Narrative Essay

Flynn 3

Writing Project #1: The Literacy Narrative Essay

Project Description:

Language and identity are inseparable. As we examine this connection, our first task is to reflect on how we learned to use language; so your first formal essay deals with writing a literacy narrative, which I define as a text that describes, reflects, analyzes, and simply tells the story of the writer’s relationship with language (reading and/or writing), including how one’s culture and economic status influences his/her learning.

In this Project, you will relate an experience or event that seems to have been important in shaping the kind of writer and/or reader you have become. Alternatively, you can also relate an experience that illuminates the role of literacy in your life. The purpose of the assignment is to explore this experience in order to gain insight into who you are as a writer and/or reader and to examine the role literacy plays in your life.

Project Objectives:

· to relate/describe/narrate one’s experiences with literacy – reading, writing, or any form of learning/education

· to write a clear, interesting personal narrative with few grammatical errors

· to write an organized essay with logical transitions and coherent paragraphs

· to format an essay according to MLA conventions

Essay Content:

For this assignment you might choose a discrete event that was somehow important in your development as a writer and reader, a series of related events, or a phase or period of your life in which certain literate activities figured prominently. You might, for example, tell the story of an especially important moment in your life that profoundly shaped you as the literate person you are today; that moment could be related to a specific school assignment or a specific text that you read or wrote (e.g. a book that deeply influenced you or an important letter that you had to write) that was significant to you for some reason. By contrast, you might focus on a time period during which you had experiences that affected you as a writer or a reader. For example, you might have taken a specific college course that shaped you as a writer or met a teacher or faculty member who became an important influence in your life as a writer or reader. Or you might write a narrative that is some variation of all these.

Whatever experience you choose to focus on, keep in mind that it should be central in some way to your development as a writer and/or reader. You are trying to present your literate self to your readers (your classmates); that is, you are trying to convey a sense of who you are as a writer/reader and how you became that literate person. You are also telling a story that might offer insight into yourself as a literate person and into literacy in general.

Remember, too, that although this essay will be autobiographical, it is not to be an autobiography. In other words, you are not trying to tell the comprehensive history of your development as a literate person; rather, this should be a narrative of a specific experience or set of experiences that helped transform you into the literate person you are.

Potential Topics or Subject Matter:

· Analyze how cultural, societal, and/or familial influence or affect your literacy development

· Examine or explain what it means to be a literate person

· Examine or explain the connections between language and identity

· Narrate an early memory about writing or reading that you recall vividly, then explain why this event is significant to you now

· Describe someone who taught you to read or write and explain this person’s significance in your life

· Identify a book or other text and explain its significance for you in your reading and writing

· Narrate an experience with a writing or reading task that you found (or still find) difficult or challenging.

· Describe a memento and explain how it represents an important moment in your reading/writing development

Important Elements of your Literacy Narrative:

· State the main idea of your narrative somewhere in your introduction, and then make certain that every supporting paragraph relates to and supports that main idea.

· Develop the significance of your experience

· Organize your paragraphs in a logical way using topic sentences

· Use concrete, vivid descriptions and focus on a single event

· This essay is part narrative (the story of the moment or event), part reflective (your analysis of how that moment or event impacted or affected you), and part analysis (your overall understanding of literacy and being a literate person).

Essay Requirements:

· Microsoft Word Document

· Length: 1000 words AND 5 paragraphs (minimum)

· Adheres to standard MLA document design guidelines for heading, header, spacing, font, etc.

· No use of 2nd person PoV (except for dialogue)

· Includes a creative title that reflects the content of the essay (i.e. NOT Essay #1)

· A strong thesis that makes a statement about your past or present relationship with language, literacy, and/or education.

· A conclusion that reflects and broadens your thesis to address your planned relationship with language, literacy, and/or education.

Assessment

See the sample essay rubric for specifics, but generally speaking your essay will be evaluated on the following criteria:

· Following directions: How well the essay conforms to the MLA format and basic requirements listed above and in the Course Information Sheet

· Fulfilling the prompt: How well you’ve told a focused and detailed story about your literacy development and offered a reflection upon that development

· Writing Clearly: How well the essay uses clear, coherent, and correct sentences

· Organizing ideas: How well paragraphs move from idea to idea in a coherent way through use of transitions, and if the paragraphs begin and end in logical places

· Offering details: setting, environment, time of day or year, people involved in the story (age, clothes, etc.)

Project Deadlines

1. First Draft (50 points)

a. Due NLT 11:59 PM on Wednesday 27 Jan. 2021 (Turnitin Submission)

2. Smarthinking Response (25 points)

a. Due NLT 11:59 PM on Sunday 31 Jan. 2021 (Blackboard Upload)

i. The RESPONSE from Smarthinking is due, NOT YOUR ESSAY. This means you will need to upload your essay at least 2 days BEFORE this due date (I recommend you upload the First Draft since that is due on Wednesday).

3. Final Draft (100 points)

a. Due NLT Sunday 31 Jan. 2016 NLT 11:00 PM (Turnitin Upload)

4. Revised Final Draft (Optional – more information later)

a. Due date will be announced once I am finished grading/commenting on the Final Draft.

Tips!

· Avoid beginning the essay by offering a generalized statement about this topic or by defining the word “literacy.” This is more personal than that. It’s a combination of Narrative Essay (one that tells a story) and Reflection Essay (one that looks back and analyzes). The Narrative part should be focused on you and an important moment (or moments) in your life. The Reflection part is discovering how that moment (or those moments) impacted your life knowing what you know now.

· Offer details! Describe the setting (where and when), other characters/people (age, appearance), anything that played a part in the importance of the moment and why it has stuck with you this long.