ENGL 101A

Spring 2017
Unit 1: Literacy Narrative
Final Draft due: Tuesday, February 21st

You will tell your own literacy story, your personal engagement with writing, composing or
discovering something about your identity that is in some way tied to acquiring or gaining a kind of
language or ability

Ideally you will pick an event, person, or stage of life from your past, either positive or negative,
dramatize it, and then explore it with the purpose of coming to some kind of statement, or insight,
about how writing/composing works in your life. You can opt to analyze on some cultural aspect of
language and literacy, similar to Richard Blancos Making a Man Out of Me; examine and question the
ins and outs of your writing process a la Lynda Barry in Two Questions; or question how language
influences your sense of cultural identity via code switching in Anzalduas How to Tame a Wild
Tongue.

You want to tell a good story, with plenty of vivid, juicy, specific, concrete, detail about how you have
been shaped as a writer, composer, or user of language.

To be successful, you will need to:

Engage in the writing process. You will be assessed not only on your final draft, but also on the
revisions and reflections made during the writing process in your multiple drafts. You will have the
opportunity to reflect on these changes in your Statement of Goals and Choices (more on this
soon).
Meet a purpose: open up for the class the rich descriptions of various settings in which
writing/reading/language occurs, the various ways people use writing/reading/language, and the
various social purposes writing/reading/language can serve.
Hang the details on some larger idea, or statement that emerges as you brainstorm, work through
invention strategies, and draft the essay. A successful writing process will reflect the emergence of
an exploratory statement, claim or speculation about the functions, purposes, or social
importance of writing, composition, reading or literacies.
Tell your story it just needs to be some of your truth about writing /language/literacy; it is not
intended to be a superficial, ego-boosting take of the simple joys of literacy that you think I want to
hear. It is supposed to depict some of your experience, your context, in your voice.
Share the experience with your peers the class is your target audience with as much detail and
insight as possible.
Show us your context: what physical, social, or conditional contexts have shaped how you tell your
stories or envision yourself (E.g. gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, nationality, language, etc.)

Though your purpose, audience, and topic have been determined for you, you have free reign over the
genre your composition can take. There are any number of ways to compose this task.
When deciding what form or genre youd like to try or use in the writing process, consider the
following:

Keep an open mind about what you think youd like to do. In preparation for our conferences, Ill ask
you to outline a plan of action that describes at least two different forms/processes for completing
this task.
Be aware of the conventions and expectations of the genre you chose. How will this genre help (or
hinder) you in achieving your purpose? What rhetorical choices will you try along the way as you
work within this genre? Consider a genre weve discussed (and wrestled to cleanly define) Lynda
Barrys Two Questions relies on a specific balance of both words and symbols (e.g. images) to tell a
story about her writing process and represent her mind and way of thinking. Note how she
challenges our expectations by collaging textures, photography, found objects, etc. What does this
decision achieve or suggest about her identity, her story of herself as an artist, or her feelings about
the composing process?
Youll still want to utilize descriptive detail, vivid scenes and reflection to support some issue or
question.
Dont be afraid to experiment with a form that interests you in at least one draft in the writing
process! Risk taking is where great writing emerges!

Nuts and bolts of the Unit:

Final Draft: approximately 3.5-4 pages

Final Statement of Goals and Choices: approximately 2-2.5 pages

For all written work: 12 point Times New Roman, double spaced, 1 inch margins
MLA format: header, page numbers, citations (if applicable) as described in Rules for Writers
Tentative Workshop Drafts due: T 2/2, W 2/15 (bring hardcopies and upload to d2l)
Mandatory Conferences: W 2/8- TR 2/9 (details to come)

Break it down one more time!

Topic: Create a narrative that either tells your literacy story.

Buzzwords to hang in an exploratory claim in your writing: identity, composing, literacy, writing,
writer, reading, stories, narrative, etc.
Purpose: Educate your peers about your identity and the spaces you function as a
writer/composer/reader
Target audience: Your peers (and your teacher)
Context: What experience or histories shape you? What about gender, class, race/ethnicity, age,
sexuality, religion, values, disabilities, etc.?
Form: Your choice of genre. Your SOGC will articulate your rhetorical awareness.