Sara Reyes

Literacy Narrative
Jacob Ketcham
12/1/15
Literacy Narrative
Signing up for Mr. Jacob Ketchams English 110 class was intimidating. I would be
lying if I said I didnt judge a book by its cover seeing Ketcham and thinking of a professor
who was decked out in a suit and tie followed by the toughest English curriculum one could
think of. Im a freshman so thats the mindset one would expect. As the semester began and was
carried out throughout the course of several weeks, my view of the class obviously changed. I
learned some things that I already had an idea of coming into the semester but I also learned
plenty of other things that I either had never heard before or I had never worked with in high
school. Some of these included composing a usage guide about how to succeed of join a
community we were involved in, ranting or raving about a UNM resource, doing a SWOT
analysis on my instructor, and even creating a story of a past adventure. At least one if not all of
these assignments or sequences have and will contribute to the way I will write or compose
future pieces.

Discourse communities were one of the topics that I had never heard before and it was
discussed around the second day of class so I was definitely intimidated by the work that we
would be doing throughout the semester. As the prompt for SWA I was explained more in depth,
it became easier for me to understand especially because I was able to compose something based
on an idea that I had plenty of experience with (javelin). The usage guide that we composed is a
concrete example of writing as a social act at the local level (SLO B). This SLO was taken even
further as to write at an even bigger level when having to interview resources on campus and
bring the information we gathered into one and create a formal letter. For example, in one of the
assignments I stated, UNM is a large campus full of aspiring students who may need the
assistance of a center like this. It is very convenient and beneficial to UNM that the Womens
Resource Center exists (SWA 4 - UNM Resource Interview, Pg. 2). This shows UNM as one big
community and the Womens Resource Center being a smaller community within. Writing as a
social act was one of the easier topics to grasp because ideas for what to write are everywhere.
Communities or groups of people are often spotted with ease and writing about a community can
have two perspectives. Either you are in the community and you are a member that helps it

Sara Reyes
Literacy Narrative
Jacob Ketcham
12/1/15
thrive, or you are an outsider looking in. Therefore, you would be writing or speaking on behalf
of every person who is not a part of that particular community.
Writing the memoir as one of the last assignments was enjoyable because it required us to
reflect back to a life changing event or and one of our adventures. As stated, The start of every
baseball movie ever made begins with the same scenario every time. Theres always that one
miraculous play that ended the game in victory. I can guarantee you this will resemble none of
that (MWA 3 Memoir, Pg. 1). These beginning few sentences indirectly show rhetorical
situation (SLO A) because it portrays an idea to the audience that they will later find out was a
lie. I wanted my audience (English 110 students) to get the notion that I wasnt going to talk
about another clich story.
Sequence 2 for the term involved gathering research from a UNM Resource and put
together a formal, well written letter to a group of people who were designing a website putting
our feedback about our particular resource. As I stated in this letter to the head of the department,
Scheduling the interview with this employee was rather simple which was very beneficial to me
and could be to anyone wanting to quickly contact one of the staff members (SWA 4, Pg. 2).
This is an example of the use of Writing as a Process (SLO C) because there were several steps
to take just for this assignment alone. The class had to first had to compose a formal email to a
UNM Resource of our choosing, brainstorm sample questions that pertain to the assignment
prompt, and compose the final letter with paraphrased questions and responses from the
interviewee. Before the interview, we also had to so some research of our own our UNM
resource which included navigating their website and collecting brochures or pamphlets. Writing
as a process (SLO C) was used the most in this particular sequence than any other that we
completed.
Reflections that were completed throughout the course contained information that were
and will be useful in the future because it provided me with feedback of my own experiences.
Looking back to the first assignment I did, I cannot recall the information that was useful and
what information was not necessary. When I see the reflection that I completed for the overall
sequence, I can clearly see the notes I made in order to improve my writing in the following
sequence. In the MWA 1 Reflection, Pg. 2 I stated, As mentioned before, the genre aspect is still
confusing but we will go over those more in class as you (Jake) stressed until we cannot handle it
anymore. I have never taken an approach to writing elements in English before so I enjoyed the
process. In another reflection submitted towards the end of the course I stated, If I had decided
to go with a larger audience, like a newspaper or a blog for example, I would have lost the
essence of what I was writing (MWA 3 Reflection, Pg.1) These examples of two reflections
show the progression of insight between the first assignment, and one of the last assignments. In
the beginning, I did not know what a genre was beyond the boundaries or music or movies.
Towards the end, not only did I grasp the concept of genre, but it increased as much as to analyze

Sara Reyes
Literacy Narrative
Jacob Ketcham
12/1/15
the audience and how it would affect my writing. The use of Reflection (SLO F) can help
develop feedback that is more in depth and can ultimately lead to greater improvements for any
future pieces although it may be difficult to think of new aspects that you learned from the
sequence which you have been learning from day 1.

On this day, December 4, 2015, I am happy to say that Jacob Ketcham wasnt an old,
traditional professor teaching in a huge lecture hall. The SLOs were topics that I had never heard
before and it took me a good portion of the semester to completely learn but the format of the
course and the instruction of the teacher helped with that. SLOs A through H were discussed in
this class and will stay with me for as long as I can remember them (maybe until next semester).
They also played vital roles in creating usage guides and websites, scheduling interviews and
analyzing the responses, and also telling adventurous stories.