Literacy Narrative

Literacy Narrative of Marion Levine
Interviewed on 10/18/07

Marion defined literacy as I expect most college students would define literacy: “Literacy is the ability to read and write.” She then continued to define a literate person as someone who can do these two things and an illiterate person who cannot do either. Again, I imagine that most college students would answer this similarly.
As a college student Marion can at least adequately do both of these. She likes to read. Her parents read to her when she was younger and she learned to read when she was three. Marion remembers reading Dr. Seuss and Disney books. She has started reading more since coming to college, but this is mostly for class. When she reads outside of class, it is usually magazines or things on the Internet. Marion believes that writing is ok, but she rarely writes for personal reasons. She does not keep a journal. When she writes essays for class, she does not make much of an outline. Even without an outline, Marion usually finishes an essay within a few hours. Like many college students she procrastinates sometimes, but she really does not have a problem with procrastination. During her first months of college, she has only used the writing center once. Marion considers herself computer literate, which means that she can instant message and email, and most likely has a Facebook or Myspace page.
Marion’s parents expect her to make good grades and eventually graduate from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. When she decided to attend UNCW, her parents were supportive. Additionally, most of her friends attend college. Marion wants to major in theater. She chose to attend college in hopes of getting a better job. I think that these views and reasons are very similar to many college students.
There are four people in her family: her parents, herself, and a younger sister. Her father has a law degree and she said her mother has two years of college. Marion’s parents both read horror and science fiction novels. Her father also reads articles on the Internet. She considers her parents to be ok with technology.
Marion seems like a university student that has a typical view of literacy. She also seems that she has the same level of computer literacy that most college students have. I learned a lot from the experience of writing someone’s literacy narrative. It was interesting to be in a conversation with someone that I had never met, and we basically only talked about her literacy practices. When we were first told about the literacy narrative assignment, I was somewhat apprehensive. It seemed like it was going to be very awkward. However, after the conversation was started, it was a lot easier to ask questions about literacy. I received a lot of interesting answers and if I had gone as in-depth as the author of Whistlin’ and Crowin’, Katherine Kelleher Sohn, I think that there would have been a lot more interesting answers.