I want you to think about considering the full rhetorical situation. That is: what is your purpose? Who is your audience? What constraints do you face to do this writing? (e.g., deadline, the genre of writing that is expected, amount of space you have to write, logistics for circulation).
For your first draft of your Literacy Narrative, the rhetorical situation would include information like the following:
- purpose is to explore your history as a language user, reader, and writer in ways how it shaped your identity and your feelings about language and literacy
- audience is me and your classmates; possibly others if you imagine writing this for other readers, too.
- Constraints include following our rubric for what I expect to see (e.g., word count, making sure you write about literacy as well as speaking, using examples), deadline of 2/17, working in Microsoft Word and what you can and can’t do there, and other circumstances in your life.
Once you have a sense of the rhetorical situation, it is time to figure out the full context of how you’ll do your writing:
- the process we use for going from ideas to words on page (and back again to ideas and back to words and so on).
- the practice you will develop to get you into a space to do some writing, reading, revising, etc. (e.g., the time you will write, the place you will write, the sounds you want to hear, the ways you’ll nourish your body)
On the next page of this module, we will explore the writing process in more detail.
Task
However, before we do, comment below on a previous rhetorical situation you might have been in or are in now. Be sure to list your purpose, the audience, and any constraints you were under when you wrote or spoke in this rhetorical situation as well as a brief reflection on how your speech or writing went once you did it.
You can do:
- a time where you had to write a text/message or prepare to speak to a boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other, a family member, a friend about something important.
- a time where you had to navigate a difficult situation at your job or a place you volunteer at.
- a memorable school assignment
- an essay/article/post you wrote online somewhere (e.g., a newsletter article, a school newspaper, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, TikTok)
Once you have commented below on your rhetorical situation, click the button below to continue.
There was this one time I had to present a science project when I was in Middle School and both of my partners that were working with me were absent. Since I was really shy when I was younger, I was stressing out a lot that I had to present alone in front of 30 other students. I also had to deal with some of my friends laughing in the background so I tried so hard not to laugh while doing it. I managed to eventually get through it and then I realized it wasn’t so bad after all.
As an intern with the JFK Redevelopment team, I had to make a report and a presentation on community inputs compared to global best practices as a capstone project for my internship. I had to present the report and the presentation to my managers and co-workers, who forwarded both to the other parts of the JFK Redevelopment team, through a WebEx meeting on my last day. I had two months to do a report using business writing and present a business PowerPoint presentation with extensive data collection. I finally gave my presentation after sending the finalized report and presentation to my managers. I started off extremely nervous and stumbled in the introduction. But once I got to the main points of my presentation, I managed to remember what I needed to say and began to clearly state my points for each community input with minor stutters. In the end, my managers and coworkers were able to give constructive feedback before telling me that I did great, in which I thought I did alright.
In elementary school, I had a project for science class that i had to present in front of my entire class with my friend. It was a cause and effect project, so we had to make a chain reaction. I was worried about experiment messing up, because if one small part of the chain reaction was placed wrong, it wouldn’t continue so me and my friend spent more time then the rest of the class on our project, but it was also the longest cause and effect experiment so we got the best grade in the class and everything worked out.
I once had to do a play in middle school as my final assignment for a drama class. I was chosen as one of the main leads despite me thinking I was an awful actor, it didn’t help that I had stage fright and have never been that good at memorizing scripts. When it came to the final performance I stumbled on a line so my co actor had to go forward with the script to make the play flow well, the 3 seconds that took felt like an eternity and I was sweating the whole time worried I would make another mistake. It was eventually over and I got a passing grade in the end so I guess it wasn’t that bad.
Before we left for a field operations, I presented this idea to my two superiors in order to lessen the amount of stress and improve the efficiency of maintenance that is done in the field. My idea was to order all the preventative maintenance parts such as filters and fluids before we depart, this way we depart with everything in our inventory. However, one of the problems I ran into while doing this, was that this procedure is not allowed within the user manual. The user manual states that maintenance parts can only be ordered when the equipment is due, but not 3 months in advance. I was able to persuade my superiors as the benefits out weigh the disadvantages, and I proceeded with the plan. Looking back, I am satisfied with the result since this establish a new standard of preparation within the platoon before a field operation.
There was a time in high school where I had to work by myself on a power point of where I would want to go on a vacation. I chose Japan and many others did as well. When it was time to present, I was really nervous and stuttered. Mainly because I’m not confident on talking by myself. I also couldn’t help comparing my work with the others who also did Japan which made me think if mine was good enough. I was pretty much talking very fast and skipping some words. I didn’t like being the center of attention for long. After finishing, I felt relieved since it was over with and I wasn’t asked too many questions.
I recently had to had to break up with someone I was dating and found it extremely difficult. Due to covid I ended up having to do so over the phone. I actually wrote out an outline essentially of what I wanted to say because I knew how nervous I would be. Ultimately, writing the key phrases I wanted to say really helped me stand my ground and remember why I was making the decision to end the relationship.
In elementary school I had to present a speech in front of the whole school. I get really nervous on a stage and in front of many people. So i spent a week practicing in order for me not to mess up. When it was my time to present my heart was beating so fast and it felt like time was moving slowly. The week of practice i had paid off and as soon as i finished presenting it felt like the weight on my shoulders had been removed.
