Assignment Designs for WRA 1004/0102, Preparation for College Writing
WRA 1004/0102 Paper #1
As we have learned, asset-based analysis focuses on using the strengths and existing resources of a community to address problems and make it a better and healthier place to live. Paper #1 gives you the opportunity to explore one of the assets you listed in our class exercises in the context of your own life. Choose one form of literacy that you possess and write an page essay about its role in your life in the past and present.
The work we have done and will continue to do regarding asset surveying and mapping will be an important invention exercise for this paper.
It may help you to think about the following questions and address some or all of them in your paper:
- How do you define this form of literacy?
- How did you acquire this form of literacy? Did someone teach you? Have you taught this form of literacy to anyone else?
- How do you use this literacy in your everyday life?
- Has this literacy empowered you in any way? Has it disempowered you? How is this form of literacy perceived by others?
- How does this literacy relate to other literacies you have?
- What was it like before you had this literacy?
The audience for your essay is the community of writers that is our classroom. By getting to know each other’s literacy assets, we will be able to build on each other’s strengths in group exercises and be empowered to produce better group work. I, your instructor, am a part of this community, and am thus also part of your intended audience.
This essay should be 3-5 typed pages in length, in 12 point font with 1 inch margins, and should be written in Standard Edited English.
A rough draft of this paper is due in class on September 11th for peer critique. (A “rough draft” is defined in my class as at least half the minimum length of the final assignment, in this case, 1.5 pages.) A paper conference with me is also required, to be scheduled for the days I have cancelled class on the syllabus. Failure to do complete either of these parts of the assignment will result in a .5 grade deduction of your paper.