Digital Critical Literacy Narrative: Project Description
ENG 121
With Dr. Katherine Millersdaughter
We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people of color differently than whites, elite students differently than those from working families. Yet, though language is fateful in teaching us what kind of people to become and what kind of society to make, discourse is not destiny. We can redefine ourselves and remake society, if we choose, through alternative rhetoric and dissident projects. — Ira Shor, “What is Critical Literacy?” Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice: Vol. 1 : Iss. 4
I.
Defining the Genre:
A critical personal narrative is an essay built of both storytelling and researched argument. It takes a position on a particular issue and supports that position with both personal experience and research into the larger socio-political arena where, for example, other people are sharing similar experiences and both they and various experts are discussing the issue in terms of history, social patterns, psychological impact, social opportunity, and so forth.
A critical literacy narrative is a more pointed version of the critical personal narrative, focusing on experiences of reading, writing, and communicating. Comprised of both storytelling and researched argument, it takes a position on an issue of language or linguistic style or mode of communication, supporting that position with personal experience and research.
A digital critical literacy narrative is meant to be read on screen — a computer screen, a smartphone — and it uses visuals and video to enrich its argument and to appeal to its reader. This is the essay you’ll be writing as our semester comes to a close, and the topic you’ll be exploring is the intersection of language and power — our theme for the course.
II.
Guiding Questions: What is your experience of the relationship between language and power?
Language: What Englishes do you speak and understand? What other languages do you speak and how do they affect (limit, enrich) your English? What ways of talking do you use? What ways of communicating do you use? What ways of listening do you use? When did you first become aware of different Englishes and ways of talking/listening?
Power: Have you noticed that your language or linguistic style is ever positively or negatively judged? Valued? Have you noticed that your words or accent sometimes affect how you are heard and understood? When do they empower you and how? When do they limit you and how? How has language shaped the reader, writer, and communicator that you are today? How has it shaped your sense of self and community — your sense of belonging, opportunity, safety?
Position: Would you call for any changes? Why or why not? How do you wish you and others were spoken to, heard, educated, and so forth? Why exactly?
III. Overview
In this essay, you will narrate a personal experience or a set of related experiences wherein you see power intersect with language . Using at least three assigned course texts (readings and videos) and two visuals, you will situate your experience or set of experiences in a larger social context. Finally, you’ll craft an argument about the relationship between language and power (perhaps English and power, perhaps ways of talking and power), issuing a call to action that you decide is appropriate to the current state of affairs. For example, some writers might argue that ways of speaking English sometimes put us at an unfair disadvantage because not all accents are treated equally. The purpose of the assignment is to gain insight into who you are as a writer, reader, and language user at a time when literacy is at once crucial and contested.
IV. Content.
For this final essay of the semester, you will narrate a personal experience or set of experiences that shaped your development as a writer, reader, and/or communicator and in so doing impacted your sense of personal agency in the larger social arena of community. This event might be a singular experience, a series of closely related experiences, or a period of your life in which literacy (learning to read, write, and communicate) was a primary focus. You might, for example, narrate an experience of learning that you speak English differently from others; of learning English for the first time and using it somewhere; of speaking one way at home and learning to speak and write another way in school or somewhere else in the community; of being told your English is incorrect or inappropriate to a particular educational, professional, or social setting; of being told you’re surprisingly articulate or of feeling painfully inarticulate. Whatever experience you choose to write about, it should 1) be relevant to your development as a writer, reader, and/or communicator and 2) be relevant to your sense of personal significance, ability, and opportunity in the world. You may not know why at first, but the story you share will offer insight into the relationship between language and such forms of power as safety, employment, social status, rapport, and so forth.
In this final essay, you will use class readings to situate your experience of language and power within a larger social context. You’ll note 1) the similarities and/or differences between your literacy experience and that of other people and 2) the connections between your literacy experience and power — the power to be, to do, to achieve, to belong, to find safety and fulfillment, etc.
Somewhere in beginning of the essay, you’ll present an argument that you make about language and power, a position on the issue that you can support with your own story and the class readings you choose. For example, some writers might argue that different ways of speaking English put certain people at an unfair disadvantage because not all accents are treated equally. Or some writers might argue that shared languages of experience build community and a sense of both belonging and safety. Towards the end of the essay, you’ll summarize and then issue a call to action that you decide is appropriate to the current state of affairs. Notice that you are using personal narrative — your own and other people’s — to craft and support an argument. This final essay is an argument paper built of your own story as well as research (class readings and viewings).
V. Style, Genre (again), Length, and Remediation.
Style: Although this is an academic assignment, it is somewhat less formal than the other essays you have written in this course because it invites you to use something other than Standard American English in the story you share. You might use and then translate some of your mother tongue in the story, like Sujata Bhatt does in her poem “Search for My Tongue.” You might use one of your non-standard Englishes to tell your story like John Agard does in “Half-Caste.” In other words, you are invited to adopt a linguistic style that feels appropriate to the subject matter that you share in the personal narrative portion/s of your essay. At the same time, this assignment asks you to follow the conventions of Standard American English in the thesis statement and researched portions of your essay. You’ll be turning in a more or less multilingual essay, one that uses different ways of writing and speaking to discuss language and power. Some essays will be more clearly multilingual than others, but all will address the intersection of language and power.
Genre (Argument, personal narrative, and research): Your essay should be either a classical or Rogerian argument (your choice). It should use personal narrative in the introductory and positive-proof sections and may use it elsewhere in the essay as well. It should use research in the positive-proof sections and may use it elsewhere as well. This research should consist of at least two visuals of your own finding; and three course texts, one of which should be a reading, one of which should be a video, and the last being either a reading or a video (your choice).
Length: Your final essay should be 1000–1200 words in length, carefully paragraphed, and concisely written.
Remediation: Your final essay should be drafted on Medium.com. You’ll need to open a Medium.com account — easy and free. We’ll spend some class time going over the platform’s tools.
VI.
Submission Guidelines. You will submit your finished essay in TWO places — D2L and Medium.com. I suggest you draft the essay in Medium.com and then copy and paste it into a Word or Google doc. You can then upload that Word doc into D2L as usual. Visuals and video will translate just fine.
VII.
Deadlines: Digital Critical Literacy Argument (100 points)
ENG 121–37
- M 12/2 Polished draft on Medium.com
- M 12/2 Presentation (50 points)
- M 12/9 Final polished draft in D2L
ENG 121–501
- S 11/30 Rough Draft on Medium.com
- S 12/7 Polished Draft on Medium.com
- S 12/7 Presentaiton (50 points)
- M 12/9 Final polished draft in D2L
