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Project #1: Language Narrative

20 points (25% of ENGL 107 Course Grade)

Assignment Prompt
Your assignment is to tell a story about your experience
with language in a specific situation. An effective story does
more than entertain: it reveals in an experience, an insight,
belief, or value that you, or a community you belong to,
hold about language and/or an aspect of your identity as a
multilingual person.
Source:
https://blog.iese.edu/expatriatus/2014/05/01/multilingualism-
multiple-personalities-or-just-a-diverse-one
Rationale
How, why, when, and where we engage with language arises out of specific situations, or contexts. Looking
closely at the social and personal elements of a situation can reveal how you experience language and how it has
affected your identity. Understanding the context of a language-related event can help you critically reflect on
how to respond to various linguistic situations and how to solve communicative challenges in the future. As a
student attending an English-medium university program in a predominantly Spanish-speaking country, you may
also consider the role of English in your own life and in society.

Strategies of Narrative as a Genre

This assignment is narrative-based and uses techniques that both “show” and “tell.” Specifically, you will describe
scenes, people, places, and actions. Use of sensory detail, concrete specifics, figurative language, dialogue, and
other storytelling strategies will strengthen your portrayal of your experience, serving as evidence so that your
readers get to see in language what happens rather than merely taking your word for it.

In addition to a vivid portrait of the situation, you will reflect on, comment on, question, and speculate about
what this experience means to you. Consider how examining and reflecting on the experience reveals some
insight that serves as the central focusing statement or idea into how language functions (in society, in your life)
and what impacts it has.

Options to Consider
You can follow one of several directions in focusing your narrative:
● You might look at a significant event learning English.
● You might focus on cultural attitudes toward English and other languages in your life, and explore how
you have navigated some of those for better or worse.
● You might focus on becoming bilingual or multilingual in a current subculture or group, learning the
appropriate uses of language and gaining membership to the group as a result.
● You might consider what it means to attend university (or high school, or earlier!) in an additional
language, including how it has affected your education and/or worldview.
● You might look at the language(s) you will likely use in a chosen career or field of study. You can look at
how your past experience with language has prepared you (or not prepared you) for the kinds of language
you will likely be asked to master.

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Format Requirements
● Your project should have an engaging title.
● Your project should be formatted in 12-pt. font with
1-inch margins.
● Your project should follow APA format.

Course Objectives
After completing this project you will have made progress
towards the following student learning objectives:
● 1.B analyze how genres shape reading and
composing practices.
● 1.C read in ways that contribute to their rhetorical knowledge as writers.
● 2.A incorporate evidence, such as through summaries, paraphrases, quotations, and visuals.
● 3.A follow appropriate conventions for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, through practice in
composing and revising.
● 4.B produce multiple revisions on global and local levels.
● 4.C suggest useful global and local revisions to other writers.

Requirements
● 700-1,000 words
● 1st draft: due {Friday the 23rd}
● Peer review: {in class}
● Final draft: due {Tuesday the 27th }

Grading Criteria
Your Language Narrative will be graded on the following criteria, which describe a paper that “Meets
Expectations.” A grading rubric will also be shared.
● Focus and Insight: The paper has a clear focus, telling a story about the author’s experience with language
and revealing an insight, belief, or value of the author. (Objective 1B) 5 pts
● Support and Evidence: The paper incorporates support or evidence for claims or insights through
descriptive detail. (Objective 2A, 2B) 5 pts
● Organization: The paper appropriately uses or adapts common organizational features of narrative to
create a clear and meaningful organizational structure for readers. (Objectives 1B, 1C, 3A) 4 pts
● Language and Rhetorical Features: The paper appropriately uses or adapts common language and
rhetorical features of narrative, such as 1st person pronouns, descriptive language, verb tense, dialogue,
and reflections about language. (Objectives 1B, 1C, 3A) 3 pts
● Assignment Guidelines and Expectations: The paper meets the Language Narrative assignment
guidelines, including all drafts submitted and final reflection. (Objectives 4B, 4C) 3 pts

© University of Arizona Writing Program