Recent Changes

Outline
I. Introduction Paragraph
-Define memoir and explain the genre
-State the thesis
-Introduce ideas and subtopics
*The purpose of writing a memoir
*The benefits to writing memoirs
*Writing is therapeutic
II. Body Paragraph 1
-The purposes of writing a memoir
-The purpose to the author of writing a memoir about a hard past time (child abuse, neglect, etc.)
-Why a memoir doesn’t need to be completely factual
-The difference between a memoir and bibliographies
III. Body Paragraph 2
-The benefits of memoirs to the author (money, healing, sense of importance)
-How the authors’ lives have changed since
-Include author interviews in this paragraph
-Therapeutic writing (Prove that writing is therapeutic)
-Include the credible research that supports that writing is therapeutic.
-The benefits of writing a memoir to other people/society (people learn from memoirs, feel supported if they are going through similar situations)
IV. Conclusion
-Restate the thesis and wrap up the main points clearly and concisely


may not be be completely
A memoir is a piece of autobiographical writing, usually shorter in nature than a comprehensive autobiography. The memoir, especially as it is being used in publishing today, often tries to capture certain highlights or meaningful moments in one's past, often including a contemplation of the meaning of that event at the time of the writing of the memoir. The memoir may be more emotional and concerned with capturing particular scenes, or a series of events, rather than documenting every fact of a person's life
Characteristics of the Memoir Form
Perry, S. (December/January, 2001). Right here, right now. //Psychology Today.//
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Benefits of Therapeutic Writing
By using 'free-flow' techniques, The Writing Journey helps you to break through barriers, inhibitions and internal censors. This allows you to discover previously hidden emotions, lost memories and trapped voices. Through the guided writing exercises, you have the chance to go deep within and to look out with fresh vision.
personal
The Writing Journey enhances personal development, and can lead to positive transformation. We guarantee that you will discover something new on this course.
Self-Discovery: Meet Your Real Self
Get in touch with lost feelings and hidden memories
Access and reassess memories
Explore habitual patterns and assumptions
Deepen self-knowledge
Self-Growth: Improve Yourself
Clarify and develop thoughts
Develop new perspectives
Gain insight into the viewpoints of others
Acquire a wider range and better developed personal voice
Self-Empowerment: Strengthen Yourself
Extend self-awareness
Deepen and expand the understanding of your individuality
Enhance self-esteem
Writing as a Healing Art
Writing about traumatic events is not only beneficial to emotional healing. Professor James W. Pennebaker's research shows that it lowers heart rates, increases the body's resistance to infection, and enhances the sense of overall well-being. It has also been reported to help with asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and post-operative wounds.
Emotional Healing
Release trapped feelings and blocked emotions
Overcome emotional and creative blocks
Develop new interpretations of your personal history
Enhance emotional balance
Physical Healing
Reduce stress levels
Decrease blood pressure
Boost the immune system and resilience
Improve overall physical and health
Other long term health benefits
Left and right brain balance
Protection against damaging internal stress
A record of changes in moods and reactions
Writing to unblock creativity
It sounds like a strange concept - especially if you are a blocked writer - that writing can help you break through barriers to creativity. But it can and does. The spontaneous discovery writing techniques will help in all areas of creativity. You may find that you:
discover a new voice
re-discover lost dreams
uncover hidden hopes and memories
develop fresh views and insights
see past experiences differently
http://www.thewritingjourney.co.uk/benefits.htm

