Student writer Michelle Nguyen wrote the essay “A Place to Begin” in response to the following assignment.
sample literacy narrative assignment
How have your experiences with writing, positive or negative, shaped you as a writer? Write a literacy narrative (500–1,000 words) to explore this question. Select one or more key experiences that you think best illustrate how you became the writer you are today. You might want to focus on a particular person who influenced you or on events, inside or outside of school, that shaped your writing attitudes and practices. In addition to telling a story, your narrative should make a larger point about learning to write that will be of interest to your readers.
When she received the assignment, Nguyen considered several possible directions before settling on her focus. To get started, she listed some people who had influenced her writing development and brainstormed about her experiences in ESL classrooms. As she reviewed her notes, she realized that she was most excited about focusing her story on one influential person, a kind old man whose home was a safe haven away from her noisy Hanoi neighborhood. Because the assignment asked her to make a larger point about learning to write, she decided that a good strategy would be to identify something surprising about these experiences, although she wasn’t sure at first what that might be. Nguyen’s notes in black (see below) are her initial thoughts on the topic. The notes in color are the writer’s further thoughts, written a few hours after the original list.
sample notes
Who and what has shaped me as a writer?
Possible people:
Uncle Bao gave me his diaries before he died. I didn’t know anyone in my family kept a diary —but how did this diary influence me as writer? Not sure.
*** Vietnam War veteran—damaged vocal cords—didn’t talk much—but he taught me to read and how to take care of small pets. His home provided a safe haven away from my noisy, crime—swamped neighborhood and the first place I could hear myself think. He saw something in me—a writer?—and he encouraged me to write. What was surprising? He was worldly without words. —This looks like something I would like to try writing about.
ESL teacher—Ms. Melrose—made me feel comfortable in my new school, new city, new country. She gave me chocolate when I wrote my first English sentence. —Sounds sweet, but is there anything interesting or surprising about this one? Not sure.
Possible experiences:
Placed in ESL class when I arrived in America. The only Vietnamese speaker. Took a long time to think in English.
On the next page is the draft that Nguyen submitted, together with the comments she received from three of her classmates along with revision goals she set for herself.
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