Literacy Narrative

There are different kinds of literacy?

I'm pretty sure we all kinda thought that when Ms. Sisneros said we had to write a "Literary Narrative" with different kinds of literacy. Then she passed out that sheet that detailed the different kinds--lots more than I could have ever listed.

This was a really tough assignment to pick a topic for. First I have to really understand several types of literacy, then think of a time where they all collided into one great story?!

One by one, I started to think of times that could fit one or two of the types of literacy. Then, I started to probe those memories to see if they fit any more of the types. Finally, I decided on the time last semester when I wrote my very first short story.

Short stories were totally foreign to me, but I had to write one for two major grades, and I couldn't just write one, because, if you haven't noticed, I'm sorta a perfectionist. So I thought about that time, wrote out all the types of literacy, and wrote parts of the story that could fit into those types of literacy. Like, after "Computer Literacy" I wrote "The Damned Cursor" which is the subject which opens my story.

After that, I got comfy on my couch in my warm knit socks with a cup of hot tea. I just wrote in pencil and paper, jotting down my memories, like brain dumping. I wrote everything I remembered about anything connected with that time. Whoa. 8 pages.

I read what I wrote, and edited out some stuff that was just extra information. The first edit. Then I had to ask myself some of the questions from the Writer's Notebook handout, specific questions that focused my writing to something that wouldn't drive off the road like a badly-aligned car. As a tutor, I find that when a person has a clear focus on what their paper is about, they write better and have less of the crap that just fills up pages. They fill up the required space and actually say something, which is, ya know, always nice and such.

I began thinking about my audience. I pictured them as anyone who, whether through their own resolve or through that of a professor, needs to write. Yes, people can "need" to write. But then some weird form of stage fright takes them over and paralyzes them. That also gave me the purpose: to form a common bond with them over the toughness to write and encourage them to keep at it. I had been reading Anne Lamont's book Bird by Bird at the time, and it was sort of the same thing. A lot of the best, best writers suffer from writer's block that's really just unhealthy and stifling perfectionism. People who don't write as much get all nervous because they think those writers write that crap so easily, practically in their sleep. Like TS Eliot wrote The Wasteland early one Tuesday. HAHAHAHAHA. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it was my duty to uncover this fact.

From the narrative Ms. Sisneros put up on the projector, I had a pretty good idea what Voice I was supposed to use, though I rarely actually write in that voice. I still like to keep things pretty formal, however, cuz it IS schoolwork, after all. I needed the voice that would connect most to my audience and have any author understanding what I was saying. I didn't use many references to works of literature lest someone not understand. I explained things clearly and tried to deal with the writer's block that everyone experiences. The writing, I think, was appropriate for the piece.

When the essay was done, I really liked how easy it read. I didn't like how much I used the word "I," I would have liked to add more outward description. I'll definitely re-edit this so that is possible. Ms. Sisneros is really encouraging in her comments; I think I'll try to add more of the stuff she liked. (Hey, let's get real here, we all do that.) When I re-edit, I think I might try to do all of that stuff I just talked about, plus fix minor punctuation issues and perhaps polish the voice. Sometimes when I write parts of an essay at a couple of different times, the voice sounds like it.

EDITING! YAY!