Your Literacy Narrative essay will be at least 2 pages and no more than 4 and be completed following MLA format.

Regardless of our backgrounds, our ideas of literacy often become deeply engrained and labeled as "good" or "bad" without much thought about how these views have come to be. As a result, many of us have definitions of literacy-of reading, writing, and viewing-that could benefit from a thoughtful and honest close self-examination.

Choose a Focus: Please draw from the following as you develop your essay focus:

• Narrate an early memory about writing or reading that you recall vividly. Then explainwhy this event is significant to you now. (Similar to Malcolm X and the student example on pp. 36 in the text)

• Identify a book or other text and explain its significance for you in your reading andwriting. (Similar to Sherman Alexie)

• Choose a literacy theme from your experience (difficulty, pleasure, distraction, benefits, etc.) and unify your literacy narrative around it (Similar to Ivan Dole)

• Narrate your literacy journey from first memories to now (Similar to Ivan Dole's and the student example)

Create a Narrative: Use sound writing and story-telling skills to organize and articulate your story. Make sure to stay focused on your one, main idea.

Key Elements

• Create a well told story. Bring your narrative to life by using concrete and vivid
Details - use energetic, precise, and engaging verbs and adjectives.

• Develop your main idea. (make sure you only have one main idea)

• Develop the significance or effect of your experience

• Use strong, complete, varied sentences

• Organize paragraphs in a logical way, using topic sentences

• Demonstrate effective, engaging, and clear writing

• State the main idea of your essay somewhere in your introduction, and then make certain that every supporting paragraph relates to and supports that main idea

• Consider using dialogue between the characters in your narrative, if you feel

Comfortable doing so (though this is not necessary)

• Demonstrate growth and improvement from the first drafts to the final revised draft.

• Proofread! Read your essay to yourself out loud: does it flow? Can details be added to make it more powerful? Is anything missing?