Literacy Narrative Structures, Outlines, Methods

STOCKPILE OF LITERACY NARRATIVE/PAPER STRUCTURES, METHODS, ETC. Thesis Your paper must have a thesis. For your literacy narrative, your thesis will be an explicit statement of the insight your story provides about the significance of reading, writing, or language. The thesis will state what you learned from the experience or how it changed you. Evidence To make the insight articulated in your thesis powerful and convincing, you must support it with concrete evidence. Your narrative will provide evidence from your own experience to support your thesis. The more vivid and compelling your story is, the stronger your evidence will be. Structure The structure of a good college essay depends entirely on its Thesis Statement. A well-structured essay presents an explicit thesis early on that forecasts the essay’s structure. Every element of the essay helps support and develop that thesis. The Introduction engages the reader’s interest in the issue the thesis raises. Each paragraph in the Body of the essay develops and supports a single point that helps confirm the thesis. (Body paragraphs should always begin with a one-sentence statement of the paragraph’s main point: a Topic Sentence.) The Conclusion restates the essay’s thesis and summarizes its argument. In a well-structured essay, a reader could read just your thesis and your topic sentences and have a perfectly comprehensible outline of your essay. (Potential) Structure of Literacy Narrative ( 4 complete pages or more): Introduction(½ to 1 page)   Hooks the reader’s interest. Ends with a thesis statement (the insight your story provides). Narrative (2-3 pages)  Supports and develops your thesis with evidence from your personal experience. Conclusion (½ to 1 page)   Briefly summarizes your thesis insight. Returns to the “hook” from the opening paragraph. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Literacy Narrative Outline A literacy narrative gives an account of a personal experience based on relationships with reading and writing. The main goal of literacy narrative is to tell of a time when you learned from a given experience. Writing a literacy narrative requires you to do the following:  Select a topic that you have deep feelings for and are willing to share.  Give your paper a title that is suitable for your topic.  Engage the reader.  Provide vivid descriptions that include sensory details throughout your narrative.  Include dialogue. Literacy Narrative Outline The following is a literacy narrative outline you can use: 1. Introduction. The introduction of your narrative essay should include:  A hook. A hook is an interesting statement or phrase used to grab the reader’s attention. It should be included in the first sentences of your introduction paragraph.  A thesis statement.  The significance of the topic you are writing about to the reader.  The significance of the topic you are writing about to you. 2. Setting. The setting should include:  Beginning of event. This section should provide an explanation of how events happened at the beginning. Explain to the reader the exact events that happened before reaching the end. Ensure that you include a detailed sensory explanation of what happened. Express your feelings as well as those of the other character involved, about what happened.  Some background information about the event you are writing about. This information should contain some history about the event as well as some important details on the event. It should explain in details the time when reading and writing helped you learn something important  Setting. Provide a description of the setting where the events of that day took place. You should also, provide the readers with an explanation of the importance of the setting to your narrative.  Characters. Describe the important physical and personality characteristics of the characters involved in your literacy narrative.  Short story. Provide details that establish the conflict in your narrative. This short story can also give details explaining the stakes of the characters involved in your narrative. 3. Events Climax. Include the following in this section:  Express your feelings and those of the other characters involved about what happened.  Give an explanation of how things escalated.  Provide a detailed sensory explanation of the events that happened. 4. Conclusion. Your conclusion should:  Tell your readers how things ended up and what you learned from the events of that particular day that changed your literacy practices.  Sum up the event that you have explained in your entire literacy narrative. _____________________________________________________________________________ Literacy Narrative Choosing a Topic In general, it's a good idea to focus on a single event that took place during a relatively brief period of time. For example:         any early memory about writing or reading that you recall vividly someone who taught you to read or write a book or other text that has been significant for you in some way an event at school that was interesting, humorous, or embarrassing a writing or reading task that you found (or still find) difficult or challenging a memento that represents an important moment in your literacy development the origins of your current attitudes about writing or reading perhaps more recent challenges: learning to write instant messages, learning to write email appropriately, learning to construct a Web page Make a list of possible topics, and then choose one that you think will be interesting to you and to others—and that you're willing to share with others. If several seem promising, try them out on a friend or classmate. Or just choose one and see where it leads; you can switch to another if need be. Considering the Rhetorical Situation What is rhetoric? the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. What is the rhetorical situation? The rhetorical situation is the circumstance of an event that consists of the writer (set of constraints), subject (issue), and audience. PURPOS E AUDIEN CE STANCE Why do you want to tell this story? To share a memory with others? To fulfill an assignment? To teach a lesson? To explore your past learning? Think about the reasons for your choice and how they will shape what you write. Are your readers likely to have had similar experiences? Would they tell similar stories? How much explaining will you have to do to help them understand your narrative? Can you assume that they will share your attitudes toward your story, or will you have to work at making them see your perspective? How much about your life are you willing to share with this audience? What attitude do you want to project? Affectionate? Neutral? Critical? Do you wish to be sincere? serious? humorously detached? self-critical? selfeffacing? something else? How do you want your readers to see you? Generating Ideas and Text Good literacy narratives share certain elements that make them interesting and compelling for readers. Remember that your goals are to tell the story as clearly and vividly as you can and to convey the meaning the incident has for you today. Describe the setting. Where does your narrative take place? List the places where your story unfolds.      