Journal #2
(Image: two men in suits debating)
The literacy narrative assignment is something I have ever engaged in as a writer before. Writing about myself is not something I am accustomed to, but I am interested in learning how to complete this task effectively. Narrative always seemed selfish to me, maybe it’s because I haven't experienced life enough to write about myself or I simply was always interested in writing about other things. Furthermore, a lack of interest in writing a narrative on my own teachers never seemed to have assignments dedicated to writing narrative which made the room for writing it rather slim. Historically my writings have been strictly academic argumentative as most of my previous English classes and debates required such writing. I particularly enjoyed writing debate cases, they were straight forward pieces of writing. It was a grey argument turned black and white which to me made writing the cases easy and enjoyable. I think the last time I wrote something narrative was in my 4th grade class. I am excited to write a narrative about my journey in writing, however, I am concerned about how to go about finding the past writing experience to write about. My memory blends all my writing achievements together, however, I do believe I have a memory that sticks out. Most people don't remember the papers they write. Typically students simply write them then turn them in, then simply move to the next assignment. However, I remember a paper that I had to write in English about the book “Cry, The Beloved Country” quite fondly. The book was based on South African Apartheid which was a racist system aiming to oppress the African population. The story follows the journey of an African priest who embarks on a quest to find and return his son’s home. It is an amazing story of race and prejudice that truly makes its readers think. At the end of the book, the class was assigned a final writing assignment that was an argument about one of the more controversial parts of the book where the priest’s son is accused of murder and put on trial. The twist to the paper was that in the end it was turned into a debate which I very much enjoyed as a competitive debater in tournaments.
With the recent COVID-19 pandemic communication has been flipped on its head. Education in particular has taken a massive hit as classroom teachings are few and far between. That being said I believe that by far the most important communication literacy is e-mail as it is vital for me to get in touch with my other ASU teachers. Without email, I would lack the ability to ask questions and clarify things on assignments in my other ASU courses. A student without the ability to communicate to their instructor has become the instructor themselves as they are solely responsible for completing the course without assistance from their instructor. This is precisely why email has become such a lifeline in the education system during this pandemic.