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Project 3 – Custodians of Memory

Mini Assignment 3

To get us thinking about our third and final writing project, Dr. Robertson assigned a mini assignment that got us thinking about our family and the traditions we have. I wrote about the food we eat and make for dinners and get-togethers, and about Christmas.

Below are my answers to the questions for mini assignment three.

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Project 3

Before starting project three, we had to write a proposal letter to Dr. Robertson proposing the project we wanted to do. Using the answers from the food question in my mini assignment, I thought that it would be a great idea to create a cookbook of family favorite recipes and include stories / memories associated with each one of them.

I had a lot of fun completing this project because I was able to interview multiple family members about their favorite recipes and the memories or stories that are associated with them. I also learned a lot and was able to hear about and document stories I have never heard of before.

I struggled with the size of this project. My family has made many dishes over the years and it was hard to decide which to include and which could be added later–which is the goal for this project. I also wanted to interview most of my close family, which is about 10 people. However, when I proposed the project, Dr. Robertson suggested between four and six. I ended up doing nine interviews and have included 30 recipes. I interviewed my family members over the fall break we had and that is why I ended up with so many. Though the size of my project was pretty big, I believe that it is well put together, organized, and really creative.

My audience for this project is my family and my purpose of this project was to document the recipes and memories that my family has, but also show how food connects us as a family. My genre is a cookbook because this project consists of a collection of recipes.

The recipes are organized by appetizer, entrees and casseroles, side dishes, etc. Each section has a divider page with the name of the section, as well as a collage of family pictures. I believe this adds a personal touch and will appeal to my audience because it shows that this is about our family.

I included an introduction to the cookbook to explain my purpose and audience for the project and I wrote a letter to future generations as my conclusion. In my letter I asked future generations and family members to continue to add to this cookbook by adding more recipes and memories. The letter was a nice way to end the cookbook, but also reinforced my purpose and audience for the book.

This was a great project and one that I will continue to work on throughout my life.

Below you will find my first rough draft, second rough draft, and my final draft and self-assessment.

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