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A guide to information to help you research and write more effectively.
Welcome
Resources for Students
Resources for Tutors
Resources for ESL Students
The Writing Process
Chapter Summaries Compiled by WC Tutors
How to Set Up an Appointment Online
Resources for Faculty
Avoiding Plagiarism
Writing Center Survey
Citation Styles
Cross-Cultural Understanding
Writing Resources
Writing Center Newsletter
Introduction
Once you have determined your main points, assemble a working outline. The outline can range
from a simple sketch of what you essay will look like to a specific point by point outline
complete with topic sentences. The idea is to provide yourself with a visual diagram of where
your essay will go. The outline shows the sequence of your essay and the main ideas to keep in
mind while writing. Three types of outlines are most commonly used. They are: alphanumeric
outline, full sentence outline, and decimal outline. Sample outlines listed below are borrowed
from Purdue Owl site.
https://mc.libguides.com/c.php?g=39012&p=247992
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Outlines - Writing Center - LibGuides at Mississippi College-Leland Speed Library
Alphanumeric Outline
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Outlines - Writing Center - LibGuides at Mississippi College-Leland Speed Library
Full Sentence Outline
Decimal Outline
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The Literacy Narrative Checklist
1) Does the narrative have first page formatting? MLA, top left should have name, instructor,
course, date, and margins one inch?
2) Does the narrative have pagination? Insert page number top right, type Last name then
space before #
3) Does the narrative have the correct font? Times New Roman 12pt
4) Does the narrative have an engaging title? If a title is missing, what’s a title you might
suggest?
5) Does the narrative have paragraph indentions? (standard tab)
6) Is in-text citation practiced correctly, if the author chose to incorporate in-text citation?
(formatted correctly in MLA for quoted or paraphrased source material)
7) Is the work-cited page incorporated correctly, if the author chose to incorporate in-text
citation
8) Start with big picture concerns:What is the piece really about for you?What theme or idea
seems interesting, ripe for future development? What connections are being made in an
original way? What image(s) really stood out to you? Why?
9) What do you want to know more about in the essay?
10) Are there places where exposition should be replaced by scene/ images for greater reader
involvement or scene replaced by exposition for greater compression?
11) Does the student manage to reflect on their personal relationship with literacy? Is the
reflection working well? How? Where can we spot some improvements?
12) Is the narrative organized around an overarching theme or thesis that connects literacy
events to a meaningful outcome? Is this identified at the end of their introduction?
13) Is the moral in the narrative established through meaningful self-exploration? What are
some improvements to be made? Is this spotted well in the conclusion?
14) Does the author tell an interesting story? What makes this narrative interesting?
15) Has the author reflected on the narrative and exposition in a way that demonstrated their
ability to honor the true definition of a literacy narrative? How?
16) Are the images used fresh and interesting? Do they work together in a way that supports
the essay?
17) Is the language fresh throughout? Were there any clichés spotted to be avoided?
18) Does the form of the essay add to/ enhance its content?
19) Is the organization effective? Chronological? Pay attention to certain elements that glue
the narrative together as one coherent story.
20) Does the piece begin and end in a way that feels satisfying? Note that ‘satisfying’ does
not necessarily mean providing closure, or full answers to any questions it might raise.
21) Does the essay open in a way that makes you want to keep reading, and end in a way that
provides some sort of aesthetic stopping point?
22) Does the language seem appropriate for the literacy narrative platform? Is the language at
times overly formal? Overly colloquial (colloquialism= everyday, slang that might not be
appropriate for an academic paper)
23) Circle the areas where the author incorporates linking verbs (linking verbs= has, was,
were, is, had, etc.) Can these linking verbs be replaced with more fresh verbs that bring
the narrative to life (For example: Jack was eating the apple versus Jack devoured the
apple).
24) Are the sentences presented in the narrative short and concise or lengthy? Underline the
lengthy sentences, and suggest to the author ways to shorten the sentence (question 23 is
an example of this).
25) Are the sentence structures and rhythms appealing and effective? If there is no rhythm to
the piece, how can we add some?
26) What could be cut? What can be modified? What can be added? What could be moved
around?
27) Does the piece appear as a narrative or an academic essay? Remember, there is a
difference: one is creative writing, the other is academic writing. If the piece appears as
more of an academic essay, versus a narrative, what are some suggestions you could the
author make based on how we’ve learned the narrative structure is composed? Pay
attention to language
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Week 3 Part 2
5.1 Rewind and Reflect
5.2 Outlining the Literacy Narrative
5.1 Rewind and Reflect
(~20-30 minutes)
You have practiced the skills related to reading, annotating, summarizing, and
responding, and now you will continue to develop the connection between these
concepts and the story of your relationship with literacy and the impact specific
texts and experiences have had on you.
While your Literacy Narrative should display both structure and meaning, another goal
is simply to reflect on your relationship with reading and writing as you embark on this
new phase of your life and your learning, so don’t forget to leave time and space to
enjoy the memories of how you got to where you are and who you have become.
Sitting still with our thoughts can be surprisingly difficult. Sometimes our worries and
fears can start to take over and make us focus on all the things we could be doing
instead of sitting and thinking. Looking back can also stir feelings of sadness, so allow
yourself to sit with a range of emotions. Sitting with joy and pride can also be
uncomfortable, but allowing yourself to reach reconciliation can be worth sitting with
discomfort.