What do you see? If you're inside, what color are the walls? What's hanging on them? What can you see out any windows? What else do you see? Books? Lined paper? Red ink? Are there people? Places to sit? What do you hear? A radiator hissing? Air conditioners? Leaves rustling? The wind howling? Rain? Someone reading aloud? Shouts? Cheers? Children playing? Music? The zing of an instant message arriving? What do you smell? Sweat? White paste? Perfume? Incense? Food cooking? How and what do you feel? Nervous? Happy? Cold? Hot? A scratchy wool sweater? Tight shoes? Rough wood on a bench? What do you taste? Gum? Mints? Graham crackers? Juice? Coffee? Think about the key people. Narratives include people whose actions play an important role in the story. In your literacy narrative, you are probably one of those people. A good way to develop your understanding of the people in your narrative is to write about them:   Describe each person in a paragraph or so. What do the people look like? How do they dress? How do they speak? Quickly? Slowly? With an accent? Do they speak clearly, or do they mumble? Do they use any distinctive words or phrases? Recall (or imagine) some characteristic dialogue. Write about "what happened." At the heart of every good narrative is the answer to the question "What happened?" The action in a literacy NARRATIVE may be as dramatic as winning a spelling bee or as subtle as a conversation between two friends; both contain action, movement, or change that the narrative tries to capture for readers. A good story dramatizes the action. Try SUMMARIZING the action in your narrative in a paragraph—try to capture what happened. Use active and specific verbs (pondered, shouted, laughed) to describe the action as vividly as possible. Consider the significance of the narrative. You need to make clear the ways in which any event you are writing about is significant for you now. Write a page or so about the meaning it has for you. How did it change or otherwise affect you? What aspects of your life now can you trace to that event? How might your life have been different if this event had not happened or had turned out differently? Why does this story matter to you? Ways of Organizing a Literacy Narrative Start by OUTLINING the main events in your narrative. Then think about how you want to tell the story. Don't assume that the only way to tell your story is just as it happened. That's one way —starting at the beginning of the action and continuing to the end. But you could also start in the middle—or even at the end. Shannon Nichols, for example, could have begun her narrative by telling how she finally passed the proficiency test and then gone back to tell about the times she tried to pass it, even as she was an A student in an honors English class. Several ways of organizing a narrative follow. Writing Out a Draft Once you have generated ideas and thought about how you want to organize your narrative, it's time to begin DRAFTING. Do this quickly—try to write a complete draft in one sitting, concentrating on getting the story on paper or screen and on putting in as much detail as you can. Some writers find it helpful to work on the beginning or ending first. Draft a beginning. A good narrative grabs readers' attention right from the start. Here are some ways of beginning; you can find more advice in the chapter on beginning and ending.  Jump right in. Sometimes you may want to get to the main action as quickly as possible. Nichols, for example, begins as she takes the ninth-grade proficiency test for the first time.   Describe the context. You may want to provide any background information at the start of your narrative, as I decided to do, beginning by explaining how my grandmother taught me to read. Describe the setting, especially if it's important to the narrative. Bragg begins by describing the small Alabama town where his father lived. Draft an ending. Think about what you want your readers to read last. An effective ending helps them understand the meaning of your narrative. Here are some possibilities; look also at the chapter on beginning and ending.     End where your story ends. It's up to you to decide where a narrative ends. Say something about the significance of your narrative. Nichols observes that she no longer loves to read or write, for example. The trick is to touch upon the narrative's significance without stating it too directly, like the moral of a fable. Refer back to the beginning. My narrative ends with my grandmother watching me graduate from college; Nichols ends by contemplating the negative effects of failing the proficiency test. End on a surprising note. Bragg catches our attention when his father gives him the boxes of books—and leaves us with a complicated image to ponder. Come up with a title. A good title indicates something about the subject of your narrative—and makes readers want to take a look. Nichols's title states her subject, "Proficiency," but she also puts the word in quotes, calling it into question in a way that might make readers wonder—and read on. I focus on the significance of my narrative: "How I Learned about the Power of Writing." Bragg takes his title from something memorable his father said: "It's all over but the shoutin.' " See the section on guiding your reader for more advice on titles. Editing and Proofreading Readers equate correctness with competence. Once you've revised your draft, follow these guidelines for EDITING a narrative:     Make sure events are NARRATED in a clear order and include appropriate time markers, TRANSITIONS, and summary phrases to link the parts and show the passing of time. Be careful that verb tenses are consistent throughout. If you write your narrative in the past tense ("he taught me how to use a computer"), be careful not to switch to the present ("So I look at him and say . . . ") along the way. Check to see that verb tenses correctly indicate when an action took place. If one action took place before another action in the past, you should use the past perfect tense: "I forgot to dot my i's, a mistake I had made many times." Punctuate DIALOGUE correctly. Whenever someone speaks, surround the speech with quotation marks ("No way," I said.). Periods and commas go inside quotation marks; exclamation points and question marks go inside if they're part of the quotation, outside if they're part of the whole sentence:  Inside: Opening the door, Ms. Cordell announced, "Pop quiz!" Outside: It wasn't my intention to announce, "I hate to read"!  PROOFREAD your finished narrative carefully before turning it in.  Taking Stock of Your Work         How well do you think you told the story? What did you do especially well? What could still be improved? How did you go about coming up with ideas and generating text? How did you go about drafting your narrative? Did you use photographs or any other graphics? What did they add? Can you think of graphics you might have used? How did others' responses influence your writing? What would you do differently next time?