The "official" writing task for this assignment puts you in the following context. I want you to imagine that you are a newly-hired, inexperienced English teacher in a medium-sized, middle-class suburban high school (1000-1500 students, say) assigned to teach English 9. Having been told by your new colleagues that high school freshmen aren't very good at either reading or writing, you decide to begin the year by presenting them with a "guidebook" to successful reading and writing. Your audience, remember, is comprised of adolescents who haven't been identified as strong readers. You'll need to carefully tailor your prose to meet their needs, and explain the points you're trying to make in lucid, concrete terms. The most successful of these guides often use one or more extended metaphors to help students understand reading and writing processes ("Reading a novel is like making macaroni and cheese"). As you put together your guide, you should use your own and your classmates' literacy strategies (culled from the blogs), as well as any insights gained from the professional reading we've done for class, to help your audience "see" what goes on in the mind of a proficient reader and writer at work.

This paper will likely take a less formal tone than many other works you've created for your English classes (the use of first person as well as simpler, more casual diction is not uncommon). That's all right -- you're writing to adolescents, after all. Page lengths naturally vary, but usually range between five and eight double-spaced pages.

Evaluation Criteria.
Your paper will be peer workshopped before being handed in for a grade -- see syllabus for due dates and format criteria. The final grade will be based upon the following:

• the clarity of your discussion of how effective readers and writers "do business" when faced with tasks that require them to read and write
• the connections you make among your own literacy practices and those of others (like Pirie and your classmates) who discuss these issues
• your ability to tailor your observations and ideas to the specified audience
• your ability to produce clear, error-free prose
• your participation in the workshop and revision processes.