In “Watershed,” Amy Ray and Emily Sailers suggest that every five years or so, we
should look back on our lives and have a good laugh, which is good advice. We all have
a few TBT memories that make us laugh a little and cry a little. But remember that your
focus is on looking at the role literacy played in your stories.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but taking the time to pause and think can be the
most important thing we do—for our assignments and for ourselves. Without zooming
out a bit and getting meta, we can’t really see what is going on, which means we usually
have less agency—or power—over the outcome. And after we zoom out to see the big
picture, we can zoom in and get a close look at ourselves.
These skills that we apply to ourselves and our lives also apply to how we read and
absorb and digest and understand the world around us. Like reflection, focus and
concentration are especially important when it comes to learning. Focused
concentration impacts our personal and professional lives, and it can be developed.
Stated specifically, learning about learning can impact your ability to learn. And learning
about your learning will impact your ability to learn effectively. Thinking about thinking,
or metacognition, is also an important element of having a say in your thinking. An
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important goal of ENC 1101 and of the Literacy Narrative is to learn about learning and
think about thinking and learn and think about your life and your learning and thinking.
With so many options and distractions, our minds can become trained to bounce from
thought to thought and lead our actions from thing to thing. Agility in action and thought
are important, too, but not being able to slow down and switch to a single-pointed focus
can limit our ability to do deep work and achieve deep learning. Developing practices of
sustained concentration and contemplation develop competencies like perseverance,
resilience, and conscientiousness that serve as the foundation for success in learning
and in nearly all areas of life.
So for this assignment, the goal is to sit . . . and to think. To prepare for this assignment,
pick a time and place where you can spend some uninterrupted time with your thoughts.
Hopefully the assignments you have submitted so far have helped you start to think
about your story and what you want to include or exclude.
Read the questions below to help guide your trip down literacy lane. You can either read
through all the questions first and then read them again to think of an answer to each, or
you can read each one carefully the first time and think of an answer before moving to
the next question. A useful way to get the most out of each would be to jot down notes,
which will also prepare you to answer question 1:
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What is Literacy? (What is your definition? What are other definitions?)
What kinds of texts do you read? On what do you read? Where do you read?
About what do you read? When and why and whom do you read?
Does the text you read usually have audio or visual components?
How many texts or digital messages do you read and write daily? With whom do you
exchange these messages?
How often do you mix your reading with writing?
What kinds of writing do you do?
Where, when, and to whom do you write? Why do you write?
On what do you write? What do you write and write about?
When you think of reading for school, how do you feel (nervous, excited, annoyed,
confident)?
When you think of reading as part of communication with friends, how do you feel?
When you think of reading to learn about something you’re interested in, how do you
feel?
What does literacy mean to you? How would your world be different if you could not read
or write?
How would your life change if you had no access to devices that allow you to connect
through reading and writing?
What aspects and individuals have influenced your relationship with reading and writing
and how?
What are your clearest memories that include reading or writing in any form?
What is your earliest memory of being read to or of reading or writing?
How have your experiences with literacy impacted who you are today?
What is the best thing you’ve ever read? What is the best thing you’ve ever written?
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Think of something you read or wrote that had meaning to you and consider how it
impacted you. What book or text impacts you most and why/how are you impacted?
How has your relationship with literacy shifted?
How have literacy experiences shaped your identity?
Once you have these signposts, take some time to sit with a few memories and dive
deeper into yourself. Think of at least five experiences from any setting that involved
any connection to reading or writing (Question 2).
Can you recognize any connections or patterns across the events. Perhaps you were
with the same person or at the same place. Perhaps the texts you were reading or
writing were connected by genre or audience or platform or story. Perhaps the reactions
each text had on you were related (Question 3).
Maybe you read a book about a girl who loved the violin. And then you read your first
piece of sheet music for full orchestra. And then you read your acceptance letter to
music camp. Or maybe you read a highway sign that said “You are now leaving
Indiana,” and days later, you read a sign that said Welcome to Florida, and hours later,
you read a sign that said University of South Florida.
Don’t feel like you need to come up with huge or dramatic events. Many of the events
might feel trivial, which is absolutely fine. You read and write every day, and you have
for a long time. You have already experienced more literacy events than most humans
who have ever lived on the earth. Once you look at these experiences through the lens
of literacy and investigate the impacts they have had on you, connections and meaning
can be found in places where you never realized they existed. Some of these
connections might even come together to tell a good story.
Assignment 5.1
Complete all three parts include
d in Assignment 5.1, and upload your considered and
polished responses to Canvas.
1. Answer at least five of the thought-generating questions from the bullets above.
2. List at least five memorable events related to reading or writing that had an
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pact on who you are and who you are becoming.
3. Find a connection between three of the events, and write a sentence explaining
the connection.
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5.2 Outlining the Literacy Narrative
(~30-40 minutes)
You have probably worked with an outline at some point in your academic career, and
the idea might conjure images of Roman Numerals or bullet points. When we talk about
outlining, we do mean the physical act of structuring a research design, and you can
use Roman Numerals or bullet points or any schema or structure that works for you. But
like writing, outlining is a process not just a product.
Outlining is a mental act as much as a physical artifact. When we outline our
assignments, we are adding the step of thinking through and visualizing all the pieces of
our product and all the steps of the process so that we can see where they are headed
before we commit to a design. The process also allows us to arrange and rearrange
pieces into the most effective order without the fear of losing our work along the way.
Much of the work associated with learning takes place in our minds through a number of
processes that can range from intentional and formal thinking to simply allowing
thoughts about course concepts and content to run quietly through the back of our
brains in search of connections. Both the purposeful and the organic contemplations
can produce ideas that pop up and out and into our consciousness at different points
throughout the day in different forms. The result of recognizing one of those good ideas
that has been marinating in your mind can be to write a note to yourself or send an
email to yourself or to tell your friend about your brilliant idea with the hopes that you will
remember. All these acts are working as part of your outlining process.
