Assignment Sheets

Assignment 1: Literacy Narrative: Overview My ENGL 1101 class will begin with a literacy memoir. Students will discuss what literacy is and develop a more thorough understanding of how their conception of literacy developed. For this assignment, students will read several essays about what literacy is and how it is constructed. After discussing how these articles affect literacy, students will discuss how these presentations of literacy complement or challenge their own views. Then they will also read multiple literacy narratives/memoirs. All of this discussion will lead to students constructing their own literacy memoirs. Students will write about their understanding of literacy and how it has been shaped over time. The goal for this assignment is for students to think critically about literacy as a social construct instead of merely accepting the myth of a single literacy. Assignment It seems only fitting to begin your college career with an essay assignment that will allow you to reflect on the literacy experiences that shaped you as a writer and reader. This flexible, personal narrative assignment will also allow you to get comfortable with your writing and will set the groundwork for more advanced college writing. There is room for creativity as you will experiment with scope, sensory detail, and dialogue. Definition: Literacy - the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write. Step 1 Brainstorming: In class, we have done some activities to jumpstart your thinking about this assignment: a letter to Mr. DeArmas, reading/writing territories, a literacy timeline, a freewrite, discussions w/ our peer groups and class sharing, and for our next class you will read a sample literacy narrative (see moodle). We will also read former students literacy narratives to get a better understanding of how our own essays might evolve. You might also want to talk with friends, family, me, or a writing center consultant to brainstorm more ideas, or do some freewriting or mind-mapping on your own whatever works for you! Step 2 Topic Invention: Decide on a topic. Your topic should be a literacy experience you had that contributed to the literate person and excellent college student you are today. Keep in mind that this is a 3-4 page narrative. Telling the story of your entire academic career would be too much for 3-4 pages. Step 3 Drafting: Write your first draft. Keep in mind that the main purpose of this essay is to tell the story of one event or experience in your literate life. The secondary

purpose of this assignment is to begin to understand yourself as a literate person. Your audience is your teacher and your classmates, who are just getting to know you, so keep in mind youll need to provide context and detail in your essay. Also, what makes narratives interesting are sensory detail and dialogue. You dont want your audience to passively read your story: you want them to see and feel your experiences! We will discuss these in class, and I have a really neat activity planned for generating sensory detail. See syllabus for due dates.

Assignment 2: Genre Analysis Take a look at the list of genres listed on our moodle page. Choosing one of these genres, you must find three examples of items that you believe are included in this genre and compare/contrast them. One of the examples must be older relative to the genre. For example, if you choose cell phone advertisements, one should be from the 1980s, when they first went on the market. Your analysis should be 3 pages long, and is due on ____. Your analysis should address the following questions: 1. Who is the audience? 2. How is this genre presented to the audience? 3. What is the main argument? (Feel free to discuss ethos, pathos, logos, logical fallacies, etc. if they are relevant to your examples) 4. What is the purpose of this genre? Here are additional questions that should also be addressed in your analysis (From Deborah Deans Genre Theory, p. 60) 5. What does the genre allow its users to do and what does it not allow them to do? 6. Whose needs are most served by the genre? Whose needs are least served? 7. Does the genre enable its users to represent themselves fully? 8. Does the genre create inequalities among its users that lead to imbalances of power? 9. Do the assumptions that the genre reflects privilege certain ways of doing things? 10. Does the genre allow its users to do certain things at the expense of others? And if so, at what cost? Your analysis will be evaluated on your answers to these questions (being thorough with your answers and creating an interesting/effective analysis). This project is worth 10% of your final grade.

Assignment 3: Rhetorical Analysis The third major assignment will be a rhetorical analysis of sorts. After students have gained an understanding of literacy as a social construct, and the way that genre functions socially, students must then realize that their own writing is constructed socially as well. Each situation that students will be writing into has certain expectations and conventions. These conventions are not arbitrary but are instead based on the need of an audience and their expectations. In this assignment, students will select a text (although it may be print or nonprint) and examine the rhetorical choices of the writers. Students should consider ideas such as audience, motive, and medium as choices that writers are making with specific goals in mind. Students may choose to analyze print or non-print texts. If choosing a nonprint text, they may focus on things such as camera angle, word placement, etc. Students will describe what they see happening in their texts and then evaluate whether those moves were effective based on the needs of the audience. Students should consider ideas such as audience, motive, and medium as choices that writers are making with specific goals in mind. While you may certainly choose to write about literature, such as articles, poems, and short stories, you may choose to write about visual genres (photos, paintings, film, drawings, sculptures), media (web pages, commercials), or any other text of your choosing. The text may be any length or contain any amount of information, but keep in mind that although there may be much to say about a simple text, you should choose a text that will allow you to sustain your thoughts in writing for 4 pages. Before you begin to work with your text, you will submit a short, informal proposal that indicates what text you intend to use. Give a short description of it, indicate the main genre used for the text, and show why you think this text would be worthwhile to address.