Zachary Melton Professor Borrero English 1101 12/02/2012 Our history affects our literacy.

We all express our literacy history in different ways that shows a lot about what we've been through and who have affected us. I chose to express my literacy history in the form of an interactive short story that combined three genres that have had a positive impact on me, which are short stories, choose your own adventure stories, and coding languages. For me it seemed like the best choice to include all three genres in order to best explain why I have the beliefs and values I do about literacy. In this defense essay I will explain why I picked this genre, how the genre has impacted my literacy, and then I will explain the content I wanted to convey in my narrative. First of all, I picked an interactive story on C++ to tell my history narrative because I have a lot of experience with each of its individual genres. To get this genre I combined a short story, a choose your own adventure story, and programming code. I chose to put together all three of these genres because I feel like they are each important to my literacy history and instead of using just one of them it would tell more about me if I used the genre's that have most impacted me. I've had good experience writing with all the genre's I put into the interactive short story and each one has had a large impact on my writing in their own ways. I have been writing my own personal stories since eighth English class. The first short story I wrote was for my English teacher Mrs. Pulumbo, who valued creative writing over traditional essays. Her point to make was that we would be writing essays in every English class until we graduated, but she would probably be the only one that would teach us to be creative with it. I remember writing a mystery short story for a project and getting very good feedback from her when she handed it back. After that I was so thrilled I had done so well that I wrote a lot of short stories off and on in my spare time. Probably my favorite short story I wrote was called 'The Link to Redemption' that I actually

submitted to a young writers contest when I was fifteen. In the story I tried to portray purgatory through a unique way that stood out to the read. I thought I did a good job, and apparently someone else did because I received an award for fourth place later on. I was proud that I had placed fourth because I knew someone actually liked my writing enough to place it and I even received a ribbon for the short story that I keep hanging on my room wall to this day. Had it not been for short stories I probably wouldn't have been writing as much as I did when I was younger, and thus I wouldn't have developed as much. Writing choose your own adventure stories is a little side project I've done when I want to be more creative with writing my short stories. I got the idea from reading the Goosebumps choose you own adventures, and since Goosebumps played a large part in making the horror genre my favorite to read and write, I really wanted to give it my own go because I really liked reading them as well as having the freedom to choose what happens in the story. The first time I wrote a choose your own adventure story I was confused and overwhelmed myself mid-way through and in the end I actually didn't finish it. I was frustrated that it took so much work to come up with different out comes with the choices. My second go with writing a choose your own adventure was much more successful as I wrote it for a project for my eleventh grade English project. This time I paced myself and took my time to that I made sure not to get overwhelmed. The main thing I learned from this was that planning was key in my writing. It's nearly impossible to write a choose your own adventure story by winging it because you will overwhelm yourself with all of the possibilities. I failed my first try because I didn't plan, though succeeded the second time because I put more time and effort into the planning process. My first real experience with coding was in my computer applications class in high school. I took two classes in my sophomore year, each taught HTML coding. However, my teacher didn't know a whole lot about it herself so it came to us to teach ourselves. To me, I found it easy. We all had a paper that had the phrases and what they would do, so we had to make a web page using those coding phrases. Everyone was having trouble, but since I picked up it so quickly many people came to me for

help. So in the end I ended up teaching the class how to program a web page as my first experience with coding. Ever since then I knew I wanted to do more with coding and get even better at it since I felt I was a natural at it. To me, coding was a form of literacy because of all the elements that went into it to form a product whether its a webpage or a simple program that reads in data. Since code is very picky, it taught me structure and how to fine tune a piece in order for it to be the best it can be. One of the main reasons I chose to pick all of these genres and put them together it because I never had put them all together before. I've had separate experiences with them all and enjoyed doing them all. I wanted to challenge myself to do something really creative to express how I value uniqueness and creativity. I, myself, have not seen someone make a choose your own adventure story using C++ so to me it seemed like a perfect way to express those beliefs. The genre really did challenge my creativity as my skills in each individual genre. In the end, I felt that the interactive story gave the reader the chance to experience the same things I have, as well as meet the people that have affected me first hand. The short story is a good tool for telling my history, the choose your own adventure element gives the reader the chance to experience my experiences, and the coding ties it all together and gives it structure. Each one of these genres combined in my interactive short story tells a part of my literacy history in of itself. My genre, the interactive short story, has taught me a lot about how I view reading and writing. Starting with the short story element, I was taught a lot about being creative with my writing. One of my favorite things to do is put metaphors into writing ever since hearing about how other people do. My senior English teacher would often bring in stories to class and have us read them. After reading the story he would ask a trivial question that seemingly had nothing to do with the plot, but then he would break it down into something that actually meant a lot to the story in a symbolic way. I always thought that was cool and often included a lot of symbolism in my own writing. Now when I'm reading I pay attention to little things that a lot of people wouldn't think too much about, and I have fun trying to think of what each thing can symbolize.

