"Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes

"Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you"-BKS Iyengar

[kriswash]

“The Concept of Discourse Community”

I think that John Swale makes very interesting points in his excerpt. We never really stop to think about the ways we have evolved into doing the things that we do. We have become so accustomed to doing certain things that's its pretty much automatic. His example of the wedding invitations was cool as he pointed out that when two people are getting married and want to invite others to their wedding there is no hesitation on how they should go about inviting people; they send out wedding invitations. Wedding invitations is a genre that came about in our society that many people use as a rhetorical way of asking others to attend to their wedding. The genre in this situation is understood. In A Conceptualization of Discourse Community section Swale says in a round about way that even though people are living in the same community they are not subject to working together or following the same rules or regulations. You see this happening in everyday life. For example, an Italian restaurant could be right across from another Italian restaurant but they have their own recipes or their own idea of what authentic Italian food should taste like.            

[kriswash]

Writing Across the University

Writing has always been my weakest subject and I do believe it's because of all the confusion. Each teacher I had throughout high school taught writing in a different way. Each had their own expectations and guidelines to follow and I couldn't keep up with all the rules. Fiona Glade explains very well that pretty much everything we learned about writing in high school goes down the drain by the time you reach college. I feel very confused as to why high schools even bother teaching students to write a certain way when they will never use this type of writing again. I feel that high school is suppose to prep you for college and get you familiar with the types of learning styles you will see. At my "college prep high school" I never had to write a five-page paper. Why even call yourself a college prep school then! Once I reached college I felt somewhat behind and felt a big lack of confidence in my writing. When I first received my five-page paper assignment my head was spinning. I was already having thoughts in my mind that I couldn’t do it. I was never taught how to write about one topic for five pages. If everyone was on the same page when it comes to writing I feel that all the confusion and bad grades would disappear.  

[kriswash]

Radical Revision

January 2, 1995 I wasborn all wide-eyed and alive,

With the loving family around me there was no doubt I was going to thrive.

 As I was passed around from person to person experiencing the endless love,

I felt warm and cozy and free as a dove.

 When my second birthday rolled around,

My dad was nowhere to be found.

 He never helped my mother with anything and was never really a father,

Some people will always wonder why he got married when he should have never bothered.

 My mother got fed up with his crap so of course,

They got a divorce.

 From Rome New York to Charlotte North Carolina we went,

Where we moved in with my grandmother who made us feel very content.

 My mom was now taking care of my sister and I and being a father and a mother,

She showed us endless love and dedication like no other.

 After long days at work my mom would come home and give us lots of devotion,

She loved on us, cooked a healthy meal for us, and sang to us like the sweet ocean.

 Growing up with my mom has been such a beautiful pleasure,

Everything she has taught me I hold onto like sweet treasure.

 Teamwork was one of my mom's big values that she taught,

Helping each other and doing things together was fun we thought.

 I recently watched the many baby videos my mom shot,

They showed the lack of effort from my father as well as the love my mom's side of the family brought.

 My grandmother helped take care of my sister and I while my mom was at work,

Getting to spend time with her was such a nice perk.

 From painting to gardening to soccer games, lake days and more,My 

grandmother was like another mother to us and loved us dearly she swore.

 My great grandfather, Gigi, has also been a big leader of mine,

Acting out plays with us, singing songs to us, and telling us stories our hearts always chimed.

 Lastly, my sister has been one of my biggest role models since day one,

I wanted to be just like her so I copied her which to me, was so much fun.

 When it came to schoolwork my sister would always guide me,

Instead of giving me answers she prompted me with questions, which was key.

 Through love and compassion my family has taught me so much,

Not only how to read and write but to function in everyday life and such.  

 So don't you see how I came to be this way?

My family has shaped the person that I am today.

[kriswash]

Shitty First Drafts

               I just read Anne Lamott's Shitty First Drafts, but I am sitting at my computer contemplating on what to say about it. I can't even write a blog without getting stuck for crying out loud! This just goes to show me that I have been well trained in thinking I have to type the right things when I start an assignment. I really enjoyed reading this piece. Anne really held my attention and her sense of humor really added to it. As I dove further into the piece I kept feeling anxious to start typing more ideas out for my literacy essay. When Anne began talking about how every good writer doesn't just sit down at their computer and start typing perfect sentences and how one should just write down whatever comes to mind in their first draft, it really gave me confidence. It made me feel more in acceptance with where I am at with my current essay. I honestly just wrote what came to my mind and before I knew it I had two full pages of text! I felt pretty proud of myself in this moment because I usually torture myself trying to think of the perfect things to say instead of sitting down and typing sentences or ideas that just pop up in my mind. Anne's piece really reinforced that doing this exact thing is definitely okay and should be done every single time you sit down to write.          

