Summary Of Inventing The University By David Bartholomae

Writing for some classes could be a daunting task and challenging at times. Especially when I clearly do not understand the requirements or feel like having nothing valuable to contribute. Writing an essay on a topic that I have neither the knowledge nor the interest to keep me going can be extremely difficult. Ordinarily writing on a foreign topic, first I strive to educate myself and find an angle to make the topic inspiring, relatable and engaging. In some cases, no matter how persistently I attempt, the lack of passion will definitely show on the content of the paper. Consequently, this is where David Bartholomae “Inventing The University” text becomes a common practice among students. “ The students…as though they were members of academy, or historians, or anthropologist or economist; they have to invent the universities by assembling and mimicking its language ”(Bartholomae 403). Assembling and mimicking to unfamiliar voice is never plain

sailing and might not even always attainable.
On the other hand, writing on topics that fascinate and intrigue me, is rather enjoyable than feeling like a chore. Ideas stream and words flow naturally without having to mimic and echo others voice. A literacy narrative is a piece of text written from my own perspective for the intermediate English composition class. A literacy narrative is an essay about my writing and reading literacy, looking back to various incidents with a brand new outlook. Writing this essay allowed me to revisit and assess highlights that contributed to my writing and reading literacy. The main goal of literacy narrative essay is to define literacy, discuss my own personal literacy rituals leading to how my literacy formalized every step of the way. In general, the purpose of my literacy narrative essay is to reflect on my own literacy progression and convey how my childhood experiences, parental and social influence shaped my reading and writing literacy as it is today.
The guideline to literacy narrative essay is to write a 4 double space paged MLA style autobiography. The guideline specifically asks the students to write an essay that focuses on significant factors such as childhood experiences, ethnicity, literacy rituals, hobbies, parental influences, and social writing practices that contribute to our writing and reading literacy. The instructor also required students to narrate our literacy evolution by including specific details and events that happened throughout our lifetime and conclude it with how we personally come to define literacy. Assigned class reading such as “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua and “Mother Tongue ” by Amy Tan tremendously helped me to enhance and guide chain of thoughts and analyze factors such as ethnicity, culture, gender and identity in relation to literacy.
The main genre for the text literacy narratives is the convention of autobiography and by part narrative. Based on my understanding of autobiography, I was able to build a narrative around the required guidelines accordingly and describe the natural sequence of experiences that contributed to my reading and writing literacy. But having to reread my literacy narrative text for the purpose of this genre analysis essay, I was able to discover and pinpoint areas where my literacy narrative essay would have benefited with additional information and analysis. Moreover, the instructor also indicated that some of my arguments needed further elaboration to get my points across clearly.
The instructor never specified who my target audiences were and it never occurred to me to raise such a question. Regardless of the situation, I automatically assumed the target audiences to be my teacher and classmates, especially those in my peer group rather than taking a general audience into consideration. In my literacy essay, there were paragraphs where I completely disregard audience other than my instructor and fellow classmate and fell short offering adequate explanation and clarification. Here is an example where in an attempt to explain my personal struggle as bilingual, I dropped Anzaldua’s name but did not provide background information on Ms. Anzaldua. As Irene Clark mentioned it “ …may omit necessary explanation, definition of support, because they know that the teacher is familiar with the topic and doesn’t need them ” (6). I committed the same exact mistake by assuming that all of my audience knew Ms. Anzaldua and fail to explain whom Ms. Anzaldua is and how her story parallels to mine.
Assuming what my readers knew and do not know was the apparent mistake that excluded audience members. Irene Clark text “A genre approach to writing assignments” (1-8) taught me not to assume and skip over the details in order to eliminate confusion and avoid the possibility of open-ended arguments. In hindsight, if I had not written it exclusively to a certain group of audience, my essay could be a good read for anyone who can relate to my story and/or anyone who are interested in cultural and social impacts on one’s literacy.
The significance of knowing or not knowing the exact target audience depends on the specified genre convention of the essay. In my case understanding my target audience expectation and biases would have helped me to properly tailor my writing and address them accordingly. Even though, I am narrating my own personal experience, at times I wondered whether audiences were able to relate to my story and background. “ I think that all writers, in order to write, must imagine for themselves the privilege of being “ insiders” “…being granted a special right to speak”(Bartholomae 408). Writing the literacy narrative, I feel completely comfortable analyzing, and connecting the significant dots that shaped my literacy, but doubted if my audiences can connect to my story. Bartholomae wrote in his article “Inventing The University” stressing the importance of understanding the audience, “ A writer has to build bridges between his point of view and his readers. He has to anticipate and acknowledge his readers’ assumption and biases’’(515). At no time, I would say that I knew my audience that specifically in order for me to anticipate their personal assumption and biases. Instead, I was making sure all the required guidelines met in a way to fulfill the genre expectation as well as my audiences.
Every now and then, I remember thinking …well how many of my audience understand and identify with my story? In those instances, I probably failed to offer details rather than attempting to speak in an authoritative voice. “They must be equal to or more powerful than those they would address ” (Bartholomae 407). For example, I wrote, “Even today, gender role continues to constrain women from excelling in certain aspects of fields. Principles and acceptability set by a society to function in certain ways for hundreds of years and it had an apparent impact on women’s literacy” (Legesse 3). When I was talking about society and gender role, I purposely was trying to avoid sounding off like women right activist. First and foremost, my purpose in this literacy narrative essay is to tell my story in a way that inspires new thinking without starting controversy. I wanted to discuss factors that attributed to my literacy in a most undisputed tone of voice and capture my audience attention. Every one of us will have a different perspective based on our own unique life circumstances and as a writer; I should learn to navigate through without being afraid to express my personal opinion.
My instructor also commented on the strength and weakness of my essay writes, “You mention a number of facts that influenced your literacy, but you need to explain them in detail. For example, what was it about the gender roles you learned from your mother that made it difficult for you to express your opinion and how did your professor help you overcome those limitations? ” (Thompson). As the instructor pointed out, I mentioned various factors that influenced my literacy but fail to satisfy my reader’s curiosity and leave them with multiple unanswered questions. Regardless of whether I knew or did not know my target audience, in the end, it seems I need to emphasize the importance of developing arguments adequately and persuasively. Sometimes what I consider enough is just not enough detail to paint a clear picture in my reader’s mind.
Fundamentally, the key to developing my literacy narrative essay is to provide specific and relevant supporting details to help my readers understand and relate to what I am talking about.

Whether the goal is to reach unlimited number of audiences or to address the presumed audiences, discussing issues surrounding arguments thoroughly is the key concept I seem to overlook. Overall, the biggest lesson here is to adapt writing for a general audience and master to build arguments and support them effectively and precisely. As Irene Clark notes, “ Instead, students are asked to write for a “general audience,” a concept that many students find difficult to understand”(6). Writing a literacy narrative essay, it was difficult for me attaining the perfect balance of information and description. I have to develop a sense of what information is critically necessary for the story to reach the intended audience and satisfy their expectations. I need to learn to write in such a way that my readers can visualize just as I imagine

it.