WRITING THE

LITERACY
NARRATIVE
SHAPING YOUR STORY
 A literacy narrative is an essay which tells a story
about the process of learning a particular skill or
concept. This type of essay emphasizes what the experience
of the “learning process” looked and felt like.
Reflect: What do you notice now that you were not aware
of back then? What lessons have you learned from the
PAPER #1: experience? What attitudes or insights do you want to
express as you describe the experience? What story about
LITERACY yourself or the experience do you want to tell?
NARRATIVE ----------------------------------------------------------
Length: 1 ½ - 2 pages (approx. 500 words)
Format: MLA (use last name/page number in header);
double-spaced; & include a cover letter (see “Why
Write A Cover Letter for the Paper?”)
 Due Dates for this Paper: Sept. 15th by 8:00 am
SHAPING A NARRATIVE: BASIC FEATURES

Vivid
A Well-Told Description of Autobiographica
Story People and l Significance
Places
A WELL-TOLD
STORY:
THE DRAMATIC
ARC -- GUSTAV
FREYTAG’S
“PYRAMID”
 Opening = 1st impressions
Use “framing” (introductions)
devices when possible Ending = “repetition with
a difference”

A WELL-TOLD
STORY NEEDS Develop a clear avenue “in” to the
TO BE “inciting incident”: capture our
attention
SHAPED

Dramatize the moment of surprise

  Inciting Incident  Exposition
 Exposition  Inciting Incident
 Rising Action  Rising Action
 Climax  Climax
 Falling Action  Falling Action
 Resolution  Reflection

A WELL-TOLD STORY NEEDS TO BE SHAPED

CONSIDER THE BEGINNING: HOW DOES DISCLOSURE AFFECT RECEPTION?
FEATURES OF A WELL-TOLD STORY
 Adding Drama:
 Creative, effective organization
 Dialogue
 Specific, descriptive speaker tags
 Summarizing
 Paraphrasing
 Action: internal or external
 TELLING THE STORY:
CREATIVE, EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION

Building suspense requires:

 Strategic disclosure of ideas/events
 Pacing
 Dramatic Arc
 Clear development of “clues”
 The shape of the arc varies from story to
story: Not all stories devote the same  Consideration of emotional & intellectual
amount of space to each element, and some impact (or reflection)
may omit an element or include more than
one.
 Naming Use the specifics

METHODS FOR
DESCRIBING: Detailing Use modifiers
CREATE A
DOMINANT Use simile &
IMPRESSION Comparing
metaphor

Use taste, touch,

Sensory details
sound, sight, smell
CHOOSING CONCRETE LANGUAGE

Be wary of levels of meaning: Concrete & Abstract language

“denotation” Value terms are, in general, abstract ideas
• Basic dictionary definition • i.e. beauty or birds
“connotation” Specific, concrete words will center around the 5-
• Other meanings & associations connected with senses
the word • i.e. sleek or blue heron
  Your story should “convey” a “richness of
meaning”:
 By remembering feelings and thoughts from
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC the time the event took place
AL SIGNIFICANCE  By reflecting on the past from the present
perspective
 By choosing details and words that create a
dominant impression
 See Annie Dillard’s value terms, courage through fearless behavior (para. 1, from
“American Childhood”):
 “…It was all or nothing. If you hesitated in fear, you would miss and get hurt:
you would take a hard fall while the kid got away, or you would get kicked in
the face while the kid got away. But if you flung yourself wholeheartedly at the
back of his knees—if you gathered and joined body and soul and pointed them
diving fearlessly—then you likely wouldn’t get hurt, and you’d stop the ball.
Your fate, and your team’s score, depended on your concentration and
courage…”

MAKING CONNECTIONS THROUGH “VALUE” TERMS

LITERACY’S POWER
“. . . I have often reflected upon the
new vistas that reading opened to
me. I knew right there in prison
that reading had changed forever
the course of my life. As I see it
today, the ability to read awoke
inside me some long dormant
craving to be mentally alive.”
 Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” excerpt from
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (see
http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/ReaderLearnin
gtoRead.htm
)