Writing short stories and choose your own adventure stories taught me a lot about how I express my feelings, as well as how other people do. One thing I've noticed is that in my short stories I relate to the main character and they usually would do what I would do, so in a way I express my values and ideas through the main character. In choose your own adventure stories it is difficult to predict what other people might do so I have to think critically about the choices other people would make, and I have to view reading and writing in with a broad view of possibilities. Coding has taught me a lot about how to proof read my writing and how to structure it. When writing code you have to be precise and careful so that you don't mess up, because if you do then the entire program falls through and doesn't do what it's supposed to. Proof reading is essential to coding so that you make sure you don't do anything wrong. This has carried over to my other writing out of habit. In a way its similar to coding because if there's a typo or if the structure is wrong then it doesn't produce the desired effect. All three of these genres have taught me structure in its own way. Short stories taught me about the exposition, conflict, the climax, and the resolution. I go by this structure every time I write short stories and I follow a similar structure when writing choose your own adventure stories, though the structure has to change depending on the choices the reader makes so there are a lot of potential branching stories. The coding is what puts it all together and presents it. With the code there is a structure all in its own. There are certain things that have to be done in order for it to work and for the text to show up correctly. Overall the genres have impacted my views on literacy by teaching me that good structure with good grammar and word choice, with unique creativity to get your point across is good writing. Also I feel like as long as you put forth good effort and as long as one person, even if that person is you, likes it then it can be good writing. Reading and writing should also be fun, which is something this genre has taught me very strongly. Instead of just reading through my experience account, the reader takes a part of it and engages with my story so that they hopefully don't lose interest and have a good time with it.

There are a lot of things I wanted to convey with my interactive story. The main thing I wanted to show was individual experiences I've had that has affected me. Things like the rap battle, going to the library, meeting Juan, taking the writing test, being forced to read something (specifically Grapes of Wrath, which I hated), and reading things I like. These convey my beliefs and values that the reader experiences first hand, which I wanted to give the reader a chance to go through those experiences and have the exact same experiences I had. The characters in the story all represent literacy sponsors that have impacted me, and often the experiences collide with the sponsors. Mrs. P was my actual eighth grade English teacher who taught me that creativity is just as important as structure, and Mr. Prity was my twelfth grade English teacher who values structure and good grammar. Some experiences explain how I feel about reading and writing. The writing test shows how I find writing easier when I plan but more difficult when I jump right in. The writing test also briefly explains how I value writing about something I'm interested in through the use of having the reader enter in their favorite book to 'write' about. The scene with Juan as the reader is leaving describes how I view different languages. After seeing it first hand, I know how difficult it can be to live in an area that might not speak your language. I've actually learned a good deal of Spanish to help others because of this. The scene where the reader is reading the Grapes of Wrath explains how I hate being forced to read something and most of the time I just try to get through it as fast as I can without paying much attention. However, when the reader reads the book of their choice then it is much more enjoyable. The final choice on whether or not the reader leaves their suggestions on my writing shows my belief that I can't help you if you don't help me. If the reader decides to help then they will find a paper on their desk full of suggestions from me, but if they don't help me then they will find a blank paper. I wanted to emphasize the blank paper because it still shows I gave it a try but just wasn't able to. Some of the things have happened multiple times, like the writing test, so the choices given were two things I've actually done. To further explain, I've taken writing tests that I plan for ahead of time and I've taken writing tests that I skip right into the writing and don't make an outline. The results

