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ENGL 3368Literacy Autobiography
Literacy and Identity
Write an essay in which you explore your history as a reader and
writer. Rather than tell yourentire story, from learning to
recognize the alphabet to your current experiences in college,
select important events based on some larger point you want to
make about language, literacy,community, and identity. (Start with
a question or problem you want to explore. Think aboutyour
Autobiographical Haiku as a place to begin.) It willtake several
drafts and a lot of feedback from readers tohelp you discover and
narrow in on the point you want tomake and this assignment will
have several small stepsthat youll need to complete that will lead
you to the finalessay. You may also find that after you begin
writing,the point you want to make changes.
In deciding what story you want to tellwhat point youwant to
makeconsider the degree to which yourexperience reflects some
larger claim about these
issues. Remember, too, that the authority in autobiographical
writing comes from the care withwhich you select events to describe
and the richness of the details you choose to present.Your goal as
a writer is to enable the reader to enter your experience and to
understand itsimportance.
Additionally, think about community, family, empowerment,
engagement, language,technology, or any of the ideas we've
discussed in class so far and how these ideas informyour literacy
autobiography.
We will peer review each segment of this assignment. That means,
you must bring anadditional copies to class (one for review and one
for me). These drafts will be typed anddouble spaced. If you choose
to avoid peer review, your assignment grade will be loweredone
letter grade and this cannot be removed in a revision.
Autobiographical Haiku
o Draft due: 2/15
o Final Version due: 2/17
Essay #1 (approximately 5+ pages)
o Draft due: 2/17
o Final Version due: 2/22
Nuts and Bolts:
Your essay should be focused on academic literacy, and this is
not an essay that you can dashoff in one sitting. To get the work
as focused as it needs to be, you will need time andfeedback from
others. Make sure you have used the standard academic form of
writing inMLA format (check a handbook or online sources if you are
unclear about this).
8/7/2019 ENGL 3368 Literacy Autobiography
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Autobiographical HaikuEvery Sunday, the Washington Post
publishes a column, Life is Short: Autobiography asHaiku in their
Style section. In 100 words or less, Post readers write pieces that
give insightinto their lives. Id like you to do the same. Here are
a few good examples:
Laughter:When I turned 50, my wife went along withmy buying the
red, two-seater convertible.After a meeting in Baltimore, as I was
puttingthe top down, four ladies in their mid-seventies were
walking by and slowed toadmire the car. I thanked them as they
toldme how cute it was. As I buckled up, one ofthem added, "You're
not so bad yourself." Aspart of my midlife crisis, I assumed
women25 years younger, not 25 years older, wouldadmire the car. My
86-year-old father wasimpressed. My wife of 26 years just
laughed.
Sadness: We have just returned from an overseasvacation. My
4-year-old is playing with some"dress-up" clothes. She is my
fairygodmother and must marry me off. But firstshe must make me
beautiful through magic.She wraps me in parrot-green feathers
andtakes me aside to cast her spell. I expect herto wave her wand
as fairies do in cartoonsand movies. Instead, she uses it to frisk
melike an airport security guard. She mimics themoves exactly,
including the fussing over myshoes. After 9/11, this is how little
fairygodmothers do magic.
DRAFT DUE : Tuesday, February 15
FINAL VERSION DUE : Thursday, February17. You will email an
electronic copy to me([email protected] ) by class time
onThursday.
We will construct a class-specificAutobiography as Haiku
document using yourdocuments and photographs. Remember, youcan use
no more than 100 words.