[kriswash]

Malcolm X: Learning to Read

           This reading was very interesting to me because I have always said that if one is illiterate it’s their fault, not the environment or family they grew up with. There is always a way to learning as Malcolm X has proven to be correct. Malcolm only had an eighth grade education level but this did not stop him from becoming a scholarly and powerful leader that he was. While Malcolm was in prison he took this time to study. He became very frustrated over the fact that he couldn’t express his words on to paper so he got a hold of a dictionary and copied every single word down. After he copied the entire dictionary, he wanted to progress further so he began reading books from the prison library. As he read each history book he noticed that they always left the black man out. Being a black man himself, he wanted to learn more about black history so he went to library and found books on this topic. He read book after book and became more knowledgeable about the black man and later became a brilliant leader and spokesman of black America during the Civil Rights Movement. As Malcolm X has shown us, you can become the most literate person possible if you have the motivation to go out and achieve that yourself.

[kriswash]

Sponsorship and Access

Brandt explains in the beginning of her essay that high literate, high socioeconomic, and majority-race individuals do very well on national reading and writing tests. She also explains that people from a high-caste racial group have many connections to literacy sponsors where as low-caste racial groups hardly have any at all. I find these two vindications to be interesting because I believe that there are wealthy people who don't do well with standardized testing or aren't the most literate person in the world. I also believe that whether one is rich or poor, they are responsible for the level of literacy they will obtain. The environment they grew up in may affect their literacy level but they still have the ability to get a hold of books and put themselves in social interactions to evolve into becoming more literate. If someone from a different country moves to the U.S. I believe it is their responsibility to learn English. Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez grew up in two totally different environments and came from two different social classes but they both ended up using resources around them to become two successful people. Literacy doesn’t just come overnight; it takes self-motivation, practice, commitment, and time. Anyone can be literate. 

[kriswash]

"Literacy In Three Metaphors"

In a round about way the reading, "Literacy In Three Metaphors" talks about the different connotations of the word literacy. The author does this through three metaphors: Literacy as Adaptation, Literacy as Power, and Literacy as a state of Grace. The first metaphor talks about literacy being called "functional literacy". It goes on to say that in today’s world, this is understood as the ability to perform well in everyday life such as at your job, shopping, or finding your way around town. All of these activities require you to function by means of reading and writing. I chose to point this section out because this is how I view literacy. Without these abilities to read and write we wouldn’t get too far in life. Literacy as Power talks about how literacy has an effect on public progressions. The poor, black, elderly, and minority language groups are said to be the concentration of illiteracy. This part really caught my attention because there is a common judgment around certain races or ethnic groups when applying the term literacy to them and I don't really agree with it. I feel that everyone has something to offer to this world whether they are literate or not. Lastly, Literacy as a state of Grace brings in the religious aspect of things. This metaphor is said to "require of the faithful the ability to read and remember the Bible and other religious material". So basically you are gaining both literacy and holiness at the same time. I really believe that religion shouldn't have anything to do with being literate. Just because someone can reiterate the Bible word for word doesn't make him or her a literate person, it makes a good memorizer.  

            Throughout the reading I kept thinking how crazy it was that someone could take, what I thought to be, a simple word and write so much about it. Scribner has changed my view on literacy for sure especially because I don't think I would ever look at the term literacy and connect it to societal, and religious values.           

[kriswash]

"We Are All Writers Now"

In the first paragraph of Anne Trubek's, We Are All Writers Now, she talks about how our society has changed from communicating with our mouths or pen and paper, to communicating with "smaller devices" such as a computer, an iPhone, or a tablet. Although Trubek believes that "we are all writers" because we are writing through social media, I think this way of communicating is becoming an issue. So many people are being very unsocial with the world around them as they burry their faces in their phones. I believe this behavior is teaching younger generations to act the same way. I see children on iPads playing games or watching videos in restaurants more than I see them coloring on a piece of paper or engaging with the people around them. Its almost as if parents don't want to deal with their child's natural social reactions so they throw an iPad in front of them to keep them quiet. These children are going to grow up with a lack of social skills and if/when they have to deal with something verbally in the future, they won't know how to properly communicate. Although people have been able to share their thoughts and ideas with others on social media, as I am doing now, a lot of people abuse it. Communicating through these devices has become the norm for most people but its scary to think that our world may someday communicate only through typing.