This chapter can help young writers in English class with their papers in many different ways. For instance, Trimble gives examples on what a veteran writer does in order to make their writing interesting. He also gives out techniques on how you can get a reader’s attention or how you can fix your writing to make it readable instead of having nonsense. What makes this difficult for me as a writer is that I write what ever comes to my mind and it will not make sense. Another thing that makes it difficult for me as a writer is that I am not good at getting the readers attention and having him hooked on to my work.
In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.
In the essays, “Reading to Write” by Stephen King, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” Malcolm X, and “Learning to Write” by Frederick Douglas have three things in common. In each essay Reading has contributed towards the authors life leading to benefit from learning to read, allowing them to leave a legacy behind. In each essay the authors has thought their self how unlike Frederick Douglass. For Stephen King, reading has done a lot for him. King stated, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (221).
As I began to read in week one Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay by Marie Foley, I was reminded of the importance of how writing lends to reading, which in turn infers absorbing the content. Writing is essential to not only education but in connecting through this form of communication as well. Appropriately, this was addressed again by John Dewy in Democracy and Education in 1916. I found it interesting that this subject matter written about so long ago is still prevalent today. I can relate to Foley description of writing in structure as being “alien” as I have found my words always flowed without structure.
Throughout my education, writing strategies persisted to be a challenge for me. I dreaded writing because I could never find ways to transition my thoughts from my mind to the paper. Ironically, a class that petrified me due to the amount of required writing ended up helping me in numerous ways. English 1301 and my professor prepared me for college and real life by giving me a foundation of effective learning strategies.
The first major point in Chapter 1 is the importance of reading critically. When reading critically it is crucial that you thoroughly read and analyze the work. The first question you should ask yourself when reading critically is what does the title tell you? The title of any written work is important because it may reveal the author's position and or display the tone of the writing. The next question is what do you know about the author?
As research proved that there are multiple ways of learning other than just listening, more visual and tactile activities were implemented to better explain concepts to the students. Research is now proving that versatility in lessons and assignments allows for better retention of information in students. The article delves into this, stating, “Writing well goes hand in hand with the ability to read well and to think critically and astutely, Dr. Laver says. ‘Deep writing fosters deep thinking and deep reading’.” (Dixon).This shows that the ability to write an insightful piece correlates with the brain’s ability to use critical thinking.
I know I have grown to enjoy reading and writing by sharing my thoughts and feelings about my work and others. Listening to an adult model fluent reading increases the students’ fluency, and comprehension while expanding their vocab, background knowledge, genre/ text structure, and comprehension of the text being read (p. 3, Allington &
Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 481-495.
Personal Literacy Narrative Reading and writing is a tool everybody needs in their lifetime the basic reading and writing skills are used on a daily base no matter what field you plan to study. Reading and writing are taught at a young age. I personally was taught by preschool I noticed on how I grew with my writing and how I became a better reader and writer throughout my life I personal love reading and writing it’s a way for everyone to express themselves through their choice of words. Everybody learns how to read and write differently some students tend to be stronger than others, personally speaking I feel I tend to be higher in reading then writing.
Throughout the book’s introduction different topics about reading and writing are discussed. To start with, there are different ways of reading. People can read to find information, main ideas or to have a conversation with the writer. Reading provides the opportunity of having a social interaction with the author. In other words, after reading a text an answer can be made about what the author said.
Part of my literacy experience was about learning an important lesson in a book and how each page carries a story that’s brought to life. At the time, I didn’t learn about learning critical literacy until I was in my English 91 class. In my English 91 class, I was taught how to use critical thinking in my papers. I imagine how much literacy has been involve in my life from childhood till college. The books I’ve read in my childhood is how I ‘ve taught how to write.
As the semester is finishing up, I look back at this class and reflect my learning and thoughts about this class. I look back and see how much I’ve learned, such as the six plus 1 traits, word choice, and placings of words. These teachings will help me throughout my life, such as scholarship applications, college classes, job applications, and so much more. My thoughts on writing has changed dramatically.
Writing has always been an issue but yet interesting subject of mine. As hard as I try and write essays, and papers I just can’t get the hang of writing. But after taking this class, I did learn different writing technique and improved my writing proficiency, material body of formatting, and how to uncovering and properly use sources. Through class exams, essays, and a research paper, I was able to learn new writing skills. Although I have learned a variety of things, my writing still needs improvement.
Each essay I wrote took me several time to write, several drafts which show that I have improve every time I do the drafts to write a perfect masterpiece. I learned a lot of skills and techniques this quarter, which has helped me to improve and progress my writing skills for the future. I will remember the skills, techniques, and tips that professor gave us in this English class for my higher education. For example, all the time that I went to visit professor Sapozhnikov office hours to receive help on my out-of -class essays has helped me to improve, grow, and progress in my writing skills as a writer. Some of the significant changes I have made as I was progressing and growing were to develop a strong thesis to help support my claims as I write my essays, such as facts, observations, illustration, and examples.
