Literacy Narrative

Danielle Silva

2 February 2011

WRT 104-27

M MacKnight

Literacy Narrative

            Senior year of high school is always thought of as the best year.  It’s the year where one can finally relax and simply worry of what college they will be attending or what they will be exploring for the rest of their life.  For most high school students, senior year was a walk in the park.  However, for me, it was the most challenging year of all.  The classes that I had chosen for my senior year were not strenuous; it was simply the high school that I attended.  In Rhode Island each public high school has graduation requirements.  One of the graduation requirements at my high school, Narragansett High School, was a senior project.  Senior project consisted of a presentation of one’s project, a portfolio, and a research paper.  It seemed as though senior project was a breeze for me except when it came to writing the research paper.

            The very first day of my senior year every student was assigned a senior project.  Choosing a topic was difficult at first, however once I figured my topic out my project became more of a fun activity than an arduous assignment.  The decision was made that I would run a half marathon for my senior project.  Lurking in the back of my mind was the fact that I would have to write an eight to twelve page research paper on a topic which would be related to running.  The next few weeks in school I researched topics that would work well with my project.  Frustration came over me as I could not choose a topic I knew I would be able to write a well written paper on.  Finally, my librarian, Mrs. Good, noticed my aggravation one day and she decided to talk to me.  She helped me to come up with my topic so I could finally get rolling on my paper.  After discussing topics with Mrs. Good, I felt so confident that my paper was going to be awesome and make my senior year a little less stressful.

            The next month of my senior year was completely dedicated to my senior research paper.  When my school librarian helped to come up with a topic, it was finally decided that my paper topic would be how nutrition enhances the performance of a long distant runner.  Not only did I think this would be an interesting topic to write about, I knew it would also benefit me because I would be running a half marathon.  Before writing my paper, I was to complete note cards that would map out the outline of my paper.  On each note card was information from my research that had to do with my topic and an explanation of each fact. Knowing I had these note cards that I knew would delineate my entire paper left me feeling confident also.  Once I finally reached the requirement for the note cards, I was ready to get started on my paper.  Each day I would find time during and after school to type my paper.  All I was thinking about was reaching the deadline for when the paper was due and not so much what I should have been worried about.  In reality, I should have been concerned with the content that was going into this paper which would decide if I would graduate high school or not.

            Finally, December 1, 2010 rolled around and it was time to turn in my ten page research paper and never have to think about it ever again.  Being a National Honor Society student, reaching proficiency on this paper was not an issue that crossed my mind.  Little did I know, I should have been a bit more cautious and apprehensive about the material going into this.  A week later, in my senior English class, my paper was handed back to me.  All I could look at was the big red mark on the top of the paper that read, “not proficient”.  Questions raced through my mind at the speed of light.  Was this a mistake? How could I have not met proficiency? What did I do wrong?  After I had calmed myself down a bit I decided I would go talk to my English teacher after class.  She confirmed that the paper was indeed not proficient.  After sulking about my un-proficient paper for a day, I realized I needed to take action.  I was never one to look over my papers, re-read them, make corrections, fix them, and then hand them in.  However, I had a bad feeling this was going to have to take place.  That day after school I sat myself down in front of my paper at my schools library, stared at the first page of the paper for a while, and thought I was never going to pass this.  Again, my school librarian, Mrs. Good, noticed my frustration.  Even though she is always telling the students she has a busy schedule and not much time for help, she knew I needed her help.  She knew I was a well-rounded student who had come across a stump in my path.  Being so thankful I decided that since Mrs. Good was going to put in all this effort for me, I needed to give 100 percent back.  From that day on out, every day after school Mrs. Good would tell me to make the corrections in the paper that I thought needed to be done and then she would make hers.  After this, I would open my research paper on the computer and make those corrections, print the paper out, and repeat the correction process until there was not one red mark on my paper.  Reading the words “proficient” on my senior project research paper was one of the most proud moments of my senior year.  Writing this paper truly changed the way I went about writing more papers in the future.  Still, I may not be the greatest writer there is, however, I now know that if I keep working at it, I can eventually produce a writing piece that will be proficient.