"Dave Pelzer walks readers through the process of learning how to turn the experience gained from past hurts into the power to live a better life and help others do the same with his trademark wisdom, support, and tough love."
----he wrote the book purposely to help others (not only himself)
www.healingstory.org
-a website created for the sole purpose of giving people the benefits of writing
http://sunshineandmoonlight.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/therapeutic-benefits-of-writing/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Everyone has Sunshine and Moonlight in their lives. It's just that my Sunshine and Moonlight has come in the form of Multiple Sclerosis. So, why the name "Sunshine and Moonlight"? When I was diagnosed, I was amazed by the negative terms that were tossed around –bad days, MS days, remission, relapses, episodes, disease progression. All scary. All negative. I've chosen to focus on the positive instead, as I search to find the "new normal" in my life. "Sunshine" — represents my post MS-diagnosis day-to-day life. And, "Moonlight" — represents everything else. As a cancer survivor since 1997 and a Person with M.S. since 2007, I consider myself to be a Patient-Educator, here to help others newly diagnosed and those continuing their battles with M.S. And, this, my friends, brings us to "Sunshine and Moonlight — A Journey with Multiple Sclerosis." Welcome!
Therapeutic Benefits of Writing
January 2, 2008 by Kimberly
During a recent interview with Erie Times-News reporter, David Bruce, who was writing a piece on my M.S. diagnosis and this blog, Dave asked me: “So, Kim, what do you get out of this [writing the blog]?” One of my answers to him was that I find writing to be very therapeutic. Many people journal the stories of their lives. Blogs (short for “Web-logs”) are no different really than journals, albeit electronic, and sometimes public ones.
Since I was a child, I would start journal after journal. I’ve shopped at book stores and writing centers to pick out artfully covered and bound diaries. I usually would buy a new pen or two to help solidify the commitment. I would make written promises between the book and myself that I would write every, single day. If I made it past two, solid weeks of writing each time, I was lucky. As a kid, I worried someone would find my journal and all my secrets would be exposed. Ooh, some of the stories that were held within those sacred pages! As an adult, I just didn’t make the time to write. I write for my doctoral Program, I write for work, I write for my T.V. segments, and I write when necessary. But, I never really made the time to write for me – despite the fact that I truly enjoy the art of writing.
I find it ironic that despite my previously commitment-phobe attitude towards writing, and my earlier fears about secrecy, that now I blog daily and I use a forum accessible to the entire world. There isn’t a way to put one of those cute, little locks, able to be opened with only that tiny, metal key onto my web site. Sure, I can make everyone have to pre-register and be pre-approved to view and comment on my work, but that sorta defeats the whole purpose of blogging, doesn’t it? It now seems natural and easy for me to write each and every day and it doesn’t matter anymore who knows my most personal thoughts and stories. How odd.
“Researchers once believed that the main benefits of writing were purely psychological. But there is new evidence of the health value of forming coherent stories out of the chaotic elements of your personal history” (Perry, 2001). Well, that’s good news, isn’t it? If writing will help both my mental and physical health, I doubt I will face commitment issues any longer. For me, writing helps me to understand my own feelings, attitudes, and innermost thoughts. People used to call it “the power of the pen”, but now it’s often the “power of the keyboard.”
I believe anyone can be or become a writer, regardless of skill, experience, or education level. You really do just have to write about something with which you are familiar, and something that is of personal interest or intrigue. So, if you are seeking a deeper level of peace; a way to reconnect with yourself or to touch others; or just an outlet for your emotions, consider picking up that pen, or turning on that computer. And, for those of you who have read this blog to date, thank you for contributing to my own personal therapy and to my own personal experience.
I’ve posted a number of book recommendations for my readers here. Hopefully, one of these might inspire you to become a writer yourself.
Perry, S. (December/January, 2001). Right here, right now. //Psychology Today.//
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Dave Pelzer’s most recent books, Help Yourself for Teens, is a follow up 2001 self-help book Help Yourself.
Introduction to Therapeutic Writing
Words"Words are a
Through our own written word we communicate our deepest thoughts in order to help us heal. It is a therapeutic tool for self-healing while we deal with the myriad of situations in our lives. Therapeutic writing can be done in different forms:
Writing journals
In a hard scientific study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Pennibaker of the Southern Baptist Church, recorded that if an individual writes for 15-20 minutes per day on an especially difficult matter these individuals' immune system will increase. It remains elevated for six weeks after the journaling episode.
Cancer patients who journal benefit because they can enjoy a high quality of life. Their quality of life which includes, acceptance of the illness, enjoyment of life and relationships, and relationships with family and friends increase as a result of journal work.
benefits of writing.writing."
Denise Lima-Laskiewicz, AAC, CRmT 1 is the owner of Heal Through Words, a NJ-based Therapeutic Writing program for Nursing Home and Assisted Living residents.
http://www.recreativeresources.com/programming-therapeutic-writing.htm
Writing"Writing is therapeutic!
You may have questions about what type of writing would be most helpful for you and how to get started. Would it be journaling, writing poetry, free-writing, meditation and writing, morning pages (see The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron), etc. Then there is the question of what to do with your writing-keep it to yourself, start a blog, try to get it published, show it to friends, put it in a drawer, rip it up when you are frustrated, or join a group?
Your needs, interests, inclinations, and tastes are pivotal. For instance, you notice one day, that you have been writing poetry on the margins of scrap paper that you find in your pockets when doing the laundry, or someone gives you a classy blank journal book for your birthday. Then there could be alchemy and synchronicity-you see an event or group that "speaks" to you and is even happening on an evening or day you can make it. You venture into the visual attic, basement, or garage of your present or past and discover there is a pen and paper waiting for you there inviting you to write.
Turning to poetry, poetry gives rhythm to silence, light to darkness. In poetry we find the magic of metaphor, compactness of expression, use of the five senses, and simplicity or complexity of meaning in a few lines. For example, here's a poetic description of day breaking: As the sun begins with a bowing/ down and a floating up,/ light, a ballerina, pliés and jetés/ with sky in a pas de deux...
Poetry is also healing when read aloud, because of the rhythms, beauty, and connection that can be made with the person who wrote the poem. This connection, the "aha" of meaning, can start a physical and emotional change in the listener. And if you believe that everyone is connected, then someone writing a poem or reading a poem aloud about the recent earthquake in China, hurricanes or cyclones, the war in Iraq, or childhood traumas, can connect us within the human condition, ease our human suffering, give us a concrete way to respond to tragedy.
known and unknown.unknown."
This article was originally published in Open Exchange Magazine, Summer Issue 2008
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/psychology-articles/the-healing-power-of-therapeutic-writing-and-poetry-904091.html#ixzz1EJpAh400
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
http://www.articlesbase.com/psychology-articles/the-healing-power-of-therapeutic-writing-and-poetry-904091.html
While"While in my
I think I've always written as a way to move through the hardships of my life -- to reckon with change, loss, depression, and trauma. DeSalvo's book, though, illuminates the specific psychological implications of writing in the healing process. The key, DeSalvo writes, is to "link feelings to events" in the healing narrative. When writing about our pain, it is important to be specific. She adds, "many researchers have observed that the inability to render pain and traumaexplicitly, describing it instead in vague and general terms, signifies that the person has not yet entered the process of healing."
a Reiki treatment.treatment."
If you're at all interested in learning more about the power of writing as a healing modality, I highly recommend DeSalvo's book. For more information, visitAmazon.
http://www.wellsphere.com/complementary-alternative-medicine-article/healing-through-writing/325893
-At the end of her memoir she talks a little about how her life has changed after writing the book.
-She talks about what happened when her father and step-mother died and how Niang (her step-mother) tried to ide her father's real will so that she would not inherit anything.
Moving Forward: Taking the Lead in Your Life by Dave Pelzer
and http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Forward-Taking-Lead-Your/dp/1599950650
"Self-help expert Dave Pelzer teaches readers how to let go of the past and use negative experiences to make them stronger when tackling the future. "
"Learning from our prior experiences, we can, and should, aspire to fulfill our dreams, making life better not only for ourselves but for others around us," Dave writes in the introduction. "I am of the belief that you do not have to be a mayor of a major metropolis or CEO of a Fortune 500 company in order to take a stand for your convictions; to lead, rally, or educate others for your cause; or to maintain a vision that will pave the way for other generations to come. The everyday, hardworking folks, God bless 'em, have and always will continue to, day in and day out, truly make an impact on their families, communities, jobs, America, and the world as a whole."
-to motivate his readers by the way he was driven to overcome his obstacles and challenges
"Dave Pelzer walks readers through the process of learning how to turn the experience gained from past hurts into the power to live a better life and help others do the same with his trademark wisdom, support, and tough love."
----he wrote the book purposely to help others (not only himself)

