William Shannon Mr.

Borrero English 1101 1 October 2012 Literary Defense Essay For the Genretized Literacy Narrative I chose to write a reflective piece. I chose this genre because I have had many experiences writing reflections on work that I have done or on my past. Reflecting on past work or experiences after letting the events settle is very helpful to understanding how to improve and move forward. While there are clear advantages to using such a direct genre, however, the self-explanatory nature of the genre makes it more difficult to use more creative methods to convey my narrative. I wanted to do a linear approach to show clearly how I developed as a writer. The kind of person I have become is someone that tries to learn from the past to better inform myself of what to do in the future. I found it fitting to write a reflective piece because of the nature of the assignment. The assignment itself is asking to look back and figure out some of the many factors that have influenced each writer individually. Reflection has a particular significance to me because I do not always process events in the moment, especially events from my childhood. It took me years before I could make sense of what I went through, partially because I buried the negativity of my past; also, because there were so many different factors beyond my control. Reflection is essential to understanding where we have been, and without understanding and accepting the past it is impossible to create a path forward.

The issue with this assignment and a reflective genre is a reflection is very selfexplanatory, so it does not allow me to discuss as much to defend the narrative. For example, in a short story I could use symbolism to describe my views on literacy. In a reflection the content is fairly clean cut or it will not make much sense. Another downfall of the reflective genre is the lack of creativity it produces. In a more artistically driven piece, there can be the need for a massive amount of explanation and critical analysis to understand the piece. While there are definite disadvantages to using a reflection to describe my views on literacy, there are distinct advantages as well. One of them being there is not as much pressure on the audience to interpret the message that is being communicated. The reflection also steps the audience through how and why the writer arrived at his/her views on literacy. Also, the simplicity of the genre makes it easier for the audience to connect with the piece, instead of the possibility that the audience will not understand the piece and consequently risking detachment from the audience. I chose to start from the very first memory I have of reading, which was with my dad and sister, while I enjoyed reading I truly hated to write. I felt that this naturally progressed into my home schooling and my dislike of writing. After describing where the foundations of my beliefs came from I needed to describe where I learned how to write well. From there I gave significance to various teachers and one author. My narrative is an explanation of who I am and how I got to where I am in my life now. One sponsor that has influenced my writing is Jim Butcher, the idea that there is a price that must be paid with every action an individual takes really resonated with me.

Reflection has been a tool I have used to learn time and time again. My first experience with a guided reflection was in eighth grade, we had to reflect on absolutely everything before we could submit work into our graduation portfolio. It had never occurred to me until then that it was more difficult to communicate my values when I had never really stepped back to look at events or other perspectives more objectively. Once I had done these exercises I began to have a better understanding of who I was. With this new information it was easy to communicate how I thought through both speech and written word.