When we are aware of this process and pay attention to how it works in our minds and
lives, we can take an active role in optimizing the act and the outcome of outlining. The
practice of outlining is connected to the practice of thinking critically and to the methods
and approaches and terms related to the processes of research design and analysis.
There are different ways to approach and structure the outlining process. All three of our
major projects include an outline. In Projects 2 and 3, we will also use a spreadsheet to
create a grid so we can visualize our sources, which will serve as an element of our
outlining process. For your Literacy Narrative, the outlining process will serve as the
explicit step of connecting your thoughts and ideas with the assignment in an effort to
organize your design into a successful telling of your story to your audiences.
Adding thoughtful elements of design is necessary in any project, and trying to skip this
step will generally result in spending more work on a product that is less successful.
The narrative genre does allow for more freedom and creativity than other academic
genres, but the conventions of formal, academic writing are still expected. Although
source material is not required, if it is included, it should be cited according to MLA
format.
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In some way, we have all been impacted by written words or by writing words. Literacy
can be about books, but it is about far more. Once you have thought of a few examples,
see if you can find a connection across them. Or perhaps one experience is so defining
and extensive that it can stand alone. As you continue to think of these experiences, try
to remember sights, smells, and sounds.
You are the main character in your Literacy Narrative, and your readers want to see
how the main character developed as a result of interaction with people and texts and
contexts. Your development is the real moral of your story, and textual
engagement is one of the motivating factors that contributed to your
development.
These considerations and a number of the tasks you completed earlier should help you
construct an overarching statement that summarizes your relationship with literacy—the
moral to your story. Your thesis will make a clear statement about your relationship with
literacy, and your narrative will share the experiences that explain the statement.
Your story is yours, and you can share as much or as little personal information as you
would like. Work where you are comfortable, and remember that you have multiple
audiences for this assignment. On some level, you are always writing for and to
yourself. Because this is a graded assignment, you are writing for your Instructor, who
will have specific preferences, so don’t forget to make choices and moves that tailor to
your audience. And you will share parts of your story with your peers through attached
assignments and discussions. You may also decide to upload your narrative to the
DALN, which can be done with your name or anonymously.
Reading the narratives on the DALN gives you an idea of many different approaches to
writing a literacy narrative, and writing it for a course at USF also provides you with an
audience you know has specific expectations (formal, academic writing and the
associated conventions). As you think through these higher order considerations and
the intellectual expectations of the assignment, also consider the details of the
assignment.
Assignment Details
We know that part of fulfilling any assignment is understanding what it expects. Look
closely at the concrete elements of the assignment early in your outlining process. You
are to write 750-1000 words. Depending on the font and size, 1 page double spaced is
about 250 words and should form approximately 3 paragraphs. The Literacy Narrative,
then, would call for approximately 3-4 pages totalling approximately 9-11 paragraphs.
An introduction and conclusion will take up 2 of those leaving 7-9 paragraphs to weave
your story. Think through how you want to allocate that space to tell your story.
You probably know by now whether you tend to write long or short paragraphs, and
knowing your writing style is an important part of planning your writing approach and
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developing your personal writing process. For instance, if you know that you write long
paragraphs and are more likely to write over 1000 words than under 750 words, you
might want to plan your outline with 8 paragraphs—an introduction and conclusion with
6 paragraphs for the body. Or you could know that you are incredibly concise and
should leave 9 paragraphs for your body. Students tend to write too much instead of too
little, and it is easier to add than delete, so if you’re unsure, aim low. You can always
add more imagery to build the story.
Your introduction and conclusion will outline the paper and state your thesis, so those
6-9 paragraphs in the middle are where your outline develops and your story unfolds.
Those paragraphs can tell one, extended story or can bring a few experiences together.
For instance, if reading Harry Potterover an extended time helped you through the loss
of a parent and you want to write about that time in your life, perhaps you will need all
six paragraphs. The structure we looked for when reading fiction can even be used to
frame that one extended story by building your outline on the major plot points from your
story.
If you want to follow one extended event, make sure you can break it into a few clear
points so that it works to progress across a plot. Or if you read a series over a number
of years and different books aligned with different rites of passage in your life, focus on
a few. Or mix up a few different things you read or wrote and connect them with a time
and place or an outcome or meaning that tie to an overarching statement.
More than 3-4 events would be hard to fit in the allotted space, so be sure to think
through the layout before you start outlining. And recognize that while literacy is what
holds the events together, the story is also about you and your experiences. Just make
sure that literacy is a major character in the plot.
We probably have a wide range of experiences with literacy, and while some students
could write thousands of words about their story, others might not feel like they have
anything to say. One valuable outcome of constructing a defined narrative about our
lives and experiences is that it allows us to see that who we are impacts our processes
of reading and writing and learning and that who we are is valuable in academic
settings. Writing a structured narrative also allows us to practice merging personal
experiences and creativity with a structured academic assignment being prepared for a
specific purpose and audience.
Recognizing that the assignment, genre, and audience impact the approach is a very
important aspect of learning to write and communicate in ways that transfer across and
beyond institutions, environments, and situations. For instance, while you may
encounter assignments with instructions that explain why and when you would want to
avoid using first-person point of view, it would be odd—if not impossible—for you to
attempt a literacy narrative without the explicit inclusion of the stated voice of the main
character: you in the form of I.
