Rememberings: Roots of our Voices Narrative Essay #1

Hamilton/Reis

DRAFT DUE DATE: Monday, April 26th

FINAL DUE DATE: Monday, May 3rd

DUE DATE: This paper is due in draft form on Monday, April 26th. Bring 4 typed, ready to read copies to read and share with your writing group. The teachers will mark off that you have brought a draft to class. You will READ to each other the beginning of your paper. COME TO CLASS PREPARED TO SHARE AND LEARN! The class is your audience so the paper can be shared with anyone here.

NOTE: We do not accept late papers. However, if you have an emergency, please let us know 24 hours before it is due so we can negotiate and let you know how many points you will lose by turning in the paper late.

Email BOTH of us: and

Format: Length=4-6 pages. Typed/word processed in plain type style, printed 12 point, double-spaced with 1" margin on all four sides of 81/2"x 11" paper. The final paper should have your name, course, and date in the upper left corner, a centered title, indented paragraphs, double spacing, and NO folders or report covers.

Topics: This is a personal narrative with connections to our course readings, ideas, and texts. Your paper could be primarily your own “story” or narrative, but it must also use one or more of the readings, videos, handouts, assignments or books that we have read so far in class. NO OTHER OUTSIDE RESEARCH IS NEEDED FOR THIS PAPER.
Choose one:

  1. Write about a time when your “voice” has been central to a change or movement in your life or an incident where you had to make a choice, or was vital to your being understood. What have you learned about “voice” and connections to culture or family from your cultural interview, the novel Love Medicine, or the video on Faces of America, the essay on “Composing a Life” by that you can show as a connection to your life experience? Can you use the ideas from “Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication” as another “aspect” of this change or incident in your life?
  2. Write about how the “roots” of your identity could be viewed as an aspect of language, culture, or belonging to a community or family. How has this experience shaped your identity? To write this paper, you should talk with someone in your family, someone who speaks the same first language that you speak, or anyone who could help you think about how voice is “inherited” from your unique genetic or psychological history. How has this experience shaped your values or understanding of the readings on culture, the novel by Erdrich, your new insights from your cultural interview, or the book by Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father.

·  Note: The experience need not be a large life-defining moment; it can be something as simple as your first day at a new school. The important thing is that you reflect upon what you learned about your identity from the experience. Also, don’t try to write an entire autobiography. Limit your narrative to one experience and concentrate on setting up vivid and descriptive scenes that appeal to the readers’ senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Remember that a good narrative has all the elements of a good story: clear sense of setting, interesting conflict (whether inner or situational), and some sort of resolution.

·  THEMES IN OUR CLASS TO PONDER: VOICE; MEMORY; COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES; FIGURATIVE-LITERARY LANGUAGE; RACE; IDENTITY; ROOTS; FAMILY CONNECTIONS; CULTURAL CONNECTIONS; PRIVILEGE.

Style: You should write about your own life and experiences, and yet use some of the “texts” that we have read, seen, heard, and talked about in our class. Your own writing style is narrative, but could use dialogue, should use description, comparisons, or examples, but should primarily show rather than tell. The connections you make to other texts from our class should be referenced clearly by author or title in the body of your paper. Use MLA in-text citations where they are needed for documenting the source.

EVALUTATION OF THIS ESSAY: You can use and we will use the following to grade the essay.

ESSAY RUBRIC

IDEAS AND CONTENT: 50 pts. ______

The ideas (both in the narrative and reflection aspect) should be clear, focused, fully developed, and interesting. Ideas should be supported with relevant details rather than generalities. Insightful connections between ideas—including other texts from our class-- should be evident.

ORGANIZATION: 30 pts. ______

The paper should demonstrate a good sense of pacing, so the readers know what you are writing about and the purpose and point of your narrative is clear. Controlling idea should be easily identified, and tangents should be avoided. The overall structure should flow smoothly with logical sequencing. Transitions should also be smooth.

STYLE: 30 pts. ______

Imagery should be descriptive and strong and should appeal to the senses. Remember: show, don’t tell. The writing should be clear and fluid. Put us into the “story” and yet make connections to the “other texts” that we have all shared. Verbs should be strong and active, vocabulary should be sophisticated without being “wordy,” and sentence structure and length should be varied.

VOICE: 20 pts. ______

The voice should be engaging and natural. The reader should be able to feel a sense of interaction with the writer. Dialog (if used) should sound natural.

CONVENTIONS: 20 pts. ______

Grammar and spelling should be standard and correct.

TOTAL ESSAY POINTS: 150 pts. ______