ENC1101
Dr. Vivian Ruiz
Spring 2024
Instructions, Prompt, and Guidelines for Literacy Narrative Essay
Instructions:
Develop the prompt below into a two (2) page literacy narrative essay. The second page must be
typed at least halfway through for it to count. Please do not exceed three (3) pages. Follow MLA
guidelines. Write your narrative using a first person point of view and chronological order. Make
sure that your essay has a thesis statement that includes your main argument. In the case of the
narrative essay, the argument is the key takeaway (or lesson) of the narrative. Remember that
the thesis statement must be located in the introduction paragraph.
Prompt:
Write a literacy narrative essay that focuses specifically on your development as a
writer. To do this, choose a particular stage in your life as a student (preschool years,
elementary school years, middle school, high school, or college) and then choose a
specific event or person that shaped your development as a writer. Remember to be
specific. For example, if you choose to write about your journey to literacy throughout
high school, narrow it down to a specific grade or year. Then, write about a specific event
or person during this time that was pivotal in your development as a writer.
All writers need to have a clear purpose when writing. It’s part of their rhetorical
situation. Your purpose with this essay is to teach your audience lesson. This lesson (or
takeaway) needs to be clearly stated in the thesis statement, which goes in the
introduction paragraph of your essay.
▪ Hint: Ask yourself, what did I learn from this event? What is the key takeaway
that I want my readers to know? Why is this lesson important? How did it
help me and how can it help others?
Due Date:
This assignment is due by 11:30pm on March 3, 2024. Keep in mind that I do not accept late
work (see policy on late work in the orientation module). Please manage your time effectively so
that you can meet the deadline. Remember that Canvas locks assignments on the dot.
Guidelines:
• Your literacy narrative must be non-fiction, which means that it needs to have happened to
you in real life.
• Your essay needs to meet the five characteristic features of a narrative, as previously
discussed in class:
o Clearly identifiable setting- Where in the world did the event in the narrative take
place? Was it in Florida? If so, in what city or town?
o Vivid descriptive details- Were you in high school? If so, what is the name of your
high school? What grade were you in? If you are talking about a teacher who helped
you become a better writer, what was their name? What grade did they teach? What
subject did they teach? Are there any relevant details about this teacher that your
readers should know? Make the narrative come alive for your readers.
o Consistent point of view- You are allowed to use the first person point of view (“I ”
and “me”). You can definitely use the first person in a narrative essay because it is,
after all, your story.
o Tell your story in chronological order – Arrange the events in the order in which
they happened in real life.
o Have an explicit or clear thesis – See info above regarding purpose.
• Make sure to indent paragraphs.
• Make sure every paragraph is at least seven (7) sentences long. This includes the
introduction paragraph and the conclusion paragraph. The purpose of this requirement is
to encourage you to thoroughly develop all paragraphs. No silly filler sentences, please.
Remember that you can develop a paragraph by providing:
o Details o Examples o Your personal experience o Professional opinions
▪ Please do not include research or consult any sources in this essay. We haven’t
covered research skills, yet.
• Make sure that every paragraph is:
o Unified- Every paragraph must have a topic sentence and every sentence in the
paragraph must relate to it.
o Well developed- A well-developed paragraph provides the necessary support that
readers need to understand its main idea. This is where details, examples, etc. come in
handy.
o Coherent- Don’t forget transitions! Use the transitions to smoothly connect
sentences, ideas, and events in your narrative. Fell free to use transitions from the list
below:
• Make sure to follow the traditional structure of an essay. Each section must be developed
into at least one paragraph of at least 7 sentences. The structure of an essay consists of:
o Introduction: Here the writer provides key pieces of information relevant to the
narrative that the reader will need to know in order to understand it. Establish the
setting and provide the names of the agents (people) in the narrative. Your thesis
statement must be located in the introduction.
o Body: This is where you develop the event itself. Use details and examples to bring
the narrative to life and make it interesting for your reader. Use descriptive language
when possible. The beautiful thing about narratives is being able to imagine what is
happening vividly in one’s mind. That’s how an author captivates their audience. o
Conclusion: Here is where you conclude your narrative. There is no room for new
events, ideas, concepts, or information in the conclusion. It’s just a wrap-up. You can
restate or reword (never copy-paste!) your main argument (in this case the main
takeaway or lesson of the narrative) for emphasis. You can take advantage of the
conclusion to offer your insight or a reflection on the purpose of your narrative.
• Make sure that your essay has a title and that the title is centered. The title must be relevant
to the subject of your essay and it must be attention-grabbing. This means that your title
cannot be “Essay #1,” “Narrative Essay,” “Literacy Narrative” or anything of this
nature since it would be too ambiguous and not particularly intriguing or engaging. A title of
this nature does not say anything about the content of the essay other than the fact that it is a
narrative. Create a title for your essay that is related to its content, attention grabbing, and
interesting.
• Capitalize words in the title correctly. This means, capitalize the first word of the title and
every major part of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs). The title of your
essay does not need to be italicized, underlined, in quotation marks, or in bold letters. More
here:
• Proofread and edit your essay before turning it in. Pay attention to grammar in general but
particularly to the elements we have covered in class:
o use of capital letters
o fragments
o comma splices
o run-on (or fused) sentences
o punctuation
