Writing Project 5: Reflective Literacy Narrative

Overview: For Writing Project 5, you will compose a minimum 1000-word reflective literacy narrative on your
development as a writer, reader, and critical thinker.

About the Genre. Narration tells a story, but narrative is not quite as simple as that. We tell stories many ways, and we
tell stories for any number of reasons. We might narrate to relay information; a newspaper reporter might write a
straightforward story about a new, technology-based restaurant where customers order their food with a keyboard and
monitor and have it sent from the kitchen on a conveyor belt. A narrative could be a personal anecdote that sets up or
that makes an argument, for example, a detailed account of paying too much for your auto repair to demonstrate that
computerized engine diagnostics are not as valuable as mechanics who can roll up their sleeves and root around under
the hood. Narrative is flexible.

A literacy narrative tells a story about some event that was important to a person’s development as a reader and writer.
That event may be momentous, or it may be fleeting, noticed only by the writer. It may have happened years ago or
fairly recently. Whatever topic you choose, you will have many ways of telling that story. Chapter 10 of The Norton Field
Guide provides you with models and strategies.

About the Assignment. For this reflective literacy narrative, you will reflect on your personal understanding of literacy
and how that literacy has developed through this course. Specifically, you are making the argument that you have
developed in this course. In doing so you will explore the following questions:

1. What is your understanding of literacy? What is writing and reading to you?

2. What was your understanding of literacy coming into this course? How has that understanding evolved?
3. What has contributed the most to your overall literacy?
4. What is the relationship of your current understanding of reading and writing to what you still need to learn?
5. How might your grasp of literacy be applied to other situations both inside of, and outside of, the classroom?

Reflection allows you the opportunity to process knowledge and then apply that knowledge. In doing this, you can come
to understand your experiences and interpret what it is you have learned through them. This semester we have used
reflection in this way. In this final assignment you will use reflection to analyze and interpret your learning process. Over
the semester, you have had the opportunity to create a knowledge base of writing and its practices.

Your reflection should be informed by your literacy practices and course learning outcomes. It should suggest how your
prior writing experiences have prepared you for personal, academic, professional, and civic occasions for writing.

About the Rhetorical Situation. Consider your purpose, identify an audience, and maintain stance in your essay.

● PURPOSE. Why do you want to tell this story? To share a memory with others? To fulfill an assignment? To teach a
lesson? To explore past learning? Think about the reasons for your choice and how they shape your writing.
● AUDIENCE. Are your readers likely to have had similar experiences? Would they tell similar stories? How much
explaining will you have to do to help them understand your narrative? Can you assume that they will share your
attitudes toward your story, or will you have to work at making them see your perspective? How much about your
life are you willing to share with this audience?
● STANCE. What attitude do you want to project? Affectionate? Neutral? Critical? Do you wish to be sincere? serious?
humorously detached? self-critical? self-effacing? How do you want your readers to see you?

All of these elements connect to form the essay’s “rhetorical situation.” By composing with an audience in mind, your
literacy narrative will be organized in such a way that a reader can follow your reasoning from point to point. This
organization should lead your reader to your primary point in a clear, purposeful manner; in other words, your primary
purpose should help structure your paper. Your stance will tell readers how to interpret and react to that purpose.

Requirements
1. The reflective literacy narrative should be a minimum of 1000 words.
2. The essay should be informed by your past literacy experiences as well as what you encountered in this class
3. The essay should be supported with concrete evidence from your semester’s work and your writing process. Look
through your writing projects and process work (Google Classroom; personal notebook; etc.) for quotes,
examples, and examples that support your development.
4. The essay should following APA formatting guidelines for cover page, abstract, header, margins, etc.

Project Submission
● Rough Draft: Your rough draft will be submitted for peer review through Google Classroom.
● Final Draft: Your revised draft will be submitted through Blackboard.

Sample Literacy Narrative. In the following essay, Shannon Nichols, a student at Wright State University, describes her
experience taking the standardized writing proficiency test that high school students in Ohio must pass to graduate.
She wrote this essay for a college writing course, where her audience included her classmates and instructor.

The first time I took the ninth-grade proficiency test was in March of eighth grade. The test ultimately
determines whether students may receive a high school diploma. After months of preparation and anxiety, the pressure
was on. Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was a strong student, always on the honor roll. I never had
a GPA below 3.0. I was smart, and I knew it. That is, until I got the results of the proficiency test.
Although the test was challenging, covering reading, writing, math, and citizenship, I was sure I had passed every
part. To my surprise, I did pass every part—except writing. "Writing! Yeah right! How did I manage to fail writing, and by
half a point, no less?" I thought to myself in disbelief. Seeing my test results brought tears to my eyes. I honestly could
not believe it. To make matters worse, most of my classmates, including some who were barely passing eighth-grade
English, passed that part.
Until that time, I loved writing just as much as I loved math. It was one of my strengths. I was good at it, and I
enjoyed it. If anything, I thought I might fail citizenship. How could I have screwed up writing? I surely spelled every word
correctly, used good grammar, and even used big words in the proper context. How could I have failed?
Finally I got over it and decided it was no big deal. Surely I would pass the next time. In my honors English class
I worked diligently, passing with an A. By October I'd be ready to conquer that writing test. Well, guess what? I failed the
test again, again with only 4.5 of the 5 points needed to pass. That time I did cry, and even went to my English teacher,
Mrs. Brown, and asked, "How can I get A's in all my English classes but fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?"
She couldn't answer my question. Even my friends and classmates were confused. I felt like a failure. I had disappointed
my family and seriously let myself down. Worst of all, I still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.
I decided to quit trying so hard. Apparently—I told myself—the people grading the tests didn't have the slightest
clue about what constituted good writing. I continued to excel in class and passed the test on the third try. But I never
again felt the same love of reading and writing.
This experience showed me just how differently my writing could be judged by various readers. Obviously all my
English teachers and many others enjoyed or at least appreciated my writing. A poem I wrote was put on television
once. I must have been a pretty good writer. Unfortunately the graders of the ninth-grade proficiency test didn't feel the
same, and when students fail the test, the state of Ohio doesn't offer any explanation.
After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing, and I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability
and the ideas I wrote about. Failing the second time made things worse, so perhaps to protect myself from my doubts, I
stopped taking English seriously. Perhaps because of that lack of seriousness, I earned a 2 on the Advanced Placement
English Exam, barely passed the twelfth-grade proficiency test, and was placed in developmental writing in college. I
wish I knew why I failed that test, because then I might have written what was expected on the second try, maintained
my enthusiasm for writing, and continued to do well.

Commentary: Nichols's narrative focuses on her emotional reaction to failing a test that she should have passed easily.
The contrast between her demonstrated writing ability and her repeated failures creates a tension that captures readers'
attention. We want to know what will happen to her.