Literacy Narrative

1.       “The reflection in the mirror wasn’t kind; twin mascara ruts flanked each side of my face, eyelids swollen and naked, the whites bloodshot and raw. The splash of cold water stung my pores.” (P. 672, lines 15-17)

2.       “’I can’t believe I figured out you were pregnant before you did,’ he said. ‘What kind of woman are you?’ He was teasing, but I failed to see humor in the situation.

‘The kind of woman who is done with that part of her life’ I belched, sounding defensive. ‘The kind that gave birth to three babies in thirty-three months and likes eight hours of sleep a night. The kind that is done changing diapers and washing bottles and already got rid of every bit of baby stuff we ever owned.’ I’m sure he was sorry he asked. ‘Why would being pregnant even cross my mind?’” (P. 673, lines 20-28)

3.       “OH MY GOD. Oh my God. OH MY GOD! This cannot be happening. Tears surged down my face, pelting my bare thighs.” –emotion of sadness (p. 671, lines 1-2)

“I must of sat there for a long time, numb. My head and limbs felt far too heavy to get up, my brain incapable of forming intelligent thought, eyes closed, head tilted backward, positioned awkwardly against the tiled wall behind.” (p. 671, lines 8-10)

4.       I can write about:

·         The whole senior seminar portfolio

·         The big end of the year AP LIT paper

·         Learning to write cursive

·         Getting read to when I was young

·         Reading to my little brother, teaching him to write

5.       PURPOSE: I want to tell this story because it was the biggest paper I ever had to write. It involved a huge amount of research and took a very long time to write. Since AP LIT is not an easy class at all it was a very challenging paper to write. I want to tell others how this paper might really help me in the future for other college essays and how I think it helped me be a better writer.

6.       AUDIENCE: I am not sure if my audience has had similar experiences because you are not required to take an AP class so I am not sure who has had to write the same kind of paper and will be able to tell the same story as me. I think that I will have to do quite a bit of explaining for my audience to understand my narrative because it takes a lot to write that paper.

7.       STANCE: I want to project an attitude that is neutral and mostly serious because it wouldn’t make too much sense to have a more sincere type of attitude toward an AP Lit essay. I want my readers to see me as someone who takes work seriously and see how hard it is to do an AP class and do a huge essay.

8.       MEDIA/DESIGN: My narrative will be in print and on my blog and I do not think that adding pictures will do anything because the narrative is about writing a paper for an AP Lit class.

9.       WHAT DO YOU SEE?  I am in the classroom, at UW, and at home. You were able to write at home, we did research at UW. At home I had my own comfy place, maybe my bed, the couch. At school I was next to other kids I hear others breathing and hear the typing on the computer and the ruffling of changing pages. At UW it was really big there, we were in the library. So many books, it was confusing to find the right ones at first.

10.   WHAT DO YOU HEAR? At the school I hear others breathing and hear the typing on the computer and the ruffling of changing pages. At home I hear my family, they’re never silent unless they’re sleeping, and my dog can be crazy I hear him running around. At UW I hear other students, it’s mostly silent because we are in the library.

11.   WHAT DO YOU SMELL? I smell lots of different colognes and perfumes at school. At home I smell my mom’s cooking, her smelly fragrances throughout the house.

12.   HOW AND WHAT DO YOU FEEL? I feel nervous, frustrated, I need to get this paper done. Fidgety, upset because I could be doing other things than writing a big paper.

13.   WHAT DO YOU TASTE? Gum, I like to chew gum in school, I’ve heard it makes you do better on classes, maybe helps you concentrate better or something. Food, I like to eat and work, can’t work on an empty stomach. Coffee, mmm some iced coffee is good, and it keeps me awake.

14.   DESCRIBE EACH PERSON my teacher: Ms. Boss. Pretty short, short brown hair. She is nice, she is the kind of teacher that loves to tell her life stories and funny things that have happened to her in her life. She speaks loudly sometimes but sometimes her voice is suddle, I can tell it’s her voice when I heard it.

15.   Recall (or imagine) some characteristic dialogue my teacher told us how to write the essay, gave us tips.

16.   Summarize the action We knew this point of class would be coming for the whole year now. We were all nervous to hear it and we were dreading the convo, the only good thing was being able to go to UW. We were all nervous and didn’t want to hear it, why couldn’t we just read our books like we have been this whole year? But there she goes handing out the rubric, the Author Analysis Essay. We all didn’t want to know or hear about it but we had to. And there goes the rest of our Netflix time. Forever dreading the Author analysis essay.

17.   This is a significant essay because it is the biggest essay I ever had to write. AP Lit was actually pretty fun, we had a super cool teacher and watched a few movies but we read books about a certain author and had to write a whole 10 pages on one author we had to research. We had to research the ways he wrote, when he was born, how all his books connect, everything. The biggest essay I ever had to write for a hard class.