autobiography. “An autobiography is likely to cover one’s birth to the present.” (taken from https://www.jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/Links to an external site.)
“A memoir draws on selected anecdotes from your life to support a theme and make a point. For instance, if your point is how you came from some unlikely place to where you are now, you would choose scenes from your life to support that.” (taken from https://www.jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/Links to an external site.)
For example, “maybe you came from:
The wrong side of the tracks
A broken home
Having been a victim of abuse
Addiction
An orphanage
To a position of:
Wealth
Status
Happiness
Health
Faith
You might start with memories that show how bad things once were for you. Then you would show pivotal experiences in your life, important people in your transformation, what you learned, and how you applied certain principles to see this vast change.” (taken from https://www.jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-memoir/Links to an external site.)
5 Tips for Starting Your Memoir (taken from https://www.rd.com/advice/work-career/great-tips-on-how-to-write-your-memoir/Links to an external site.)
Write memoir, not autobiography.
An autobiography is the story of an entire life, but a memoir is just one story from that life. You can only ever write one autobiography, but you can write countless memoirs. It’s a much less intimidating project if you view it that way.
Diagram your life.Some people have one burning story to tell. Others find it difficult to immediately pinpoint anything. Tristine Rainer, author ofYour Life as Story, recommends diagramming your life to gain perspective. To do this, get in a retrospective mood, enlist the help of a friend or spouse, and plot your life’s six most significant moments. When you do it thoughtfully and honestly, there will usually be one pivotal event that stands out as particularly intriguing and/or meaningful. If there isn’t, don’t worry. There are many different ways to diagram a life. Try dividing yours by critical choices, influential people, conflicts, beliefs, lessons, even mistakes. Experiment until you find the one story that wants to be told, the one experience that really fashioned you.
Don’t begin at the beginning.
Don’t tell your story chronologically. That’s too predictable. Think of your favorite books. Most don’t start at the beginning. Instead they rivet you with instant action and intrigue. A good beginning is a tease. It gives readers just enough action to hook them without divulging the outcome. Then it flashes back to the real chronological beginning and fills in the background.
Use all your senses.
The best writers create vivid new worlds for readers to inhabit. Yet most budding memoirists produce first drafts that are flat. To transport readers (and yourself), write vividly. This is done through detail, by using all your senses to fully re-create a moment in time. You can teach yourself to do this. The next time you’re waiting in a restaurant, a doctor’s office, or even in traffic, notice the various sights, sounds, smells, and textures. It’s what writers do, both in reality and in their stories.
Build your writing muscle.
You have a writing muscle, and it needs exercise to perform well. Set a daily goal of writing 200, 500, or even 1,000 words. Set aside a regular time, like early morning, and be disciplined. Don’t worry about making what you write perfect. Just focus on getting the story out. (There will be plenty of time for polishing later.) Above all, relax. Memoir is the easiest type of writing to do well. You’ve already done the research and are intimately familiar with every character. Now you just need to tell it.
So, write a memoir of at least 2 pages in length that tells a story from within your life. Your paper should be typed and double-spaced, and should include at least one major story from your life. This memoir should be written in the first person, because it’s a story from your life.
General Assignment information:
Regardless of the option you choose, your paper should be free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It should be at least 2 pages in length.

My Birthday：17 Apr. 2002

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