Last summer I worked in the sales department at a PR company. I was often writing emails to clients to get them to continue contracting with your company or to convince them to upgrade to better contracts. I often found that putting myself in their shoes helped me see the situation from their point of view. I was then better able to communicate with customers and was ultimately able to close deals.
I had to take a speech class my first semester at BMCC located on the Brooklyn College Campus, and had to present a speech for my final. It was a bit challenging since I’ve had never taken a public speaking class and one of my biggest fears. Getting my point across of reducing water waste had to come with its own plan. The breakdown had to be detailed due to the human nature of speaking faster than writing. In my power point, I had to incorporate text but not a long because then I’ll look like a paragraph. Just simply knowing what to put on the slide had its challenges since it was limited and had to be careful with certain gender words due to todays society. Overall it went great, it gave me confidence and I faced one of my biggest fears.
During elementary school I was apart of an after school program called YMCA. It was every day after school from 2:45 – 5:00pm. There were always activities to do and many fun things to do. Sometimes there were things that there were to do that was a class and you had to do, for example for me one of my activities was dance class 3 times a week. I really didn’t like dancing but thats just what I had to be in. Through the year we were practicing a dance show and at the end of the year we had to present our dance show in front of the school school. Almost every student that was in the school also attended after school so I knew the auditorium was going to be full. When I was younger I was always shy and knowing that I was going to dance in front of hundreds of students made me really nervous and worrisome. I’ve also never been in front of this many people before and was just scared. It was the day of the show and it started I took a deep breath and started the dance show. It all passed very quickly and believe it or not I was actually having fun. I was overthinking this whole time and it wasn’t that bad, since then speaking in front of many people doesn’t bother me and I can do it without hesitation.
Something I forgot to add in my response is that I also had to read the opening to the show all on my own in front of the completely full auditorium before the show, this had me super nervous but thankfully I didn’t mess up. Now speaking in front of many people isn’t a problem for me.
In high school, one time I had to present a science project in front of all my classmates and I very stressed when doing this because I thought my project was wrong or something was missing. I also was super nervous because it was the first time I had spoken in front of my classmates in a new school. After I did it everything went well, I presented my ideas in a professional manner and spoke with confidence.
I tried convincing my parents about why I should take a gap year after high school somewhere abroad. My parents were already against the idea and around the same time, Covid became an increasingly larger roadblock. I was unsure as to what angle I was to take at convincing them, so I turned to people with experience such as my teachers, people in my community and friends for advice. I used many of their specific talking points in trying to convince my parents and it ultimately led me to persuading them. Ironically, I did not end up going because I thought the timing was not ideal and that I’d have another opportunity sometime in the next year.
I remember this time I had to breakup with my boyfriend… I usually don’t say anything, I just disappear. But, this one in particular I couldn’t just disappear because we attended the same High School! I had caught him talking to this girl he was obsessed with prior to our relationship… Yes, obsessed. He would text her occasionally, hangout with her, and I just had a gut feeling something was transpiring. But, in my message to him I couldn’t say “I honestly find it weird you’re still obsessed with your ex and she has a new boyfriend” or “You’re unattractive to me now.” I couldn’t be so outright mean and he didn’t even know what was coming. I did say that I found it uncomfortable for me to be in a relationship with someone who still has feelings for their ex.
A memorable assignment I did was a presentation of police brutality during my summer youth employment program. My purpose was to educate students about how unjust our police system has throughout history. My audience were students and other SYEP instructors. This presentation was memorable because not only did I educate other students, I also educated myself. I learned about the corruption of our criminal justice systems and the effects it had on low income communities.
I had recently had a communication class last semester, that mainly consisted of speeches and presentations. I also had a fear of public speaking in general which was a huge inhibitor when it came to school presentations, even if it was online. The speeches would have longer and longer time minimums and so I would always have to stretch out my presentation. However, with each presentation assignment I had, I realized that these time minimums weren’t really a problem, and often I would even go through the time limit before finishing everything I had to say. This was due to the fear making every minute that passed seem much longer than it was, making me believe that I still had a long way to go, so I felt the need to stretch every point. This recurring experience taught me that it was more important to get everything that you needed to say out, rather than to just adjust your speech according to the time limit.
In high school I was taking speech and debate and for one of our assignments we would be given a partner, going up against two other students to argue opposing points on the same topic in front of the rest of our class. At first I was nervous because I wasn’t used to public speaking, so I made sure to do extensive research on the topic so I would be more confident. Ultimately, the experience went smoothly and I learned to enjoy public speaking as the class went on throughout the year.
Posted for Sofy: There have been multiple times where I had to prepare to say something to my boyfriend. Since we live together, there is always something serious to talk about like bills, rent, house chores, gas for the car, futures. It’s a lot, especially since we both have so much growing as people to do. Usually what I do to prepare for a serious conversation is write it out on a piece of paper. I like to write, read, cut parts out, put parts in, write again and do this until I am sure I am saying what I need to say in the most reasonable, delicate way possible. Once I have written the perfect thing to say, I usually practice saying it, again and again. Until my words that I confidently wrote on the paper come out of my mouth the same way.