Purpose: To share with your readers a meaningful experience in your personal hi

Purpose:
To share with your readers a meaningful experience in your personal history that relates to learning and/or community, and to use these personal experiences as an entry point into academic writing.
Overview of Your Task:
Anchoring Question: “How have my lived experiences shaped who I am today?”
This assignment asks you to write a narrative (i.e., tell a story) that captures a meaningful experience about a learning process, experience, or involvement within a community that has influenced who you are today. Your essay should incorporate both narrative strategies (sequencing, vivid descriiption, dialogue, etc.) and analysis (in other words, you should closely “read” and critically reflect on the experience to help your readers understand the narrative’s significance). To make your essay manageable, you should focus on one key “event” or experience rather than trying to share your life story—the narrower your topic, the more likely you are to be successful. Once you choose an experience to describe, unpack it, dig deeper, think about it critically—tell your readers how you interpret its broader significance.
Formatting and Page Guidelines for this Assignment:
Include your name, date, and course number and section at the top of your paper. Include an original title—not just “Learning Narrative” or “Community Narrative.” You should type your essay using standard, 12-pt. font, 1” page margins, and double-spacing. Include page numbers. Finally, your essay should be about 3-4 pages long, though you can go beyond that if you need more space.
Grading Criteria:
I will use the following criteria to evaluate your essay:
Content: Your narrative focuses on one key moment or experience relating to language/literacy and provides a thoughtful, careful consideration of the narrative’s significance. The story includes vivid detail and descriiptions that enable the reader to fully share in this moment/experience.
Organization and Development: Your narrative includes fluid transitions between paragraphs. Paragraphs are organized (each paragraph includes a topic sentence and supporting sentences that relate to the topic sentence). The essay focuses on a main idea and develops that idea throughout.
Audience and Purpose: You make choices in your writing that are appropriate for your target audience (Eng. 1110 peers and instructor) and purpose (to inform). In other words, the tone, word choice, descriiptive details of your essay demonstrate an understanding of your writing situation.
Writing Process: You have engaged in stages of the writing process (invention, drafting, revision, etc.). You have made a sincere attempt to revise and improve upon your paper, focusing on global issues (content, organization, and development), but also addressing local concerns (grammar, mechanics).
Grammar and Mechanics: Your sentences have clarity in meaning. Your paper has been closely edited for punctuation and spelling errors.