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Layout Options
There are a number of ways to layout your narrative. If clear events or texts do not stick
out to you right away, considering organizational approaches might help. Here are a few
options:
Chronological: elementary, middle, high school, university . . .
People: mom, brother, teacher, uncle, friend . . .
Platform: book, online, social media, texting, email . . .
Places: School, home, grandma’s, the community center, church . . .
Theme: joy, struggle, education, family . . .
Genres: academic, sci-fi, fan fiction, personal communications
Subject/text: Magic/Harry Potter, Romance/Twilight, Fantasy/Eragon . . .
Classes: English, History, Psychology, Band . . .
Types of reading: formal and informal, academic and entertainment, news and
magazines
Phases: when you were into My Little Pony, then soccer, then Pokemon, then Billie,
then . . .
You can also follow a literary device to create a theme: seasons, rain, dinner table . . .
As you create your outline, you may combine any of these elements:
● When I was 10 and reading Creepypastaat our dining room table
● When I was 12 and reading a Biology textbook at our dining room table
● When I was 17 and reading my USF acceptance letter at our dining room table
These three experiences already share a connection to reading and a physical location,
but how can they connect to an overarching theme that makes you the main character
in a good story? As you look across those three events, what changed, and what didn’t?
Who were you with, and who were you? What will you be reading where and with whom
years from now? Can these snapshots work together to tell a larger story?
And don’t forget what you know about stories. A narrative should tell an interesting
story, which requires considering the elements of storytelling. An exposition will let us
know where the story is situated. The rising action of your story might include a conflict
in need of resolution. The climax might be the change in you. And while there is an end
to your paper, it isn’t the end of your story, so feel free to look forward in your
denouement.
Often it can seem that academic work is all research and sources and that stories exist
solely in another world or at least another genre. But genre lines blur, and it is valuable
to practice writing across lines and genres and audiences. These shared spaces will be
what you occupy and navigate in much of your writing life.
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Remember that there are a number of ways to arrange your events into a compelling
story, so think through a few options before you pick or create the right choice for you.
Whichever schema you apply should tie all the elements to a thesis.
Thesis
The concrete elements of the paper are framed by the overarching intention of the
assignment. To fulfill the assignment, be sure to create a thesis that introduces and
frames how you discuss your relationship with literacy and describe the impact
specific texts and experiences have had on you. You cannot actually discuss and
describe your relationship with literacy in one sentence, but you can provide a structure
from which your story can emerge and ground your development as the main character.
Your experience(s) with literacy will ground your story and serve as a through line, and
the impact of those experiences should connect to form your thesis. Identifying the
relevance of each experience and then connecting the impacts is one way to create a
thesis. Here are some samples of emerging thesis statements that connect literacy
events:
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Writing in my journal opened me to a love of writing that eventually merged with my love
of drawing.
Most of my reading is on screens: phone screens, video game screens, and laptop
screens. All of my reading, however, connects me to the people on the other side of the
screens who have made me who I am.
My sister’s love of reading has been the main influence in my literacy life.
When I think of reading, I think of reading music and how music played a role in my
relationship with my family, my education, and my partner.
I never thought of myself as a reader until I realized how much time I spend reading and
writing to my friends and how those friends and those communications helped me
become who I am.
My relationship with reading transitioned from joy to fear when the informal childhood
texts of elementary school were replaced with the formal, academic texts of high school,
and when the joy left, so did my confidence.
One line from the Hunger Games helped me get through moving and helped me develop
the confidence to face my fear and find my freedom.
I still haven’t deleted the text she sent, and I still read it when I start to forget why I came
to Tampa.
Some of these statements stand alone, and others start a thread to be expanded, but all
require support from a structured narrative that tells the story under the statement. Once
you have a thesis and know what events or experiences you will share, start building an
outline. Outlining is often associated with more formal writing that does not draw from
personal experience and does include scholarly sources, but all formal writing requires
outlining. If you have a thesis and plan to write two paragraphs each for the three
events and then wrap it up with a conclusion, you already have your basic outline!
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Mapping your plan before you start writing allows you to weave threads that connect
your story on multiple levels. Perhaps your first paragraph starts out with you in your
dorm where you are doing your homework for this assignment, which makes you think
of your childhood bedroom where so much of your reading took place. And then you
can state your thesis and dive into the three elements. At the end, you could tie it all
back to your dorm and what you are reading now and what where you hope to be in the
future.
After you have thought through your basic outline, begin the process of formalizing your
formatted outline in writing, which should provide an overview of the topic of each
paragraph in addition to your thesis. Your thesis will likely develop as you build your
outline into a full story. If you plan to use source material, have it formatted and cited in
MLA as part of your outline. Your Instructor will provide information on how to tailor your
outline for him/her/them.
The tasks throughout Project 1 have already started to develop content that can fill your
outline and feed your Literacy Narrative, so feel free to start with those tasks if you’d
like. Or you can select new experiences that you thought of after the tasks or that you
now think will work together better to create a clear thesis and a compelling story. To
start, just narrow down three main events or texts and a thesis to connect them.
Assignment 5.2
Upload a complete outline of your Literacy Narrative including one overarching
statement about your relationship with literacy and supporting life experiences that
demonstrate that statement or discuss the impact. Your outline should be fully formatted
in MLA, and your Instructor will provide specific expectations.
Week 2 Part 2
2.1 Genre: Literacy Narrative
2.1 Genre: Literacy Narrative
(~25-45 minutes)
Literacy (and) Narrative
When individuals compose a literacy narrative, they often recall how they learned to
read and write, describe a memorable event involving their literacy acquisition or
exploration, or consider how reading and writing continue to play roles in their lives. In
general, a literacy narrative is a narrative that connects events and personal
experiences related to literacy to an individual’s personal development. Just like there
are various understandings of what defines literacy, there are various understandings of
the literacy narrative as a genre.
