The project I plan to pursue for my ENG C625 course is to help someone who I believe has had a very interesting life tell her story, as either a biographical work or an assisted memoir. This is an idea I've had for quite some time, and am grateful for this impetus to pursue it now.

For this week, we are to lay some groundwork for our project. I don't know if these qualify as research questions, but they are issues I've wrestled with while determining whether to pursue this project:

> How do we decide whether a person's life story is "worthy" of being told?
> Who deems whether or not a life is "interesting enough" to record?
> Must a writing project necessarily be potentially publishable or of commercial interest in order to be pursued?
> Will readers only care about a person's story if he/she a celebrity, or can the uniqueness of a life generate others' interest?
> How can I best help my friend elucidate her story while keeping the writing uniquely mine?

> Will this in-depth ethnography stand alone with its qualitative aspect? In such a project where might I find quantitative aspects? (Perhaps the latter will come from accompanying genealogical research.)