Sample Writing Assignment

Assignment Overview Project 2: Literacy Narrative with Extended Cover Letter

Literacy Narrative

            → First, a little about the genre. A Narrative Essay tells a (non-fiction) story to make a point (thesis).  Narrative Essays are typically autobiographical, and draw heavily on the author's memory of significant past experience; the author looks back, re-views, and (re)interprets one's past from the vantage point of the present.  Often, the goal is to help us better understand who we are today (our identity), why we are who we are, and how we came to be who we are. We will be spending some time going over the narrative genre in order to introduce you to common rhetorical features of the genre so that you might imitate the style in your own writing.

            But this project asks you to write, specifically, a 750-1300 word literacy narrative that focuses on a significant past experiences in which reading, writing, speaking, listening, or some other form of literacy figures prominently. Literacy narratives focus on key stages or events in one’s development as a literate person. The literacy narrative, then, asks you to do what the narrative does but with a specific focus on literacy; you can discover and evaluate the role(s) literacy has played in your life, reveal the sources of your present attitudes and abilities, deepen your understanding of how/why you have developed into the kind of reader, writer, thinker, communicator that you have become. Some important moments, experiences, or stages of development in your literacy history might include influential events, scenes, people; stages; turning points or moments of insightful realization; failures and/or successes; passages into new, different kinds of language, reading, writing, communication, thinking. Alternatively, since there are many kinds of literacies, your narrative can also address other kinds of literacies, such as visual literacy, computer literacy, science literacy, film literacy, technological literacy, etc.

Essay #1 Requirements and Guidelines

·       An engaging, creative, and well-told 750-1300 word narrative that captures a focused story of a vital piece of your literacy acquisition and how it has influenced your identity.

·       The selection and use of descriptive detail and examples appropriate to your narrative's purpose and audience.

·       A thesis expressing a theory of meaning/significance regarding your described moment—a response to your imagined reader’s “So What” question. You must use your narrative to make a point/argument.

·       This means you must do more than simply narrate and describe your experience. Your narrative must also analyze, interpret, and explain the meaning and significance of the experience.

·       A focus on one single experience (story, event, moment, scene, encounter with an influential person, etc.) or two or three related experiences whose inter-connections you can show and explain, and, taken together, all contribute to your essay’s thesis.

·       Plenty of references and details that give your reader a sense of who you are as a person.

·       A project that is appropriate for an academic audience, and follows the conventions of grammar and punctuation.

·       An Extended Cover Letter that discusses the successes and struggles of the Project, along with a nuanced discussion of the rhetorical goals and impact. 

    Suggestions

·       Use rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) to make your story more effective. Draw from our class discussions on texts from Malcolm X, Sherman Alexie, and Victor Villanueva to incorporate other effective narrative techniques (tone, style, organization, etc.).

·       Dramatize the event by including what people said, did, and thought. Consider using dialogue between the characters in your narrative.

·       Include sensory details that will help the reader to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste what happened.

·       Explain the life context that made this one event significant to you as a person who is from a particular race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, family, or religion.

Extended Cover Letter (these elements are in addition to the general Cover Letter requirements)

·       A list of 3-5 clearly defined Rhetorical Goals for your Project.

·       An explanation of how the course texts informed your Project and thinking about literacy.

·       A discussion that makes important connections between your literacy acquisition, concepts from Brandt, and Gee. Aim to put the sources in conversation with each other and with your experiences.