One student’s process of revision: Literacy narrative

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As you develop your skills at drafting, reviewing, and revising your writing, you might find it useful to examine a case study of one student and how her paper changed as she gathered feedback, reflected on her writing, and developed her final paper.

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.

Steps in Nguyen’s process:

Exploring the subject (literacy narrative)

Peer review (literacy narrative)

Developing revision goals and revising the draft (literacy narrative)