ENGL 1013 Writing Studies – Module 1 Guide

MODULE 1: Critical Reading

It should come as no big surprise that Writing Studies I is a class that focuses on the act of writing. What is interesting about writing, though, is its strong connection to reading and reading well. One of the ways you will be developing your skills as a writer in this class is by becoming a better critical reader. Narratives are a great place to start.

Accounts of an individual overcoming great odds, learning a powerful lesson, or even having a ridiculous experience usually make for interesting reading. As such, narratives are an important genre of writing. A narrative is a unique way to tell your story, or a part of it. After all, no one can tell your story quite like you can. 

Module Objectives

After completing this Module, students will be able to:

• Familiarize themselves with suggested methods for becoming better critical readers
• Apply critical reading suggestions to text
• Understand the connection between writing and reading
• Recognize the unique features of a narrative
• Identify and analyze audience, rhetorical appeals, and themes/keywords in a text
• Structure a personal experience in the form of a literacy narrative

Module 1 Group Discussion 1: Reading History

Curtis Carroll’s TED Talk and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s essay both offer a piece of their reading history and their journey with literacy. For Carroll, he describes learning to read but also learning about the connection between financial literacy and empowerment. Coates has a very different reading history than Carroll. His narrative focuses on how reading something you’re passionate about, in his case, an issue of Sports Illustrated about his favorite football player, can lead to endless questions and being shaken to your core by storytelling.

For this assignment, think about your own reading history. You could focus on one significant event, discuss a series of events chronologically, discuss people from your life that you associate with the act of reading, or order it in any way that makes sense to you.

Think about literacy broadly, it does not merely have to be reading you do for school (e.g. Coates reading about his favorite football player, Curtis describing financial literacy, etc.). Have fun with this assignment!

Module 1 Group Discussion 2: Communication

Several of the literacy narratives you read and watched for this Module were about the importance of communication and the power of language. Meredith McCarroll describes her journey denying and then accepting her southern accent when required to speak “formally”. Jamila Lyiscott and Amy Tan describe speaking multiple languages and multiple versions of English. And Sherman Alexie describes how comic books opened up the world of language and the power that comes with language.

Most of us can relate on some level. The majority of us have been in situations in which our ability to use language seemed inadequate, for example, when taking an exam, writing an essay, being interviewed for a job, giving directions, or expressing an emotion.