In the same way that thinking about our thinking distinguishes us from trout, thinking
about our learning and reading and writing allows us to achieve levels of consciousness
and awareness that can inform how we see the world and who we become within the
world we construct for ourselves. A number of well known thinkers have shared their
experiences with literacy and language (Malcolm X,Amy Tan,Luc Sante, Ta-Nehisi
Coates, to name but a few). Thinking about literacy and language can expand to include
sharing experiences with reading and writing and learning (Roxane Gay, Stephen King,
Jose Antonio Vargas,Elmore Leonard, Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman,
John Steinbeck, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard). You don’t have to be famous, however, to
have experiences worth considering and sharing.
The Digital Archive of Literacy Narrativesis a public space where anyone can upload a
literacy narrative and read the literacy narratives of others.Cynthia L. Selfe, Professor
Emerita at the Ohio State University and cofounder of the DALN, defines a literacy
narrative as a “personal account of any event involving reading or composing” (“What is
a Literacy Narrative”). Selfe discusses literacy narratives inWhat is a Literacy Narrative
andThe Power of Literacy Narratives. Watching these videos will help you understand
Selfe’s definition of literacy and her ideas on literacy narratives as a genre. (See
Question 1 below)
For your Literacy Narrative, you will discuss your relationship with literacy and
describe the impact specific texts and experiences have had on you.To do so,
connect literacy events and look for a thread that ties the experiences together and to
an outcome. The outcome will be the impact the experiences with literacy had on you.
Literacy
Literacy, in general, signifies being competent in an area or demonstrating a basic
proficiency with a skill. More specific and standard definitions of literacy focus on
reading books and writing text, but concepts of literacy have expanded to include critical
literacy, digital literacy, visual literacy, technological literacy, and emerging literacies.
Our use of literacy is intended to focus on any connections or communications
you make to, with, or through reading or writing or related texts.While reading can
extend to reading music or images or any text, when we deconstruct the concept too
much, it can be difficult to narrow to specific literacy events for your narrative.
In this course, we view literacy as a form of identity. We are shaped by words, and we
shape our world with words. Language, therefore, is part of our identity. We will also
recognize that literacy is a social practice and cannot be separated from audience and
ecology. When we understand this, we realize that when we write, we are bringing our
experiences to the way we communicate. We also realize that our writing is intended to
communicate with a specific audience and that the audience impacts our construction
and communication. Further, we also play the role of audience and interpret the
meanings and impact of the words we encounter and engage. Finally, we accept that
we are constructed through language.
What we think and see and say and how we think and see and say all move through the
mirror and filter of words. In all, this means that reading and writing cannot be divorced
from the reader and writer and the broad context that constructs the communication. As
a result, the experiences you have had with literacy throughout your life have impacted
you. Identifying key events and outcomes and connecting them to who you have
become and are becoming is a main goal of the Literacy Narrative.
These expanded literacies are built upon the traditional literacy of reading and writing.
We read an image, and we read code, and we read clues and context by building on the
competencies developed by reading words. Similarly we write code and copy and
content and text and context by building on the skills developed by writing.
Looking at our interactions with literacy also includes considering the learning process
that moved us from building blocks to USF, which includes the formal learning,
reading, and writing that occurred in schools and the informal interactions that occurred
in our personal lives and exchanges.
In the same way that traditional notions of literacy conjure images of books and pens or
online books and laptops, university-level writing—in composition courses and
beyond—often conjures the idea of a research paper or essay. And much of
university-level writing does take that form. But just as you will be expected to learn in
increasingly digital spaces, the communication you create will likely follow a similar
trajectory.
Many of the Literacy Narratives inthe Digital Archive of Literacy Narrativesare in visual
or video format. In order to expand into these and other spaces, our goal is to start
specific and practice honing and developing the standard skills that will facilitate
success with advancing and advanced literacy at USF and beyond. To explore the
variety of forms a literacy narrative can take, usesearch narrativeson the DALN to look
for subjects or texts and read or watch a few of the uploaded narratives. (Question 2)
Narrative Thread
In your Literacy Narrative, you will be expected to organize your narrative around an
overarching theme or thesis that connects the literacy events to a meaningful outcome
or statement. Once you have established the takeaway or moral of your story, you will
narrate the role that literacy has played in your life and describe the literacy-related
events or experiences that have impacted you.
In addition to telling a good story, a main goal is to reflect upon your personal
experience in a way that demonstrates your ability to make meaning of the narrative
and exposition you have provided. Not only will doing so allow you to practice many of
the skills required for success in university-level research and writing, the process will
also allow you to examine your personal relationship with reading and writing in a formal
and informal capacity as you prepare to launch into your academic coursework and
beyond.
The process of becoming a better writer benefits from self-exploration and an
examination of the elements that have made you the reader and writer you are today;
these experiences impact your interactions with formal and informal reading and writing.
While the two overlap, many students share different experiences with and express
different opinions of formal reading and writingas part of a requirement related to
their formal education in comparison to the experiences and opinions they share in
relation to reading and writing that occurs in informal ways such as those related to
reading for fun or writing to communicate with friends and family. Thinking of literacy
events that include formal and informal experiences with learning and the associated
literacies can help you see if patterns demonstrate connections and spaces of
disconnection with your experiences and opinions of reading and writing. (Question 3)
Narrating our lives through the lens of literacy also allows us to see that, not unlike
writing, living is a process. In “How to Narrate your Life Story,” we learn that “no one
gets anywhere important in one go. We can forgive ourselves the horrors of our first
drafts.” But having a first draft to forgive requires us to pause and reflect on the life we
are writing and the stories we are telling about our past, present, and future so that we
can make choices about the stories that will fill the next draft.
