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Essay #1 – Peer Review Rubric
Exchange papers with a partner. Make sure that both partners have a paper. Take your writing
utensil and check off this rubric as you go over it.
1. The first paragraph of your partner’s essay introduces an overview of the ______________
paper topic. It gives you a Thesis that expresses a focused topic and an
attitude towards that topic.
______________
2. Your partner’s paper has a sense of organization revolving around three
parts’ worth of information. This may not be three paragraphs, but you can ______________
get a sense of three units being presented.
3. Each part has the following (three lines, one for each part):
a. A central topic or event around which the part is focused
______________
______________
______________
b. A description, including dialogue as needed, of the event with
WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW? addressed
throughout the description
______________
______________
______________
c. A reflection on the topical event
______________
______________
______________
d. Integration of one of our readings, including summary and
quotation, with the central event
______________
______________
______________
4. A conclusion paragraph that wraps everything up
______________
5. Proper format (font, double spaced 0 pt, heading, title bolded centered,
last name and page numbers, indentation, etc)
______________
Exploratory Essay – Literacy Narrative Assignment
A literacy narrative is like an autobiography where you focus on your experiences with reading,
writing, language use, artistic endeavors, and most especially your learning in and out of school.
What are your attitudes towards the above listed activities – reading, writing, language, art,
school – and what events shaped these attitudes?
Consider:
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When and how did you first learn how to read? What were your successes, frustrations,
and failures?
What was the first story or TV show or movie or book or song or piece of art that really
inspired you or that you really loved?
What type of genres or media are you interested in? Horror, romance, fantasy, Facebook,
Twitter, videos, music, etc
Beyond your first experience, how did your interest or dislike get reinforced? We
generally don’t like or hate something from just one experience.
How did you feel about school? How do you feel about attending university and its
contribution to your future success?
Did you have any influential English or Language teachers?
Do you speak any other languages? How was the learning experience?
Etc
Some examples of literacy narratives can be found here:
http://writingstudies2.blogspot.com/p/literacy-narrative-assignment.html
What you need to do:
You can’t write about everything, so you have to focus on related experiences and a limited
amount of them. What do your experiences have in common? How might you summarize your
narrative in a single Thesis statement? “I was a comic book geek.” “I speak several disconnected
languages.” “Harry Potter was my life.” A Thesis requires taking a side, so positive OR
negative, not a mixture of both.
Consider limiting your experiences to maybe your top 3, again, keeping a coherent theme
between them. Your theme could involve a single book, if you want, or multiple but related
experiences. How you focus is the tough part.
When presenting these stories, details and reflection are important. Provide that Who? What?
Where? When? Why? How? along with dialogue and any other story-telling techniques so your
experiences feel fresh. Pad these experiences with metacommentary where you introduce and
reflect on why the experiences were important.
Keep going next page
To give greater coherence and analytical value to your experience, you must also connect your
experiences to at least three of the essays that we are reading in class – Newman, Seneca, Tzu,
and Douglass. You will want to connect with these essays, quoting from them and commenting
on how they connect with your own experiences.
Organize, organize, organize. Make sure that you give coherence to your ideas with a sense of
structure. Introduction. Body that lays out your experiences, and Conclusion.
And, of course, grammar and format and other issues that make your paper readable.
This essay will be roughly 2-3 pages, double-spaced with 12 pt. font (at least 500 words).
Topic presentation, outlining, rough drafts, and other components will be posted in the classes
that follows.