Will Misenheimer

Professor Arnold
UWRT-1101-073
28 September 2015
Literacy Narrative v. Altered Book Reflection Essay
The Literacy project, both the narrative and altered book, challenged me with the objective of
reflecting on my process of literacy into baseball and effectively relaying that story to the reader. I feel
that I was successful in retrieving information and anecdotes from the past; however, I believe that with
the literacy narrative, I was able to much more efficiently deliver the main idea to the reader.
I do not feel that my altered book was ineffective by any means, I just experience a certain
connection with the audience through the descriptive writing of the literacy narrative that simply cannot
be achieved through the altered book. While A picture tells 1,000 words, it cannot concretely mold a
story in the manner that descriptive writing and anecdotes may. The literacy narrative may also include
rhetorical devices, which would be very difficult to portray through visual evidence. For example,
throughout the entirety of my literacy narrative, I constantly alluded to my father and all of the good he
taught me through the game of baseball. While I may show my father supporting me at a baseball game
through a picture of him sitting in his chair with my teams hat, it does not give justice to all of the lessons
he taught me. The only way to effectively show the reader how he helped me is to communicate through
personal stories and evidence by written description.
Despite the fact that my preferences primarily rest with the narrative format, there were some
characteristics of the altered book that were enjoyable and successfully displayed the process of my
literacy in baseball. Just as a viewer may prefer a movie format of a story as opposed to a written edition,
there is a certain connection of visually seeing a character that may dominate having to imagine what a

character may appear as. With the use of the altered book strategy, it is also feasible to clearly compare
and contrast characters or elements of a story. For example, many students compared themselves, most
likely as rookies, to people who are referred to as professionals in their respective subjects of literacy.
Most students did this by including pictures and visual representations of these professionals. When
physically seeing the story come to life in pictures, it may be easier to connect the plot and piece the story
together. This notion ultimately comes down to personal preference.
Regardless of preference in narrative form or altered-book form, most people would agree that a
combination of the two strategies may extract the strengths from both formats to create the ideal
portrayal. If one were to combine illustration with descriptive narrative, the outcome would be a vivid,
attention-grabbing article that effectively delivered the main idea, while providing an accurate physical
description of the plot and attributes of the characters. That being said, many professional authors and
editors include both written description and illustrations in their works. By doing this, they create
excitement and entertainment, which are triggered by the formulation of the two strategies. The narrative
and altered book formats each have their own respective strengths and vulnerabilities, but the
combination of the two would embrace the vital points of each format, while minimalizing the
weaknesses.