Mom & ME Relat.: Using old Essay..possible?

Ok! For a class I have to write an essay on an influential relationship. I have an essay that I wrote an long time ago and I want to put it in my paper. I know that I could totally redo the old essay, but that's not what I want to do. I want to some how put that whole old essay on my paper and add on to it. To better explain...I know that you can do essay's where you title the paragraphs...we'll I have two titled essay's. My older one will represent how I felt a long time ago...before graduating HS. The the new one will represent how I feel know while in College. It will be me re-reflecting on me and my mother's relationship and my thought's in the older paper. Is there a particular format for something like this??? Another explanation of what I'm trying to say and what my old paper was about: It was basically about how the relationship between parents and their children (me & my mother) is like the game follow the leader and the child plays as a shadow (me) of his or her parent. Then I go on to basically say that that's the game I no longer play because I'm a Senior becoming my own leader. I want to incorporate this paper into my final project paper. I want use my old paper, but add to it. I want to react and re-reflect on our relationship as of now. It will kinda be like as a dependent child this is what our relationship was like, now I'm a senior and this is how it has change so far and I'm on my way to independence and in the new part I will basically talk about how I'm independent, how it impacts our relationship now that I'm in college....basically re-reflect and talk about her impact on me now. Of course I will answer all of the guideline questions for the project in the newer part of the essay. I just want my essay to show the impact of time, growth and maturity of our relationship.

Note: By the way the old essay was titled "Once My Mother's Shadow" and the New one would be called "Re-Reflecting: A Shadow's Independence" or just "Shadow's Independence."

Well, one interesting approach might be to make it so that this long paper you are writing is about the old paper. Let the old paper be one of the subjects of this long paper. You can write about a time when you wrote this paper, and then you can quote pieces of it.

You can use italics to show the old essay. You can make this whole new paper all about how the current you is reflecting on the old view. It can be great. It will be like a close reading of your own work.

However, if it gets complicated, another approach you can take is simpler: Read through the old paper, making improvements everywhere you can, and when you get to the end, keep writing. If you ordinarily use caffeine, this is where to do it. It is better not to use caffeine, though... At the end, go back and add a new intro. A nice intro that introduces the whole thing, whatever it has become.

Thanks! Great idea's...I will try those...I appreciate you taking the time to help me with my ideas=)