Objectives:
Write a well-developed Literacy Narrative essay.
Use and correctly cite one outside source according to MLA style.
Point of view: First person– “I.” Use your best storytelling voice and openly and
honestly reminisce about your past reading or writing experiences. You may focus on
one or several personal, memorable literacy events (500-600 words). Also, you need
to interweave information that comes from at least one outside source (an
interview or a short article) that comes from research so we can satisfy our MLA
style requirements. You need to show the reader that you can format the paper
according to MLA style; provide internal (parenthetical info) in the text, and correctly cite
your source on the Works Cited page.
Purpose: This form of writing will help you make sense out of your reading and writing
experiences. Use description, dialogue, suspense, or other storytelling devices so that
the reader, your audience, (peers and instructor) can relive your experiences along with
you.
Process: Brainstorm a number of incidents concerning your awareness of reading and writing or other use of language.
Select one or two specific incidents (no more than two so it does not look like a
“shopping list” or an “encyclopedia entry”).
Use free writing and clustering to gather your information.
Read over your written information and label each new idea (place a keyword in
the margin of each paragraph that represents the main idea of each paragraph).
Look over your labels and give them an order (logical order, order of importance,
chronological order, spatial order . . .).
Put a number next to each label. Decide which information (number) can be used
for your introduction, body, and conclusion.
Make an outline.
Write your first draft.
Read your draft and label each paragraph. Make sure that you are developing
only “one” idea per paragraph. Each paragraph should have well developed
explicit main idea: topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a clincher. Look over your labels and select a couple of places in the text where you can
interweave a few sentences that come from an outside source (an interview or an
article from the internet) so that you can make your essay stronger and show the
reader that you know how to cite outside sources in the text and on the Works
Cited page.
You may quote or paraphrase or summarize someone’s words and document
them correctly in the text and provide an entry of your source on the Works Cited
page.
Make sure the new addition flows smoothly in the text along with your
storytelling. Once again, the words may come from an article or someone (a
family member) who knows about your literacy journey. You can state, for
example, according to my mother, books….
or you can just put your mother’s last name in parentheses (Brown)
and on the Works Cited page, you can make an entry: Brown, Mary. Personal
Interview…. If you use info from an article, consult with your A Writer’s
Reference so you can cite your source correctly in the text and the Works Cite
