Writing Your Testimony & Memoir

Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course teaches you to write your testimony as true, well-crafted memoir. You will learn why testimony matters, how memoir differs from autobiography, how to find the shape of your story, and how to build living scenes with memory and the five senses. You will practice showing instead of telling, discover your own voice, and learn to write about hard things at a safe pace and about other people with honesty and care. You will finish with a complete testimony or memoir piece of 2,500 to 4,000 words (or the handwritten equivalent) that is yours to keep. Every activity can be completed by hand on paper.

Faith Integration

Psalm 107:2 calls the redeemed to say so. Your story is a record of what God has done, and Revelation 12:11 says the saints overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. In this course we write with grace and truth: honest about the past without glamorizing it, honest about pain without being ruled by it, and honest about redemption without forcing a tidy ending. Your story belongs to you. You decide what to share, when, and with whom.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain from Scripture why testimony matters, including Revelation 12:11 and Psalm 107:2.
2. Distinguish memoir from autobiography and choose a focused slice of your own story.
3. Shape a story using a before, turning point, and after structure.
4. Build vivid scenes using memory, the five senses, action, and dialogue.
5. Use showing and telling with purpose and write in your own authentic voice.
6. Write about hard experiences at a safe pace using grounding practices and support.
7. Write about other people ethically, protecting privacy and avoiding legal and personal harm.
8. Write redemption and forgiveness honestly, with grace and without glamorizing the past or forcing a tidy ending.

Course Materials

• This student workbook
• A Bible (King James Version)
• A dedicated writing notebook or lined paper and a folder
• Pen or pencil (devices are optional; every assignment may be handwritten)

Weekly Schedule

How You Will Be Graded

To pass this course: earn 70% or higher overall and attend at least 80% of sessions.

Classroom Covenant

• We begin and end each session in prayer. Participation in prayer is always welcome, never required.
• What is shared in class stays in class. We protect one another's stories.
• We speak with respect, listen without interrupting, and disagree with grace.
• We come prepared, do our own work, and ask for help when we need it.
• We follow all facility rules. Safety and security come first.
• We believe the best about one another and about what God can do.

Support & Accommodations

If reading, writing, vision, hearing, or any other need makes a part of this course harder, tell your instructor privately. Materials can be read aloud, enlarged, or completed orally. Missed sessions can be made up using the module pages. If you are transferred or released, your completed work stays on record and you can finish online.

Welcome

Welcome to Writing Your Testimony & Memoir. This companion walks beside you with a weekly reading, five devotions for the days between sessions, and a Quick Guide of story tools to keep inside your notebook cover. Your story belongs to you. Nothing in this companion asks you to share more than you choose, and every page can be used with a pen and paper.

How to Use This Companion

• Read the weekly reading after each class session. It takes about 10 minutes.
• Reflect on the questions. These are for you; you do not have to turn them in.
• Meet with God through the five daily devotions between sessions.
• Keep the Quick Guide at the end to carry home after release.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.— Psalm 119:105 (KJV)