The purpose of this assignment is to think critically about language in two key ways–1) to reflect
on and analyze an experience with language and 2) to practice the rhetorical possibilities that the
narrative mode offers. Project 1 will be a “narrative of rhetorical experience,” meaning that your
narrative will be about your own experience with rhetoric/language. Your aim will be to teach
readers about how language and discourse–whether words, images, interactions, stories,
representations–shapes our lives. In other words, your goal is to write a narrative that helps
readers better understand some aspect of rhetoric/language and its implications for our lives.
Your narrative should engage with a concept related to rhetoric or language that we’ve
encountered in our readings. This essay requires a dynamic mix of analysis and storytelling. Feel
free to be personal, be vulnerable and be honest. Be creative with this assignment. Be yourself!
Your Project 1 should…
• Engage and reference a concept borrowed from a reading from class
• Accurately explain and attribute the borrowed concept and familiarize readers with the
borrowed concept enough to understand its role within your essay
• Extend, apply, challenge, or complicate the borrowed concept through evidence from
experience
• Illustrate the concept through descriiptive examples (rather than vaguely telling readers
about experiences from a distance).
• Use descriiptive language to pull readers into specific moments that help demonstrate the
concept
• Use a structure that is well organized and thoughtfully developed in a way that supports
the development of the concept
• Use a voice that serves the larger purpose of the essay and is consistently carried
throughout the essay
FOLLOW THIS AS AN EXAMPLE: “Chinese Virus T-Shirt”/ “Project 1 Sample.pdf”
Other relevant readings: Carroll “Backpacks vs. Briefcases”, Bunn “How to Read Like a Writer”, Tan “Mother Tongue”