Rationale
This audio essay is part of the scaffolding leading up to my second formal writing assignment, the personal narrative. The audio essay takes as its jumping off point a suite of essays addressing the nexus of language and identity which we read over the prior two weeks. We had already discussed the essays in class (in student led discussions) when students embarked on their project. Composing for audio allowed us to focus our attention on the question of voice, as well as to address issues of style, diction, and tone. I hoped that the audio format might free students up to be more experimental.
Sharing the essays in class turned out to be a very powerful part of the assignment. Students spoke in beautifully candid ways about their experiences with language and connected those experiences with broader issues related to identity, self-esteem, family relationships, power, and more. Hearing so many echoes among the essays of their peers was both surprising and affirming for my students. We punctuated the playing of the audio essays with discussions about common themes as they emerged. Students responded to their classmates’ audio essays in short posts shared on our class blog.
This audio essay paves the way for the more substantial work of the personal narrative. Some students may elect to continue to think about language, while others may turn their attention to other aspects of identity formation.
Corresponding Readings
Gloria Anzaldua, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”
Chang Rae Lee, “Mute in an English Only World”
Deborah Tannen, “Gender in the Classroom”
Audio-Essay
For this assignment, we will be experimenting with writing that is intended to be heard rather than read. You will compose a short (500 word) essay and create an audio recording of your essay that you will be sharing with the class on Wednesday.
In this essay, through storytelling, memoir, or simple first person narration, you will be sharing some part of your own linguistic identity. Think about the various approaches to language we’ve seen in the essays we’ve read by Anzaldua, Tan, Lee, and Tannen; this should help you get ideas for your own writing. How has language been an issue in your own life? What would your linguistic auto-biography reflect? Do you find yourself “code switching” – moving back and forth among the various “languages” you inhabit? If so, what’s that like? How does language intersect with other aspects of your identity?
This is an informal assignment and an opportunity to play around with composing for audio, so feel free to be creative. Think, for example, of what kind of language you want to use in the essay itself. Just because I’ve assigned it for ENG2100 doesn’t necessarily mean that this audio essay needs to reflect the norms of “academic English.” Because this is a piece of composition that is intended to be heard, rather than read, it gives you an opportunity not just to discuss the complexities of your language use, but to demonstrate how you use language, so give careful consideration to word choice, tone, and style as you compose and record your essay.
Process: You will need to write your essay first, then record it. The simplest way to make a recording is to use your phone to record a voice memo. I suggest finding a quiet, small room to make your recording. Rooms that are carpeted are especially good for this! Once you have a file that you are happy with, export it to a computer or send it to yourself via email. When we come to class on Wednesday, we will be sharing our essays, so please either bring your file with you on a flash drive, or be ready to access your file on our classroom monitor. If you have other, more sophisticated tools at your disposal for recording audio files and wish to use them, feel free, provided you have a way of sharing your audio in class on Wednesday.
Please bring a hard copy of the text of your essay with you to class!