Kovick / WRTG 120

Project 1

Project 1: Literacy Narrative and Invention Portfolio

10% of Final Course Grade due Thursday, Oct 1, at 3:30 pm
Literacy Narrative: 4-6 typed pages
Draft 1 for Peer Review Due: Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 3:30 pm
Revised Draft 2 Due: Thursday, September 24, at 3:30pm
Assignment:
You are a writer, whether you believe it now or not. In this essay, you will explore
specific moments in your own literacy development. You have each entered this class with
particular feelings and beliefs about your own reading and writing skills. What specifically has
led you to these beliefs? What moments in your life led you to feel the way you do today about
writing and reading? What does literacy mean to you personally? What are some of the
important moments that made you feel successful or unsuccessful as a reader or writer? Where
does this leave you now as a student at EMU? What are your goals for your literacy
development?
Focus on specific events (time, place, others involved) that affected your literacy.
Recreate, through your writing, a snapshot of these various moments. Take a small moment and
explode it by giving the reader all the details to feel as if he or she were there feeling the
emotions that you felt at that time. Conclude with where you would like to see your literacy go at
this point in your life. Why is literacy important to you?

Guidelines:
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The Literacy Narrative is 4 6 typed pages in length

MLA formatting: Times New Roman, 12 point font; double spaced; your name,
instructors name, course, and date in upper-left corner of first page; pagination with
your name in upper-right corner of every page except first; no cover page.
You must include a title (NOT Literacy Narrative) centered on the first page.
Essay will be placed in a manila folder (Invention Portfolio) that will include ALL
work done in class toward this Project. This will include all drafts and peer response
sheets, brainstorming lists, quick-writes, homework reflections, drawings, etc. You
will be provided with a checklist closer to the due date.
The Invention Portfolio must begin with a typed Table of Contents listing all of the
work collected in the portfolio.
After the Table of Contents, you must include a Cover Letter reflecting on your work
for the project and how your work met the Course Outcomes (from the syllabus and
page EMU-7 of Understanding Rhetoric)

Kovick / WRTG 120

Project 1

Grading:
The following criteria will be used to evaluate this Project:
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Direction and Care: Does the essay respond appropriately to the assignment? Does
the narrative clearly explain what literacy means to the author? Has appropriate care
been taken to meet MLA formatting standards and remove errors of conventions
(grammar, spelling, punctuation) in the final copy of the paper?
Time/Place Specificity: Does the essay include specific moments (snapshots) that
illustrate the authors feelings about his or her own literacy? Are there interesting
details that engage the reader in the authors writing?
Development: Does the essay move from specific, important literacy moments to a
sense of where the author is today and his or her literacy goals?
Cohesiveness: Is the essay well-organized? Does it flow logically without jumping
around from point to point in ways that do not seem connected? Does the essay
maintain focus on examples that are relevant to the authors literacy without getting
off-track or discussing other peoples literacy?
Invention Portfolio: Are all components included? Does reflective letter discuss
course outcomes in terms of the work done for this project?
Participation: Was the student present both physically and mentally in each class?
Did the students participation in class reflect an obvious completion of homework
readings and writings?