Impacts and Outcomes
Looking for and at the connections across experiences with literacy is the first step in
constructing a successful Literacy Narrative. The next step is to connect those
connections to the impact they had in your life.
Writing a Literacy Narrative requires contemplation, which means a necessary step in
beginning this assignment will be to allow yourself to sit quietly and reflect on your life
and experiences. You can make notes or talk into a recording device if you’d like. One
session of reflection is unlikely to be enough, so plan to give yourself a few
opportunities with some time to think. You can tell a friend or talk to a family member if
conversation helps you spark memories, but at least some of your time should be spent
in silence alone.
Allowing your mind to quiet without the distracting thoughts of what is due or what to do
can be difficult, but it is an important practice to practice. Having a personal plan that
includes time to think as part of your overall outline will allow you to trust that you won’t
get off track or lost in your deep thoughts. Because you have previewed the assignment
in depth, you know that the tasks work together to build to the final submission and that
they include assignments that help you focus your thoughts in relation to the Literacy
Narrative and allow you to receive formative feedback from your Instructor on a regular
basis. You won’t actually start to outline your narrative until next week, but like all major
assignments and writing tasks, you should start by making sure you understand the
related concepts.
Supplemental Readings:What is a Narrative Essay,Writing a Literacy Narrative
Assignment 2.1
After reading this overview of the genre, watch W
hat is a Literacy NarrativeandThe
Power of Literacy Narratives, and explore the D
ALN. Then develop complete sentences
to answer the following questions. Because these questions require you to think
critically and conceptually, be sure to give yourself time to develop strong and complete
responses. Submit your considered and polished responses to Assignment 2.1 in
Canvas:
1. How are the concepts of literacy and the expectations of a literacy narrative as
explained in the assignment similar to and different from Selfe’s expectations of
each?
2. Link two narratives you explored in the DALN and discuss what each did well.
3. Identify and list four literacy memories: two formal (related to reading and writing
in a formal, educational setting) and two informal (related to reading or writing for
personal purposes). How do they overlap and how are they different?
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Week 1 Part 2
1.1 Approaching an Assignment
1.2 Literacy Narrative Assignment Details
1.1 Approaching an Assignment
(~15-25 minutes)
When approaching an assignment, consider the whole process: where will you work,
how long do you have, what will you need, what is the genre, and who is your
audience? Depending on the assignment and situation, you may identify different and
additional elements to take into consideration. The goal is to think through what aspects
of the situation you must take into account to begin an assignment successfully.
Before beginning each assignment, spend a few minutes considering its goals and
directions. Fulfilling an assignment is not unlike following a recipe. Before you start, you
need to know what kind of cake you are baking, read the recipe, gather the ingredients,
and make sure you have the necessary time and tools for the task.
The first step in engaging any assignment is to understand the assignment. A useful
practice is to cut and paste the relevant details from the assignment overview at the top
of your page and write a brief summary of your understanding of the assignment.
Elements of an assignment can include:
●
●
●
●
medium (paper, presentation, poster, quiz . . . ),
genre (narrative, expository/informative, argument/persuasive . . . ),
audience (instructor, classmates, public . . . ), and
details (due date, format, length, source requirements, evaluation expectations,
rubrics, grading, other expectations).
If there are elements you do not understand, read all the relevant content carefully to
make sure you didn’t miss something. If you’ve read the content related to the
assignment and have a question, ask your Instructor. While you don’t want to ask
before completing the readings, you also don’t want to wait until the assignment is due
and it’s too late. Instructors love to know that you are interested and invested and want
to make sure you feel comfortable and confident with the expectations of the
assignment. Instructors also appreciate when you reference the reading as part of your
question and show that you tried to answer the question or understand the content.
Because the writing process is part of the content for ENC 1101, a number of steps in
the writing process will be made explicit and will be included in the larger project as
graded tasks. The content that will be engaged over the course of a project will continue
to roll out throughout the project, so it is ok if you don’t understand every step at the
beginning. Remember that there is not one, singular writing process that all writers must
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follow in all situations. Processes vary across individuals, and as we evolve as writers,
our individual process will continue to develop and become advanced enough to allow
us to respond to elements such as genre and audience that should impact not only the
written product but also the writing process.
In general, writing assignments vary across discipline, department, course, and
Instructor. Some writing assignments include explicitly stated and scaffolded steps in
the process (which means that they build upon each other), and some even include
submission of smaller steps throughout the process. For instance, reading and research
might be submitted in the form of an annotated bibliography or outline. Once you learn
how the steps work for you, they can become part of your personal writing process
across courses.
Assumed Expectations
Even when these steps are not assigned, they are assumed as part of the writing
process required to succeed in university-level writing assignments. If an assignment
states that scholarly sources should be included, it probably will not explain that you
need to locate, read, and annotate an appropriate source so that it can be integrated
into the assignment. In fact, that step in the process is an unstated expectation because
it is required in order to fulfill the assignment guideline of including scholarly source
material. The Instructor who created the task expects that students understand the
necessary steps in the writing and research process and are proficient in the associated
skill.
