Below appears a version of the literacy narrative assignment sheet that was distributed in class; more information may yet be forthcoming, so check back for updates. Some emendations were made to suit divergent media, as webpages format differently than printed text.
The English Department notes that for the first major paper in Composition I, the literacy narrative, “Students will write a 3-5 page narrative that explores their experiences with literacy and creates a dominant impression of a single event and its significance.” The term literacy is generally used to refer to the ability to decode and interpret written text; that is, literacy usually means the ability to make the funny marks on a page mean strange sounds that mean ideas that make sense. Its achievement marks the ability of the mind to operate at multiple levels of abstraction, so literacy is an important skill of an educated person.
It follows that there are moments in the achievement of or engagement with literacy that greatly influence people, and the literacy narrative is intended to tell the story of one such moment in the writer’s life. In addition, a literacy narrative will connect the writer’s story to broader cultural contexts, situating the story such that readers can benefit from the related experience. For purposes of this assignment, students will be asked to relate a relatively negative literacy experience, working to derive from it some message or idea that later readers can use to their own betterment.
The English Department notes that students successfully completing the assignment will prove themselves able to do the following:
craft a clear, organized narrative that explores the role that literacy plays in the student's life
create vivid, detailed scenes using active voice, strong verbs, and dialogue when appropriate
convey the significance of the event being narrated
create clear, well-edited writing that is free of proofreading errors and errors of grammar, mechanics, and syntax
Development of the listed abilities should be paramount in your mind as you work on the narrative. Being able to tell a story well, to situate it in a context that will help others to understand the story and its relevance to their own situations, and to do so with a minimum of error help you to appear educated, competent, and trustworthy, all of which will be to your benefit.
Submission Guidelines
Drafts for early review are due in advance of the submission draft, so that problems in the narratives may be addressed and strengths enhanced. A hard-copy, typed version of the draft is due at the beginning of class on 24 January 2014 so that it may be reviewed during class time by a classmate; it will be taken as a 10-point minor assignment. An online version must be submitted to the instructor via D2L as a .doc, .docx, or.rtf file before the beginning of class time on 31 January 2014; it will also be taken as a 10-point minor assignment. Both drafts will benefit from being completed or nearly-completed papers; the more work done in advance, the more commentary is possible, and the more use you can derive from those comments. Please be sure to take the comments on early drafts seriously and correct problems in the text as it appears in those early drafts, as it is only in those drafts that revision is possible.
A submission draft—a polished, finished version of the literacy narrative—must be submitted via D2L as a .doc, .docx, or.rtf file no later than the beginning of class time on 7 February 2014; it will count for 100 of the 1000 total points for the course. The score for the submission draft will be calculated according to the following scale:
Clarity and Appropriateness of Narrative Thrust (15 points)
Is there a clear and original story being told about the writer’s own negotiation of an evidently negative literacy experience?
Clarity and Appropriateness of Organization (20 points)
Does the story follow a clear order (usually but not necessarily chronological)?
Is the order one that makes sense in the context of the narrative?
Vividness of Scenes (25 points)
Does the narrative use vivid, specific, concrete language? Is the language it uses appropriate? Does it avoid bombast, cliché, and the trite?
Does the narrative offer appropriately detailed descriptions of character and milieu? If it deploys dialogue, is the dialogue authentic to the characters uttering it?
Clarity and Appropriateness of Significance (20 points)
Is the narrative situated in a broader cultural context than the narrator’s or writer’s life alone?
Is that cultural context one likely to be accessible and relevant to the reader?
Is the situation appropriately made?
Adherence to Assigned Formatting Standards (5 points)
Is the paper submitted through D2L as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file? Is it typed in double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman with one-inch margins, and with headings and page numbers as appropriate? Are paragraphs indented rather than being offset by blank lines?
Adherence to Conventions of Academic American English (15 points)
Is the paper relatively free of errors in proofreading, grammar (including subject/verb agreement, pronoun/antecedent agreement, and sentence fragments), mechanics (including homophone confusion and mistaken spelling and punctuation) and syntax, as defined in the course textbook and in class discussion?
Is the writing in the paper consistent with college-level discourse? Does its vocabulary and phrasing reflect entry into higher education? Do its tone and register reflect academic treatment of the subject being discussed?
Note
The literacy narrative is a personal testimony. Consequently, recourse to outside resources in delivering it is neither expected nor appreciated. At this point, write from your own experience rather than seeking to negotiate the experiences of others. Pulling from outside resources (other than a piece of writing you assert is particularly important to your narrative, as in the case of a given book changing your life as a reader) with citation will incur substantial grade penalties (likely to narrative thrust, vividness, and significance). Pulling from outside resources without citation will be investigated as plagiarism. Please do not do it.
A sample of the rubrics to be used on the instructor review draft and final graded version of the paper are attached as a PDF file below. Sample literacy narratives (which may not all be directed toward the specific assigned prompt) appear on my teaching blog, here.