for each are appropriate for the outcomes that happen. This is the same for most of all the choices I gave the reader. I used tone to express the outcomes of each choice whether it was good or bad to me. Take the part with Juan for example, if you want to pretend to understand him then the reader has a more hostile tone towards him since he laughs at you opposed to Juan giving the reader a more friendly tone when you're honest. Another example is the rap battle. I tried to make the reader feel more accomplished if they tried to work harder by making up their own rap, but I didn't make them feel bad if they decided to get some help since I value getting help from others. This leads me to one more example near the end of my narrative. The part where it asks if you want to make a suggestion towards the short story on the desk gives a tone that makes the reader feel like they did a good thing if they helped, but if they chose not to then there's a neutral tone. I chose to do this because I like when people comment and give feedback on my writing, but its not often I go out of my way to ask people for their opinions. Another major theme in my narrative is symbolism. I threw a lot of symbolism in because I knew I couldn't go through every experience I had or talk about everyone who has affected my literacy experience, so I felt the best way would be to mention them using symbolism. This use of symbolism is a metaphor in itself to portray my value in using it. At the beginning the room is full of symbolism. I tried to make the room portray a lot of my past. The book shelf shows the type of books I've liked in my life from my childhood book on the bottom to my horror genre books near the top. The desk shows my frustration with writing at times in my early years with all the crumpled papers scattered around it. I put the picture of my family on the desk to show that they have an impact on my writing. I wanted to paint an image of the picture looking towards the seat, so its kind of like the picture is looking at the paper to show how they proof read a lot of my writing. The books on the floor represent the books I never liked reading such as long novels and historical books, and I gave specific word choice using these books such as in one scenario the reader avoids the book by stepping over them showing how I try to do so as much as I can. Another scenario has the reader running into them and then kicking them

away symbolizing how I get frustrated and hate them when I do have to read them. The parts where the story asks the read to enter something is symbolism as well. The scene where the reader is eating a breakfast of their choice represents my reading development over time. At first the reader hates it and then is further forced to eat it because of the presence of the mom. However over time they get used to it and actually start to like it. However, every time the reader enters in a personal item is symbolism for how I enjoy doing things that I enjoy. I felt the best way to portray this was to ask the reader themselves what they enjoyed so that they got the full effect instead of just telling them what their favorite things were. The outdoor scene is major symbolism for how my neighborhood is and how I see it. The both the houses and the birds represent the people who live in my neighborhood. There are many different types of birds and houses, though all the birds are flying around one another just fine and all of the houses have the same red door. This is showing how diverse my neighborhood was and it also represents the type of people I hang around with. Think of my house settling in with all of the other different houses. I put the red door in to symbolize how I believe we're all not so different after all. The outdoor symbolism goes even further with the scene where you can take a short cut or go the long way. This symbolizes my thought process when getting an assignment. I can either take the short cut and risk having something mess up, or take the safe way but have to do more work. Notice that when the reader is going back home they're not given the choice which symbolizes my development because I stopped taking the shortcut after taking the risky short cut too many times and having it not turn out too well. I wanted Mrs. P and Mr. Prity to each physically represent their values. Although I swear they both really wore what I described in class, I tried to paint a picture in the minds of the reader to represent what they valued. Mrs. P had bright colors and crazy hair to represent her creativity, and Mr. Prity was this slender bald man wearing a suit to show the more serious and professional side of writing. In the scene where the reader is riding through the town is used as a way to describe where I grew up and it serves as symbolism for my continued development as a reader. At first the reader doesn't notice much of the

town other than it was small and there wasn't much to it. However, after riding through it a second time the reader notices a lot more about the town. There's shops hidden and the reader notices how nice everything is in the town. I wanted this to represent how over time I started to notice small things about writing and began to appreciate them. Near the end the reader enters the room and looks on the shelf at the scorpion. The scorpion represents my favorite book The Scorpion House and the way I have it positioned on a shelf above my writing desk symbolizes how I look up to it when I'm writing my personal stories. Symbolism has had a large part of my writing, as stated before, and while I might have missed a few things at least one can get an idea of the types of symbolism I used throughout my essay so that they can better understand where I was going with it. In conclusion, I used an interactive story for my literacy narrative. I chose this genre because it pushed together three genres that I have a lot of experience in and enjoy doing. I also felt the best way to show my experiences and sponsors would be for the reader to have them first hand. With a lot of symbolism and use of choices I expressed my beliefs and values, as well as showed sponsors and my development with my literacy. The genre itself shows the impact they've had on me and how I apply them to my other writing such as how I proof read my codes and that carries over to me proof reading my short stories. One thing I had trouble with in my genre is that it was hard to make people feel the same values I had about things I gave a choice on since they could take away many different things from them such as the writing test scene. However I tried to remedy this with use of tones and symbolism. In the end I thought my literacy narrative gave a good account on my literacy history and views, and it gives a good insight into my history with reading and writing and the development that has occurred.