When steps such as outlining and revising are not required or graded in the assignment,
some students skip these steps or simply do not realize their importance or know how to
complete them independently. An important goal of ENC 1101 is to learn and practice a
number of the skills required to be a successful writer across situations so that your
process can continue to develop as you grow as a reader, writer, and learner. Every
one of us is capable of becoming an independent learner and taking ownership of our
education and responsibility for our success.
As you read an assignment and start the planning process, note which steps are overt
in the assignment and which are assumed as your responsibility. If steps in the writing
process are not included as part of the submission, be sure to add these steps to your
own timeline so that you don’t run out of time and miss the opportunity.
Think of a cooking show: just because the producers only show you certain steps and
the final product of the cake, that doesn’t mean the bakers didn’t follow all the steps of
the recipe off-screen. Similarly, when a step in the research and writing process isn’t
assigned or submitted, the expectation is that the work is completed independently,
which requires you to be aware of your individual research and writing processes and to
be self sufficient in relation to planning and managing your efforts. You might have a
personalized approach to mixing the elements or you might like a different kind of flour,
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so you will want to take the opportunity to learn your own best practices, but no one can
skip major steps in the recipe and still make a delicious cake.
In Project 1, the steps are included as tasks within each activity. The tasks include new
content in the form of text or video and practice with the skills associated with each
step, but again, when these elements are not stated explicitly, you will want to develop
your own process and your personal approach.
Another (sometimes unassigned) expectation of university-level work is an organized
system of storing assignments in a place where they are safe and accessible. Whether
you use folders on flash drives or categories in clouds or public web portfolios, it is
important to develop a method that works for you—for now and for later. One option is
to start a new folder each term and create a subfolder for each class within the folder for
that term. You will also want to develop a naming strategy for each draft and
assignment that works for you.
You should have signed up for access to Google Suite, so you can access your Drive
and Docs from any computer. You also have access to Word Online as an app.
Sometimes you will use more than one option, perhaps constructing in one space and
storing in another, which can be confusing without a basic system. Not only will you
need to produce copies of your work for this course, but you will also want, perhaps
need, to reference materials for future courses, which will require knowing where the
documents are stored and how they are named. Because the course content is
intended to transfer across academic areas, maintaining access is important.
Transfer and Access
Remember that each assignment is part of a larger syllabus and feeds future
assignments and overall themes and goals. Many of your minor assignments help you
prepare for a major assignment. Researching a topic in one class can impact your topic
selection for an assignment in a seemingly unrelated course. You can think even bigger
by considering what you might use in your future studies or jobs or personal endeavors.
The content of ENC 1101 is designed to develop skills that will transfer into other areas
of your academic practice and material that will be useful across majors and throughout
and beyond your time at USF. Many of the resources we engage and the skills you
develop will help you build the overall competencies expected of all USF graduates.
You will also explore your personal writing process and practice adapting your writing to
different audiences or communities while developing individual approaches that
continue to build upon basic skills and practices in preparation for the specific content
and conventions of your chosen field of study. Reading, annotating, summarizing,
writing, communicating, collaborating, and the other skills we practice will also serve
you well on any career path you find yourself following. In addition, throughout the
semester, you will also be engaged in a process of self-discovery that will hone your
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writing skills and feed intrapersonal (such as tenacity) and interpersonal (such as
collaboration) competencies.
Once you understand the assignment and have created a plan to approach each step,
you are ready to dive in. Unknown variables can always impact your process, so the
ability to code switch (switch through varieties of language in writing and conversation)
and code mesh (combine different types of language and literacy practices) when you
want to adapt your language is important. Knowing that there are steps and that you are
ready will help you focus and relieve the initial anxiety of not knowing where or how to
start. And even if your first few cakes are too sweet, know that with practice and more
time in the kitchen, you will be able to bake anything.
Assignment 1.1
After you complete this reading on strategies to approach an assignment, identify five
main ideas that you think are the most important and useful takeaways for you. For
each of the five, write one sentence explaining the point and why you think it is
important and useful for you and your process. Be sure to use complete sentences and
reference the point directly from the reading. Upload your five sentences to Assignment
1.1 in Canvas.
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1.2 Literacy Narrative Assignment Details
(~15-20 minutes)
Details: The assignments across Project 1 build to the delivery of a 750-1000 word
Literacy Narrative in which you will discuss your relationship with literacy and
describe the impact specific texts and experiences have had on you. The Literacy
Narrative should be written with MLA formatting and citation practices and will be
submitted Week 4 through USF Writes.
Overview
While literacy narratives take many forms, the format of the Literacy Narrative that will
be submitted in week 4 will be a formal, written document. As we move through the
process of writing our Literacy Narrative, many audiences will be engaged. At the core,
you a
re the primary audience for your writing, specifically for a narrative genre, but your
peers in the course and the Instructor will also serve as audiences.
You will review sample Literacy Narratives from the DALN, and after you submit your
narrative for Instructor Review, you will consider how you would change your narrative
for a public audience. You can even submit some version of your Literacy Narrative to
the DALN. Pay attention to the shifts you consider when you move from an academic
audience to a public audience because these shifts will be discussed in Project 3.
As you construct your narrative for yourself, your peers, and your Instructor, consider
how personal you want to be and what experiences (yours and those of other
individuals in your stories) you want to share so that you can work where you are
comfortable. Make sure that you are the main character in your story, and that the main
character develops.
Scaffolded Assignments
The steps of the overall process of creating your Literacy Narrative are broken down
into assignments that will be submitted in Canvas. Because this is a Composition
course and the writing process is part of our content, time is spent on the elements of
writing that are not necessarily explored explicitly in other courses.