hello laurennnnnn
Memoirs {http://schools.penncrest.org/staff/tdouglas/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/memoir.jpg}
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Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella: the true story of an unwanted daughter. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999. Print.
-This book has a follow up of Adeline Yen Mah's views.
-She-At the end of her memoir she talks a
-She talks about what happened when her father and step-mother died and how Niang (her step-mother) tried to ide her father's real will so that she would not inherit anything.

Diana: While still in the hospital I journaled twice a day. Once home I journaled once a day and/or whenever I had the need. The mere act of journaling was very cathartic for me. I was home recovering from surgery on September 11th, 2001. It was a very difficult time for me. My emotions were bubbling over as I was dealing with my own personal loss and the loss to my country and the city of my youth. I speak a lot about this in my book.
I always feel better after expressing myself on the page, during both good and bad times. My times with my journal are precious. It is one way I take care of myself, in the same way I go to the gym or for a beach walk. If you journal on a regular basis, not only do you document the events you are going through, but you also document the feelings, sensations, sights and sounds that you might not recall at a later date and this in and of itself is very healing.
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella: the true story of an unwanted daughter. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999. Print.
-This book has a follow up of Adeline Yen Mah's views.
-She talks a little about how her life has changed after writing the book.
-She talks about what happened when her father and step-mother died and how Niang (her step-mother) tried to ide her father's real will so that she would not inherit anything.

hello laurennnnnn
Memoirs {http://schools.penncrest.org/staff/tdouglas/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/memoir.jpg}
{http://wow-womenonwriting.com/assets/13-FE-AnnetteFix-MemoirWriting-AnnetteFix.gif} {http://www.springfieldpubliclibrary.com/joomla15/images/stories/letter-writing.jpg} {http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/Brain.jpg}


and an autobiography.autobiography.(The purpose of a memoir is not to be completely factual.)
A memoir is a piece of autobiographical writing, usually shorter in nature than a comprehensive autobiography. The memoir, especially as it is being used in publishing today, often tries to capture certain highlights or meaningful moments in one's past, often including a contemplation of the meaning of that event at the time of the writing of the memoir. The memoir may be more emotional and concerned with capturing particular scenes, or a series of events, rather than documenting every fact of a person's life
Characteristics of the Memoir Form

Read more at Suite101: Child Abuse Memoirs and Autobiographies: Why People Read and Write About Childhood Abuse http://www.suite101.com/content/child-abuse-memoirs-and-autobiographies-a106927#ixzz1Cu7O3zuS
Dave Pelzer, author of one of the best-selling memoirs of all time, 'A Child Called "It"' Survived one of the worst cases of child abuse in CA history.
five years. (also provides MONEY- a living)
It is commonly taught in middle and high school English courses, sometimes accompanied by the second volume, The Lost Boy. In both books, though primarily the first, Pelzer describes in harrowing detail the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, who – like his father – was an alcoholic.
Though the audience diminished for each successive installment in the series, both the third volume (A Man Named Dave) and the second have earned tremendous acclaim and inspired warm response from readers. Hundreds of customer reviews on Amazon.com award the latter two books in the series an average review of nearly five stars.