Framing: Topic, Time, and Place

All but one of the narratives examined in this exhibit begin with an introduction that identifies their story as a technological literacy narrative. These seven individuals use introductions to create a “frame” for their story by explaining that they are recalling their earliest memories of computer use. Although the narrators’ opening statements are often very informal, their introductions serve an important purpose for the audience: they tell the audience what the speakers are talking about and, implicitly, why these stories are important. Some of the narratives also establish separate internal frames to distinguish specific memories from one another, using time and place to frame stories within stories.

The use of introductions is a storytelling convention whose cultivation educational anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath examines in her research on children’s storytelling practices. In comparing the storytelling practices of successful and struggling students, Heath notes that, in teachers’ eyes, beginning a nonfiction story (such as a personal narrative) with a preamble that identifies the topic or purpose of the story demonstrates the speaker’s ability to focus a narrative around a specific topic and signals their awareness of what the audience needs to know about their story in order to understand it (295). In Heath’s research, storytellers who provide this kind of opening context for their narratives were identified as more proficient language users and thinkers: their stories were seen as having more direction and purpose, better fulfilling audience expectations.