Literacy Narrative
What: This essay invites you to explore your role as a writer by describing, analyzing, and
reflecting on your experiences as a reader and writer both in and out of school. This
assignment also asks you to consider how context and society influence your writing. The
purpose is for you to connect how your own reading and writing practices influence the
ways you understand and interact with the world (and vice versa).
Why: Composing a literacy narrative teaches you:
1. To read and analyze your own life as a subject worthy of exploration, reflection, and
analysis;
2. To establish a clear connection between seemingly isolated events from your past
with your present;
3. To explore and establish clear connections between your current reading and
writing practices and your interactions with society;
4. To present your thoughts to your readers in a coherent and engaging way;
5. To write with a clear sense of purpose (a reader should be able to tell why you are
writing and what you want them to understand as a result of reading your memoir);
6. To become a critical reader of your own writing.
How has your literacy past affected the writer and reader you are today?
How: To successfully complete the literacy narrative, you must select appropriate evidence
from your past and making this evidence compelling and interesting to your readers. While
there is a range of possible options for the focus and organization of this essay, the
following three approaches have proven successful to previous students:
1. Focus on a particularly important literacy event in your life, demonstrating how this
one event affected the reader and writer you are today. For example, you might
write about a book you loved as a child, a research paper for high school, a difficult
writing exam, or a time you received surprising feedback on your writing.
2. Provide a more complete history of your life as a writer and reader, connecting
several different instances to your current attitudes and behaviors in regard to
reading and writing. If you choose this option, you might pull together various
highlights from your past as a writer or reader, both positive and negative, and focus
on how all those events led you to where you are today.
3. Provide a history of your life as a writer and reader through a series of detailed
“snapshots” that, when read together, tell your audience about who you are as a
writer now. To do so you might vividly describe several key events that illustrate
your passion for (or aversion to) writing or reading
No matter which approach you choose, you should share your experiences with your
audience in as much detail as possible. Since this is a narrative, remember to tell your
reader the story of your writing past.
Requirements:
 A 3-5 page literacy narrative including:
o Compelling and appropriate evidence from your past
o Specific details and effective storytelling
o A coherent organizational structure that supports your focus
o A clear connection between who you are now as a writer and the experiences
you’ve chosen to highlight
o A strong sense of your purpose and audience
o Proofreading and MLA formatting
WHEN:
Wednesday, September 17
Friday, September 19
Assignment by Stephanie Devine
Draft due in class for peer-response workshop
Revised draft due in class