Muriel Harris, Literacy Autobiography

Unlike Jennifer, my enjoyment of the literacy autobiography has waxed and waned. I know what it feels like to write when I’m on a roll, and this just wasn’t happening consistently. Since the get-go, I had a hard time choosing which parts of my literacy to focus on. At first, childhood events seemed important because reading and writing are what I have always thought literacy to be. But I soon grew weary of those stories (having gone over them in my head many times before and written about them before this class).

Then I began thinking about the key tutoring experience many years ago that inspired me to go back to school—helping a second language coworker with her college essays, banging my head against the wall, and finally realizing how little I actually knew about teaching writing. After returning to college in my late fifties, I quickly developed a strong interest in rhetorical grammar, leading me in what seems to be a different direction from teaching ESL learners, which I have a strong affinity for doing. The two don’t seem compatible because to be able to use grammar stylistically means having a level of control over fundamental grammar, semantics, pragmatics, etc., which of course most ESL students don’t yet have.

Harris says to focus on a topic and get on with it, but I didn’t find the groove that would allow me to do that happily or successfully. Peggy’s post concerning the rights of single-drafters and my own stubbornness as a multi-drafter suggest to me that we are all fond of our own processes. For that assignment, in particular, I found myself to be an extreme multi-drafter. My mind chased The White Rabbit down a path until he disappeared into a dark hole. Frustrated, I looked up to see The Mad Hatter beckoning me to join the tea party. I went, of course. The Cheshire Cat taunted me from his tree limb; he can be so unkind.

In the middle of the process, I picked up Adios, Strunk and White and tried experimenting with models of style. However, in my attempt to write a coherent piece, I axed out much of the experimental parts. I ended up crossing out material that didn’t directly relate to the narrow (forced) thesis I had finally settled on. Unfortunately, the tangential bits I removed were the ones full of interesting side stories, which are a lot what motivate me to write. I am not happy with the result. Nevertheless, I will not give up on Adios, but for the literacy autobiography, I need to think and free write and think and free write some more—and then experiment with stylistic choices.

I think I need to start fresh, perhaps with my newfound realization of my conflict over stylistic grammar and ESL teaching. I believe they can be taught together at some level by a competent teacher, which I hope to become someday. Anyway I want to explore those two interests more.

I would enjoy hearing the experiences some of you had writing the literacy autobiography.