Literacy Narrative
Growing up I always struggled in reading and writing. As a kid, I was always told to go outside and play. As a young adult, I had very limited reading topic interests. The reading assignments in English class never interested me, therefore I didn’t do the writing assignment that always proceeded the reading assignment. My writing skills were limited with no requirement to improve. After joining the Navy, my reading skills drastically improved over the next decade, and only recently have I found the joy in reading. My writing skills were improved by writing emails and writing Sailors Evaluations.
An Evaluation is a yearly report of a Sailor’s performance. It is the most important part of promotions in the Navy. Your evaluation can determine if you get promoted, or not. Writing an Evaluation is similar to writing an essay, an extremely short essay, a 16-line essay. You have an introduction, the body which includes three topics, and the conclusion. At first my only experience with Navy Evaluations was the one I got every year. But as I gained rank in the Navy, I had to start writing my own and others’ evaluations. By doing so many evaluations, I found myself doing all my writing as if I was writing Evaluations.
Like writing an essay, one strategy is starting with the main core of your essay. I found it easier to start with the core of the Evaluation, but it is still the hardest part of writing the Evaluation. You have to write three brief, to the point, significant tasks that they did over the course of the year. There are really two important parts of the core. You have your Bullet Points; these are two to three words that define the next two to four sentences you use to describe a task the Sailor did. I would write what I wanted to say about the Sailor with those two to three words, such as, “EXCEPTIONAL TECHNICIAN”, or “PROVEN LEADER”. Often, I would end up choosing different words that better described the task the Sailor did. I would come to find, there are whole websites devoted to helping choose these important Bullet Points. Next, I would have to think back about what significant tasks the Sailor performed over the past year. There are many ways to help with this part, such as books specifically for writing evaluations, keeping a log of things each of them does, or having them write the significant things they did over the year in Evaluation format. I found that employing the last two made writing the Evaluation easier, as well as the latter preparing them for when they would have to write their own or others’ evaluations. I learned how to remove all the “fluff” out of a sentence, to remove descriptive words, to simply state the facts. This allowed me to say more about the Sailor in the limited space I had, i.e. “He developed and trained my Navigation Team in complex navigation operations, to include multiple Non-Traditional Port Visits and Acoustic Trails which have not been accomplished in 5 years, resulting in an error free 90 day patrol.
After the hard part was done, I would write the introduction by summing up what I had written in a sentence or two. What has he done in the past year? I think “What kind of Sailor is he?”, “Is he where he needs to be?”. I would come to learn that there are basically only four introductions in an evaluation. They’re either operating at a position or two higher than their position; they are progressing in their position; they are operating at their current position; they are struggling to operate at their current position.
I would then finish with the conclusion of the evaluation, this time summarizing how this Sailor impacted the Navy and the Unit over the last year. How all their hard work by these three points allowed us to fulfill the mission. This allows for the conclusion to be different than the introduction portion of the evaluation. The final sentence is always the same in all Navy Evaluations, which is writing the opinion of the command of how strongly that individual Sailor deserves to be promoted (Either “strongest recommendation for promotion”, “highly recommended for promotion”, or “recommended promoting”).
People write the way they think. Therefore, their writing can change the way they think. This type of writing has changed the way I write. I write everything in short straight to the point sentences. I do not over describe things in detail or use examples. It has furthermore changed the way I think and interreact with people. I think more logically and analytically, how best to do tasks in the fewest steps, or most efficient way. I talk straight to the point, using the least number of words necessary. I wait for someone to ask for further details. The importance of a Sailors Evaluations also has led me to choosing my words carefully and being very precise in what I say and mean. It hasn’t been without its challenges.