ESSAY 1 Literacy Memoir: “Who You Are as A Reader and Writer” Task: For this as

ESSAY 1
Literacy Memoir: “Who You Are as A Reader and Writer”
Task: For this assignment, you will be constructing a literacy memoir. The literacy memoir is a
type of autobiographical essay wherein the writer engages with and examines their identity as a
writer, and as a reader, through their personal experience on the acquisition of literacy. However,
this essay is not simply a recollection of the past, but an exploration and examination of the past
(some would venture to say a “journey through the past”) that will lead to the identification or
discovery of a guiding principle or argument (read: thesis) about your experiences. As you write,
be sure to consider how to best organize and develop your text so that it: (1) provides a detailed
narrative about your journey to literacy, (2) forms a bridge between the past and present to
construct your current identity as a reader and writer, and (3) presents an overall point or
argument regarding your literacy experience.
Purpose: Throughout the duration of this course, we will be attempting to re-envision what
writing can be. To do so, we must first engage our own identities as writers, and by some
extension readers. The purpose of this assignment is to do just that, to allow you to identify and
analyze your experiences with specific literacies and to explain how the acquisition of these
literacies has informed your way of thinking and your identity as a writer/reader/intellectual.
Your literacy memoir should also address how your specific experience has and will help you in
your (academic, professional, and even, human) journey. In short, your purpose is to examine
how and why you think and write the way you do, and to consider how your writing identity will
aid you in the future.
Audience: The audience for this memoir will primarily be your academic community, or your
instructor, and the university community, but for our purpose, you should not limit yourself to
this explicit audience. Instead, as you write also consider other audiences that you wish appeal
to. Although your writing should be primarily formal and academic, there is a benefit to
considering how your writing technique will change throughout your essay as you address or
appeal to your audience.
An effective literacy memoir will meet or exceed the criteria listed below:
 Advance and sustain a focused thesis;
 Develop and a focused, unified argument;
 Elaborate or support all assertions with appropriate details, examples, or critical sources we have
engaged during this unit;
 Incorporate artifacts (such as images, song lyrics, or other texts and media) and relate them to
their narratives or analyses;
 Present a compelling or logical conclusion;
 Be 3-4 pages in length, or roughly 750-1,000 words, (not including images, artifacts, or works
cited pages) and formatted according to MLA guidelines.

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Literacy Memoir: “Who You Are as A Reader and Writer”
Task: For this as appeared first on Versed Papers.