Literacy Narrative

Dear Ms. Koehler,

Throughout the course of this semester, I have progressed in my writing skills by

focusing on the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). Specifically, I have enhanced my

knowledge of SLOs 1, 3, and 5. SLO 1 focuses on preparing to write for a specific document,

and to do this, the student must first figure out the details of their audience. This means that the

writer must narrow down their purpose in order to fit their intended audience. The student must

understand what types of language to use for each component. This includes a multimodal

component, meaning that the idea should focus around who you want to reach based on your

desired subject. In SLO 3, generating content is the main goal. This can include forming

interpretative questions, thinking about how to create a presentation for the specific audience, or

looking at other blog posts to use as an example of how to shape the formatting in order to fit

certain needs. The MEAL plan (Main idea, Evidence, Analysis, Link to main idea) can also be

used in this SLO because its important to organize thoughts into logically arranged paragraphs.

If you use the MEAL plan as a template, its much easier to form structure. Finally, SLO 5 is

based on reflection of how one has improved during the semester in accordance to the SLOs. In

the next few paragraphs, I will show you how much my writing has enhanced thanks to the three

SLOs that I have described above.

Starting with SLO 1, Ive realized throughout the semester that its necessary to write

pretty much everything with a specific audience in mind. When I used to write, I would usually

write for a broader audience, rather than narrowing it down. Now I understand that its important

to focus on who the audience is depending on my subject, or picking a subject based on the

desired audience. In my original blog posts, at first I was not understanding who the audience
was or what the purpose should have been, so my earlier posts were plain black and white text.

As I started to figure out who I wanted as my audience, I began to add more visuals such as

colors and pictures because that was what would keep my intended audience engaged. Revising

the originals, I added even more pictures and background colors to make sure my readers

wouldnt get bored. Text wise, I made sure to keep the paragraphs short and sweet because I

knew that long and excessive words would surely be a turn off to any reader of a blog post.

Determining the audience helped me form better structure for different rhetorical situations.

SLO 3 was not very difficult for me to pick up on. As a person who already internally

analyzes texts and writes annotation upon annotation, it was simple for me to come up with good

interpretive questions as a way of generating content. A good interpretive question cannot be

answered with a simple yes or no, but its a question that has a deeper meaning in the passage. I

already knew how to come up with those types of questions; however, by creating a presentation

with a couple of my peers, I found it much easier to format the questions. Thinking about who

the audience was going to be for the PowerPoint that we were going to present made us carefully

choose the correct wording for the questions in order to strike up discussion. The best

interpretive questions should create controversy between a group. People should be able to look

back at the text and reanalyze the authors words because of such a strong question. So, in having

to present to a class of my peers, I found that certain questions had to be configured in certain

ways for the best discussion results. In the original blog posts, the questions were a little

confusing, and perhaps a little late in the post for a good analyzation. My revised interpretive

questions were structured for easier comprehension and let enough room for a solid analyzation.

So even though I already had a good basis for analyzation, remembering SLO 3 made me even

stronger.
 In regards to SLO 5, simply by writing this document I am reflecting on my work

throughout several times during the semester. I am proving to you through reflection that I have

improved in three of the five SLOs. Analyzing my original blog posts and comparing them to my

new and revised blog posts only houses the first few steps. The final, and perhaps the most

crucial step, is wrapped up in this SLO. Being able to talk about my intentions for certain

projects has helped me as a writer. This is prominent in my Letter of Intent that I wrote for a

couple of my papers and/or projects. Having the opportunity to talk about my processes and

ideas allows a more lenient grading system because others are able to see what I was trying to get

at. Its important to let people know why you made the choices you did or to explain the

structural intent of a certain project. Through creating several reflections, I have bettered my

writing and comprehension.

While I registered for this class, I admit that at the time I was unaware of the content that

we would be covering. On the first day, when you mentioned how we would be examining the

Southwest, I was both interested about the subject and bored because I swore I already knew all

there was to know about the desert I call home. It turned out there was a much richer and deeper

culture than I thought. The readings we analyzed helped me understand different perspectives

that people have of the Southwest. For example, Desert Solitaire was very bold and seemed to

focus mainly on the landscape, but Storyteller focused on the sacredness of stories and

preserving a culture. Both sides are just as important as each other and the harmony between

them is what I learned that makes the Southwest so amazing. Compared to the beginning of the

class, I learned much more than I thought I would, and since I am undecided in choosing my

career, this new knowledge can help me explore different options here in New Mexico.
 Now that I have explained to you what I have learned, let me show and tell you how Ive

changed my original works. In my original blog posts, it is obvious that I barely added any color

or interesting visuals apart from a few pictures in between paragraphs. The background was

white and the text was plain black. I never realized it, but it looked very boring to read. I even

admit that I would read my peers blog posts according to how easy they looked to understand,

and as I look back on my own posts, mine looked dull and I dont think Id read them if they

were someone elses. I also noticed that I wrote my posts on a single page rather than creating

different tabs for each. I now realize that it was probably confusing to navigate. I look back now

and ask what on earth was I thinking? So, in my reflection, I came up with new ways to improve

and revise my original blogs.

First, it is clear that color was my main goal in the new blog posts. For each post, there

was a different theme. For Under the Rim, the main background color is cactus green, and the

title background has a nice view of the Grand Canyon. I played around with different font colors

a lot because when you use a colored background, you must be aware of the font choice since

some colors you cannot see in front of other colors. I chose white for the main text, and black for

important ideas, such as the interpretive question. For Storyteller, the background color is a

subtle light blue with dark blue text, and again, black for important ideas. The title background is

a picture of clouds since the short story I analyzed was Up North. Finally, in Chicano Sketches,

I found that a light burnt orange felt natural as the background. It seemed to put me right in the

Arizona atmosphere along with the dark orange font. This was the method in which I chose my

themes. Regarding easier navigation, I created different tabs for each blog post, and I even added

instructions on how to navigate the links to my original posts. The home page was simple since I

only needed to add that landscape background and this letter. Adding more pictures was a hassle
because Weebly has formatting issues that can be frustrating, but I think the placement and the

structure of the text in accordance to the images came out very nicely. As everything starting

coming together in the new posts, it looked much more fun to read, not to mention much more

understandable.

In this letter, I have proven to you that I know how to define and explain certain Student

Learning Outcomes, specifically SLOs 1, 3, and 5. By figuring out who I wanted to the audience

to be, I could create a stronger multimodal component. Thinking about how to generate more

appropriate content has helped me produce better interpretive questions and clearer presentations

in order to have more efficient discussions. And finally, in writing this letter, I have officially

proven to you that I can look back on my work and reflect. I have also mentioned certain ways in

which I changed my original posts into posts that are much more user-friendly, pretty, and

understandable. By using the Student Learning Outcomes this semester, not only have I learned

how to assemble different modes of writing, but I also have heightened my understanding of

composition.

Sincerely,

Elianna Sanchez