English 101, Sections KC & KD Spring 2020 Professor Bob Lazaroff

The Road to Now

Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to write about your reading and writing history, habits, and processes. The goal is to help you understand yourself better as a reader and writer. Description A “narrative” is a written account of linked events; in other words, a narrative is a story. To compose this narrative, you will draw upon those stories, anecdotes, memories, experiences, readings, and other events and descriptions that allow you to write about the most vivid, interesting, and insightful explanations you can about yourself as a writer and reader. Getting Started At this point, we have read – or will read – examples of narratives in which the writers use their own experiences to tell their story.

• “Lessons from 2,000 Hours on a Public Bus” (Wood) • The five student essays featured in “Trash, the Library and a Worn Brown Table.” • excerpt from Teacher Man (McCourt) • Perez, “A Forgotten Child Remembers” • Excerpt from Educated (Westover)

*** You will need to refer to one of these examples in your paper. You’ll need to note the title and the author and make a specific connection. Here are some questions to think about in writing this essay: • How did you learn to write and/or read? • What kinds of writing/reading have you done in the past?

• What is your earliest memory of reading? Your earliest memory of writing? • What frustrated you about reading or writing as you were learning and then as you progressed through school? By the same token, what pleased you?

• What kind of writing/reading do you do most commonly? As you consider what all these memories and experiences suggest, you should be looking for an overall “so what:” a main theme, a central “finding,” an overall conclusion that your consideration leads you to draw. It might be an insight about why you read and write as you do today based on past experience. It might be an argument about what works or what doesn’t work in school, on the basis of your experience . . . It might be a description of an ongoing conflict or tension you experience when you read and write––or the story of how you resolved such a conflict earlier in your life. Planning and Drafting There is no formula or template for this essay. Because you are the subject of “The Road to Now, writing it in first-person makes sense. As you write your essay, it might be helpful to ask yourself the following questions: • Should I focus on one pivotal event, or should I include an array of related events? • Should I put events in chronological order, or would a different order be more interesting?

• Where should I go into detail? • How should I begin???

What Makes It Effective? For “The Road to Now” to truly succeed, here are three things you should do:

1) identify where you are now as a writer and reader and explain how your past has shaped your present

2) tell a story or stories about your literacy history 3) make some overall point [“So what?”] about your literacy experiences Final drafts should be at least 700 words. Be sure to include your own title of the paper; the title of the assignment is “The Road to Now.” DUE DATES Rough draft to class: Thursday Feb. 6th. Final Draft: Thurs. Feb. 13th. *** Remember that working with a tutor in the Writing Center can and will help you! As explained in class, the center offers 45-minute sessions from the morning through the evening in either the Bradley Hall or Library locations. See the brochure I distributed in class. In addition I am available during my office hours to review your work: Monday and Wednesdays from 3:30 – 4:45.