WEEK 8 WRITING

THE LITERACY
NARRATIVE
SHAPING YOUR FINAL REFLECTIONS
  The final piece of writing will be a 3-4 page reflection on the process of writing
your Research Paper in this class, in the form of a Literacy Narrative. This might be
the most unfamiliar genre to you (unless you wrote one in English 113), but it is in
many ways similar to a memoir or autobiographical narrative. In this case, it will
give you the opportunity to reflect on a significant or exemplary moment during the
creation of the Research Paper. Ideally, this would focus on an event: was there a
moment in the past two months where you suddenly felt like you “got it,” in regard
to a writing skill? Did you experience and overcome (or just survive) a setback? Did
FINAL your topic choice, research, or writing process connect to your personal faith in
some way? Don’t just tell me what you think I want to hear; this essay could be
REFLECTION: positive, negative, or mixed––it just needs to be a good story that communicates
some kind of significance. If you can't think of a particular moment, you can still do
well on this assignment by being more informative and analytical, guiding the
LITERACY reader through your learning process in the class and emphasizing an element like
how the topic connected to your personal or religious convictions. Make sure your
NARRATIVE examples are specific (if you write about this class, refer to certain essays,
sentences, professor’s comments, or words with a classmate or family
member). Feel free to include images, like screenshots of essay commentary.
 Your literacy narrative will be evaluated according to the following Key Features:
 A well-told story
 Vivid detail
 Some indication of the narrative’s significance (this should include a connection
to your personal faith or worldview)
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
IMPRESSION Comparing Use simile & metaphor

Use taste, touch, sound,

Sensory details 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 the time the event
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC
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
)