ENGL 1013 Writing Studies – Module 2 Guide
Module 2: The Writing Process
Essay 1: Literacy Narrative Rough Draft
For Essay 1, you will be describing a meaningful language experience from your own life in the form of a literacy narrative.
A literacy narrative is essentially a personal narrative that describes an event related to the writer’s experience with literacy. As our class readings and discussions show, literacy narratives can describe an event or series of events related to the writer’s experience with reading, writing, or language and learning.
For this essay, you will describe an event from your life that has had an impact on your own literacy in some way. Remember that your essay needs to communicate a meaningful learning experience and show its impact on your literacy development. As you write, be sure to focus on a specific event or related series of events. Your essay must have a point. Also, provide details for your audience. Your audience should be able to clearly understand why this event is significant to you and your literacy development. At the same time, you are describing an event or events from your own life, so use first person (I).
The goal in a personal statement or narrative is to show, not just tell us. To that end, give us a sense of place, time, and who you are. The details really bring the story to life! Look at the sample literacy narratives for how they hook you with such details so we have a sense of knowing the author.
The purpose of this assignment is to practice making and supporting a point, strong sentence construction, and MLA formatting.
Guidelines
- Your essay needs to be 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages
- Your essay needs to follow MLA formatting guidelines
- This essay is worth 100 points
Module 2 Group Discussion: Revising
Many students say that revision is their least favorite part of the writing process. In fact, some students dislike it so much, they avoid it altogether. What is it about revision that is so difficult, or at least makes people perceive it as being difficult? Remember, revision is more than just proofreading and editing for grammar. Revision is about taking feedback from peers, your instructor, and Writing Center tutors to refine and expand your ideas and your overall point.
Write 1-2 paragraphs discussing your own experience with revision, in this essay and/or in previous writing experiences. Think about your writing process as it is now vs. in the past (e.g. do you typically procrastinate and leave no time for revision? only think about revision as proofreading? etc.)
Essay 1 Peer Review
For each student in your group, answer the following peer review questions (copy and paste them) AND provide in-text edits to their paper. For the in-text edits, focus on flagging sentences that are unclear or where they are missing key details from the prompt. Your grade is determined by doing BOTH the answers to the peer review questions and leaving comments/in-text edits in the Google Docs.
- Does the author have a clear structure to the essay? In other words, does the author use paragraphs and have a clear direction throughout the essay?
- Is the author using descriptive language? Do you have a sense of the place, time, and space (i.e. atmosphere)?
- How could the author make the writing more interesting/vivid/engaging to the reader?
- Does the author have a clear point, by the end of the essay, about literacy and its impact on his/her identity?
- What kind of literacy is the author discussing in the essay? Is that kind of literacy clearly defined through the narrative?
- List two things you think the author did really well in this draft.
- List two things you think the author could improve upon for the final version.
Essay 1: Literacy Narrative Final Draft
For Essay 1, you will be describing a meaningful language experience from your own life in the form of a literacy narrative.
A literacy narrative is essentially a personal narrative that describes an event related to the writer’s experience with literacy. As our class readings and discussions show, literacy narratives can describe an event or series of events related to the writer’s experience with reading, writing, or language and learning.
For this essay, you will describe an event from your life that has had an impact on your own literacy in some way. Remember that your essay needs to communicate a meaningful learning experience and show its impact on your literacy development. As you write, be sure to focus on a specific event or related series of events. Your essay must have a point. Also, provide details for your audience. Your audience should be able to clearly understand why this event is significant to you and your literacy development. At the same time, you are describing an event or events from your own life, so use first person (I).
The goal in a personal statement or narrative is to show, not just tell us. To that end, give us a sense of place, time, and who you are. The details really bring the story to life! Look at the sample literacy narratives for how they hook you with such details so we have a sense of knowing the author.
The purpose of this assignment is to practice making and supporting a point, strong sentence construction, and MLA formatting.
Guidelines
- Your essay needs to be 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages
- Your essay needs to follow MLA formatting guidelines
- This essay is worth 100 points
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