We are mentioning this again because it is important to recognize that the content
related to each assignment will be included in each of the readings and that all the tasks
will build upon each other to support your construction and submission of the Literacy
Narrative. The building process makes sense in theory, but in practice, it can feel like
the whole assignment is not immediately clear yet. While Project 1 builds to the
construction and submission of a Literacy Narrative, the individual tasks include the
development of individual skills and practice related concepts, so don’t overlook the
individual value of each assignment.
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The Literacy Narrative is the frame for the work of close reading, annotation, summary,
response, and outlining, but the narrative itself is only one assignment within Project 1.
By culminating in the Literacy Narrative, the work of P1—and all of ENC 1101—is
cumulative, but the concrete construction of the Literacy Narrative does not begin in
earnest until Week 3, when the content you have been submitting is arranged into the
Outline in 5.2.
For all three of the projects, the content will roll out over a number of weeks with the
skills building and spiralling across the term so that everything is intentionally
connected. In practice, this means that looking ahead in the project is useful, but
focusing on the content readings for the current assignment you are working on will be
more productive than worrying about the assignments they build over the weeks to
come. Just like learning to look for resources in the course content and beyond and
learning to ask for help when you hit a wall, learning to navigate the useful confusion
needed to reach comprehension and the anxiety that can result from feeling
uncomfortable without clarity is a vital skill and a necessary part of learning.
Learning something means shifting from not knowing to knowing, and the step in the
middle is often confusion. When the thing you are learning is a complex process, it can
take weeks for elements to click and click together. If you have questions after a
reading, ask your Instructor. But if you just have an overall sense of anxiety that you are
encountering things you don’t know, that is because you are learning, which is a good
thing and is the goal of being here.
Constructing the Literacy Narrative
To construct a Literacy Narrative, we will engage short readings and complete brief
assignments. We will practice reading and annotating texts and explore sample
narratives. We will outline and answer questions intended to explore our literacy
experiences and look for connections across those experiences in an effort to locate
one, overarching outcome or impact of literacy in the formation of who we are today.
Although this is your story, you will be collaborating with peers in a number or ways,
most of which will come in the form of sharing your attached assignments through posts
in Canvas threads on discussion boards.
Once you have outlined and drafted your Literacy Narrative, you will have the
opportunity to review and revise your paper. The practice of using a checklist to review
your paper and the process of Self Review will allow you to develop a strong Literacy
Narrative for submission. The final narrative will be submitted to your Instructor for
review. After you submit your final Literacy Narrative, you will reimagine your narrative
as public, perhaps even uploading it, and take some time to reflect on the process.
Beginning to consider your relation to and with literacy will serve as the foundation for
the subsequent assignments in which you will take a deeper dive into the exploration of
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individual and collective communication practices and processes—all with the intention
of understanding and developing the main character in your story.
Format
Knowledge of the conventions used for documenting source material and formatting
your assignment is part of successful university-level writing. Fortunately, you are not
expected to memorize that knowledge but only to have a working knowledge and the
willingness to locate credible sources and apply the knowledge before submission.
Stated simply, you must use MLA guidelines carefully and correctly, but you are able to
look up all the answers all the time. Following formatting expectations only requires
spending the time and energy necessary to follow basic directions. Ample content is
spread throughout the internet on numerous .edu sites that you will learn to navigate as
you complete written assignments for courses for years to come. Resistance is futile
and costly. Simply look up the formatting expectations and do the work.
For the Literacy Narrative, direct source material is not required but is allowed and
should be cited in the text and referenced in a Works Cited page in accordance with
MLA style guide expectations. Proficiency with formatting is an expectation for all
university-level writing, but different assignment requirements result in different
formatting requirements. For instance, if you do not use direct source material for your
Literacy Narrative, your submission doesn’t require in-text citations or a Works Cited
page. If you do use sources, you need both. Either way, pagination (your last name and
page number in the top right) and general formatting expectations (such as your
information at the top left, margins, paragraphs, and double spacing) are required.
Different style guides will be used depending on the discipline in which you are writing,
but the general concepts of attribution and organization apply across all academic
writing. The goal of learning to write in MLA is not simply to learn MLA style
expectations, but to learn the value of sharing a standard style that guides the overall
approaches to the use of source material. Once you learn to work with MLA, shifting the
details to fit the expectations of any other style will be far less daunting.
Projects 2 and 3 will require the use of sources, so documentation will be discussed
explicitly in those sections. If you want to use sources in your Literacy Narrative, check
any credible source (like USF Writing Studio or Purdue OWL).
Assignment 1.2
After you read the assignment details closely and carefully, think through your approach
to the construction of your Literacy Narrative. Then preview Project 1 (see all content
links). Once you have digested the material, craft a considered response for each of the
following. Responses should be in a complete sentence and follow conventions of
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formal, academic writing. Post a response for each of the following to Assignment 1.2 in
Canvas:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Where will you do the reading (location and device)?
Where will you write and store assignments (hardware and software)?
When and where will you work (work schedule with times and locations)?
What are the main details of the assignment (be specific)?
What did you learn from previewing all the P1 activities and tasks (be specific)?
What calendaring technique or technology will you use to plan the next five
weeks?
7. Describe this assignment in one sentence for a defined audience (how would you
describe it to your parents or your friends on social media or in person . . . ).
8. What will you need to succeed in this assignment?
9. What terms and concepts will you need to understand to fulfill this assignment?
10. What part(s) of the assignment interest you most?
11. What question(s) do you have for your Instructor?
12. Finally, do you feel prepared to complete the assignment? If you do, what steps
in this preparation process have helped most? If you do not, what might help you
feel prepared?