Fang 1

Alex Fang
CTW 1
Professor Lasley
7 October 2018

Personal essays have always been easier to understand due to the fact that
readers can relate to the subject and feel a sense of connection to the author. In ​It’s
Time for Class: Toward a More Complex Pedagogy of Narrative, ​Amy Robillard
emphasizes this phenomenon by stressing and bringing to the light the importance of
incorporating personal narratives into the curriculum. She believes that the value of
personal narratives is diminishing and to argue against this, she reflects on her own
personal experiences to build a relationship with the intended audience. Other topics
that she incorporates into her essay includes the concept of time and how different
people may interpret it differently than others based on economic, social, or educational
status. Without the understanding of these topics a student would not be able to obtain
the full experiences of higher level education.

Joseph Bizup author of,​ BEAM: A Rhetorical vocabulary for Teaching

Research-Based Writing, ​developed a method called BEAM that enables readers to
approach Robillard’s essay with a different perspective on how they read and analyze
essays. It doesn’t prevent the reader from analyzing essays like they did before, but
rather provokes the reader to look out for special connections that they can make to the
writing. The BEAM acronym includes four attributes: Background, Exhibit, Argument,
and Method. Background comes in the form of a resource that gives you the general
topic and a brief overview relating to the research project or information the reader has
previously learned before. Exhibit comes in the form of a source where students can
pick out specific examples or evidence that they can include in their paper. Argument
comes in the form of finding a counter to your claim and using evidence to argue
against it. Lastly, method comes in the form of learning how a source analyzes an issue
and using that method to support your own.

In using Background, the author is able to present basic facts from resources that
they trust. Robillard presents her information through her opinions on learning habits
based on class. She explains how students from the middle-class perceive information
as rather a temporary element in their education that is needed only to pass the class.
She notices that they don’t fully retain and understand the information taught in these
classrooms. On the other hand, working-class students are able to perceive information
and interpret it due to the fact that they are under the understanding of time restraints
during these classes. That is why personal narratives become so critical to helping
these students since it helps to, “shape the forward movement of time”(Robillard 76).
These working-class students feel the need to understand the information to better
themselves and their current state. This further supports the importance of narrative
writings so that professors are able to know the various students in their class and be
able to adapt their curriculum based on that.
 Fang 2

Through Exhibit, the author is able to bring upon new interpretations of the
argument. Robillard personal narrative of her own life story does just this. Because she
uses her own personal narrative she is able to interact with her audience and proves
that her argument is genuine. Her experiences helps the reader see the transition from,
“What happened to what has happened to what was happening to what may
happen”(Robillard 81). Instead of just retelling her events she is elaborating on them
and analyzing how they help establish the importance of her stories. She uses the
example of her working class family and sharing her mother’s point of view to point out
things that may seem confusing to her audience. She explains how her mother’s
character revolves around time and how she is never late to anything because of it. By
making this point about her mother, she is able to convey to the audience that working
class people have a different perception of time and they focus on the now instead of
the future. She contrasts this with people of upper classes that view time as the future
rather than the present. Her audience is able to make different connections with her
writings and not just follow what authorities of schools establish as the right way to
learn. This relates to how universities promote students to think in terms of the future
but not in terms of the past and how it has developed them.

Using Argument however, the Robillard is able to present her work from real life
examples to expand on their knowledge and using works from others, to validate her
own. She emphasizes one of the articles by Joseph Harris and E.P. Thompson by
explaining their interpretation of class and how it is discovered through relationship and
experiences. Harris specifically cites from Thompson that, “class is not determined by
our past or our economic situations;class isnead is ‘a relationship, and not a thing’
”(Robillard 78). By including this in her essay she presents ideas that are strongly
correlated to personal narratives. Harris interprets class as not a “thing” but rather men
and women’s living their own history which can be the only definition of class. Robillard
is able to again highlight the importance of narrative writing as narrative writing allows
students to write and reflect on their own history based on their class. Another example
is when she mentions Carolyn K. Steedman’s essay showing how history not only
passes but becomes a part of who we are. The audience will be able to, “interpret our
past, analyze its details, and select the plot line”(Robillard 84). By retelling our own
narrative through personal narratives, we are better able to analyze and evaluate text.
Readers are able to have personal interactions with the author as well as the text which
later helps them understand the distinction between social class and education.

Lastly in using method, the author is able to highlight how her use of personal
narratives had a positive impact on people regardless of class. Robillard’s goal of
convincing higher level institutions to put a greater emphasis on personal narratives so
that students can build upon their history and experiences to make them have a better
understanding of people’s work. Based on Joseph McMillian theory of how, “we come to
understand ourselves, when we create stories about ourselves”(Robillard 79). Once we
start to analyze our own narratives, that is only when we being to truly gain new
perspectives on the argument. Utilizing this method of introducing her view of a
middle-class citizen in the eyes of her mother, she is able to make her essay easier to
 Fang 3

read in a way that they can understand where she is speaking from. Robillard wants
classes to not be taught just to pass the class, but to fully understand the purpose of
retaining a student’s past.

In conclusion, BEAM helps Robillard’s essay to convey the most important

information she is trying to instill in her audience. By utilizing this method, she is able to
convince students the importance of narrative writing and its impact it had on herself.
These four sources suggest the reader to reach a deeper understanding of the text and
to regard narrative writing not as a negative undertaking from their professors, but
rather a tool for them to understand their students while their students learn about
themselves in the process.