Hi, I'm Professor Hitch, and today I want to talk to you about literacy narratives. More specifically, what the heck are they? Well, to investigate further, I say we should look at the two words separately and talk about what those words mean separately in order to figure out what they mean together.
When you look at the word literacy, you come up with, most of the time, two main definitions. Either one, the ability to read and write, or two, competence or knowledge in a specified area. What's interesting about this second definition, competence or knowledge in a specified area, is that that could in fact include reading and writing. So a good way of thinking about literacy is that literacy is competence or knowledge in a specified area.
Then let's look at the word narrative. Narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events, aka a story. You put the two words together and what do you come up with?
It is a story of knowledge or competence in a specified area. More specifically, how did you gain that knowledge? How do you use that knowledge today? How do you think you might use that knowledge in the future? So, When your teacher assigns a literacy narrative, the question you should ask is literacy of what?
As soon as you have a definition of what kind of knowledge or competence you're going to be writing about, you can begin writing your story of how you gained knowledge or competence in that field and how you continue to use that knowledge or competence even today. That is a literacy narrative. There are some key features to pay attention to as you craft your literacy narrative. Number one, a well-told story. If narrative is in the name, you better be telling a story.
Number two, vivid details. Remember, if you're telling a story of something that happened to you, it probably didn't happen to the reader. So you'll have to provide many vivid details in order to help the reader imagine the situation that you're describing. Finally, Some indication of significance. Yes, your teacher may be asking for the essay, and in that sense, you shouldn't really feel obligated to say why your essay is important.
It's important because it gets a grade. That said, one of the things that separates out a great essay from a good essay is that great essays often do try to justify themselves. They do try to say, this is why it's important you read my story of knowledge or competency.
Finally, some things to watch out for. First, think long and hard about your thesis statement. Because this is a story and not an essay, you may not have a solid point that you're trying to make. You may not have a three-part thesis point that you're trying to make.
And therefore, when you sit down to write a literacy narrative, be suspicious of any three-point thesis statement you come up with. You may have a general statement that ties together the story that you're going to tell your reader, and that's okay, but if you end up gravitating towards something more specific, be suspicious. Second, you want to look out for essay structure.
A literacy narrative is not like a traditional argument paper, obviously because it's not making an argument, but more than that because Stories don't follow the same kind of rigid formatting that a traditional argument paper has to follow. Some stories are going to have six paragraphs instead of a traditional five-paragraph essay. Other stories are going to have a long, winding introduction that leads to a relatively short conclusion.
Others may have the reverse. That said, Instead of relying on some predetermined rule to figure out your essay structure for literacy narrative, follow what feels right to you as you're telling your story. Okay, so if you can keep in mind thesis statements and essay structure, if you make sure to include a well-told story, vivid details, and some indication of significance, if you remember that a literacy narrative is a story of competence or knowledge in a specified area, then you are good to start writing your literacy narrative.
Good luck.