Literacy Narrative : Police Reports

Description

Assignment: A Literacy Narrative will engage you in an exploration of your literacy history, habits, and processes so that you can better understand yourself as a reader and writer and how your past literacy experiences influence your present and future. The Literacy Narrative will be roughly a 7-10-page project you will draft, and revise based on feedback from your peers and instructor.

This Literacy Narrative will be Divided into Three Parts

(Part 1) Your Writing History (approx. 2-4 pages): Like any Narrative, this text will tell a story and be autobiographical in nature. A Literacy Narrative focuses on personal experiences with literacy (speaking, writing, reading, and the like) in order to confirm the importance of these rhetorical experiences in a person’s life. In order to take your Writing History Letter to the next level, you must first read these famous examples of a Literacy Narrative to inform your revision:

Alexie “The Joy of Reading and Writing- Superman and Me”
Sante “Living in Tongues”
Malcolm X “Learing to Read”

Your Writing History Letter is a draft and should be a tool that propels you to the next level. In order to move your letter to an edited autobiographical text which tells a story, I need you to expand on your ideas and consider the following questions (do not answer them all—these are just prompts to get you thinking about how to shape your story):

What is your earliest memory of reading and writing?
How did you learn to read and write? Did you ever teach anyone else to read or write?
Who encouraged you to read and write?
What events interrupted and/or slowed down your ability and/or desire to read and write?
Did you apply literacy skills to other content areas: sports, music, video games, etc.?
What kinds of reading have you done in your past and what kinds of reading to you do now?
What teachers had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
What assignments had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
Have different schools or other institutions had an impact on your reading and writing?
How do you currently feel about reading and writing?
What rewards have come from reading and writing?
Was there a moment or moments that were especially empowering?

(Part 2) The Writer’s Portrait and Analysis (approx. 3-5 pages): Now that you’ve explored the moments which have shaped the writing you are today—we need to take a look at some of the text’s you’ve composed along the way. The analysis portion of the Literacy Narrative should be the longest and informed by Threshold Concepts from Writing about Writing 4e Wardle & Downs.

You need to choose a minimum of three texts you’ve written previously that you’d like to analyze. Note: you cannot write new texts now just to analyze them, as this defeats part of the purpose of the activity. To create some variety in the rhetorical situations of the texts, your three texts must cover both of the following categories:

Compositions for an academic purpose (this could be something you wrote for a previous course, for a scholarship, for an application, to communicate with a teacher, etc.)
Compositions for a purpose outside of coursework and school-related purposes (this could be creative writing for personal enjoyment, a poem or journal entry, a speech you wrote, an email conversation with a family member, a series of social media posts, a text message thread, a journal entry, a promotion you created for an organization you’re in, etc.)

Print your texts and conduct a meta-analysis on all of them using Annotation Strategies found here: How to Annotate Texts. A Meta-analysis or annotation, is just a close reading of your own work. In a meta-analysis, you are responding to a text as a reader. The goal of this activity is to capture your reactions to your own writing so that you can gain the “distance” to develop as a more critical self-reader and, eventually, self-reviser. To complete the meta-analysis, create annotations (including markings and verbal comments) just as you would in the annotation process, and avoid the urge to revise, “fix,” or reword any of the text. Simply capture your reactions. Because you are the writer whose work you’re annotating, your meta-analysis should also consider:

Where are the moments your thinking became unclear in the writing? What do you think happened as you created this part of the text?
Where are the moments you notice fabulous clarity and language for what you meant? What do you remember about how you created this part of the text?
What is the genre for this text?
How did each part of that rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, message, and so on) “show up” in the writing? How did audience and purpose influence your choices in each text?
What are the take-aways about this writing that you want to remember for the future?

Compose an analysis using what you discovered during your meta-analysis as the argument, which should address the question Who am I as a writer? The essay should use cited evidence from the three texts to create and support that argument. If you’re not sure how to begin drafting after your meta-analysis, consider how evidence from your meta-analysis might help you address the prompts below: please note that you do not have to address all these prompts in your essay, and if you do use these prompts to help you draft, be sure to reorganize your essay during the revision process so that the structure fits your particular argument.

What are the most important observations made during the meta-analysis stage?
What types of patterns or themes do you see connecting these three texts? Or what are the rhetorical factors that made these three texts very different?
In which of these three rhetorical situations did you feel most comfortable composing? Why do you think that was?
Where in these three texts did you see traces of your identity or experiences? Which forces do you think have shaped how you write?
Which of your discoveries about yourself will be most important to you as you keep developing as a writer?

(Part 3) Strategy for Future Development (2-3 pages): With the narrative and rhetorical analysis complete, you are now in a position to forecast goals for your writing development. The final stage of the Literacy Narrative asks you to reflect on your strengths as a writer and uncover areas where you want to grow. This strategy for Future Development might be informed by but is not limited to the following areas of exploration:

What kinds of communication, writing, reading, and literacy requirements do you need to finish your degree program? Where do you need to grow?
What areas of writing and communication practice inform the career field you want to enter? Where do you need to grow?
How did the process of practicing metacognition and reflecting on your own past thinking and work help you learn more about your identity and own literacy?
After reading the course objectives and reflecting on the first weeks of class, how can Advanced Composition move you closer to these goals?

Literacy Narrative Paper Requirements:

Page length requirement is 7-10 pages (margins need to be 1 inch, 12 pt. font TNR or similar) no tricks—I know them all and this length requirement is strictly enforced.
Works Cited or Reference page (MLA Style or the citation style from your discipline) note: you do not need to “cite yourself” as you use and quote previous texts. I do expect that you cite any of our course texts that inform your reflection
Written in 1st person perspective