“The Autogeographical Map”

Katharine Harmon’s You Are Here gives us a number of “personal geographies,” from memory maps to maps of the body, from dream maps to experiential maps. These maps are not traditional maps from a bird’s eye view, but rather maps of practices and perspectives. Through them, spaces become stories or metaphors. Now it’s your turn. For this short paper, you will be mapping your own personal geography.

The goals of this paper are:

• To stress the importance of genres and the differences between their styles, audiences, and strategies.
• To use a visual as evidence in support of an argument about yourself.
• To understand how compositional strategies for visual arguments differ from those of written arguments.
• To consider how we represent ourselves (e.g., what we tell or don’t tell our audiences) through visuals.

Part I: Based upon the maps on pages 20 through 63 in You Are Here, compose a visual that tells your audience something about you. Be creative. Use whatever medium or media that you are most comfortable with in order to make your visual. You could draw something by hand. Or use Photoshop/Fireworks. Or paint. Or take some photos. Or make a video. Your approach is your decision.

Part II: After you compose your personal map, write a formal, one-page letter to your 131 peers in which you describe how your personal map makes an argument about who you are and who you are not. Here, the emphasis is on HOW, not what, you say.

In the letter, address the following: When composing your map, what strategic choices did you make? How does your map serve as evidence of who you are or are not? Why did you choose your particular medium to represent yourself?

All Example Writing Prompts:

Four prompts for short, “response” papers:

Writing Prompt 1: “The Autogeographical Map”

Writing Prompt 2: “Capturing Evidence”

Writing Prompt 3: “What’s Missing?”

Writing Prompt 4: “Re-Mapping”

And one prompt for a longer paper:

Writing Prompt 5: “This Map Matters”

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