WHY WRITE A NARRATIVE? Narratives are stories that can be enjoyed for entertainment; they can also be important in professional contexts. Police officers write accounts of events on the job. Medical staff keep narrative records of doctor-patient interactions. Scientists conducting experiments document events in careful chronology. The ability to construct a narrative is a valuable skill, which you can practice while writing this assignment.

Write an autobiographical narrative that focuses on your experiences with language, reading, writing, education, culture, or some issue related to political correctness. You could explore positive or negative experiences in learning to read or write, breakthrough moments in your development as a literate person, or some educational or cultural experiences that have shaped your identity as a person or student. Feel free to focus on different kinds of “literacy”: digital literacy, video game literacy, computer literacy, sports literacy, social media literacy, etc. Perhaps you could talk about your indoctrination into a specific “discourse community” (group of people who use a certain language or set of customs)—how you struggled to fit in and become part of the community. Use conventions of open-form prose (plot, character, tension/conflict, setting, theme, resolution). Use specific language—concrete, descriptive, figurative, “jargon” or “slang” from a particular discourse community—with careful attention paid to word choice. Follow the old adage: “show, don’t tell”—that is, create scenes with vivid imagery, dialogue, and/or reflection.

Target length: 4-5 pages (1,000-1,250 words). Use MLA format, 12-point font, and double spacing.