Kenzie’s Literacy of Reading and Writing
For a girl like me, reading and writing have never come easy. I understand how to read and write I just don’t have a big vocabulary or a desire to open up a book and read. Not putting blame on anyone individual, I just feel as if all throughout my education I haven’t been taught how to write well. Maybe writing is something you can’t be taught how to do but I have some friends who are amazing writers and plan to continue their education in journalism.
They all have had the same teachers I have had and all have been taught the same curriculum but somehow I fall short as a writer. I don’t believe writing is something you can be literate about I feel you either have a desire to write or you don’t. I have learned to read and write minimal and in the next decade, I feel students will be taught less and less on how to read and write. Eventually, the way of learning will be vocal and all you will have to know is how to listen and speak.
Most commonly, when I have to write it’s not out of finding fun in writing it is more because of an assignment like this where the only end result is a grade and I feel as if more students feel the same way because there is so much technology that you don’t have to be as creative as in the past. My favorite reading is dramas. Things that I can relate to in my everyday life, I love those books that you just can’t put down no matter how hard you try, therefore, I hate those books that you are dragging yourself along in just for the end grade.
I find writing fun if I am writing about a topic that I can relate closely too. Although, I do find that writing for fun still doesn’t come easy and I still spend hours trying to figure out how I want to put the words on a piece of paper. In the story from Malcolm X, he is full of knowledge; he repeatedly states different historical events with their dates. He has knowledge that he can elaborate on where I do not. He also refers to Muhammad a lot during his writing and that is someone that is a “teacher” to him.
He has learned many things from Muhammad which made him the man he was. He has built a reputation through his teaching of history which gives him credentials. He taught me that you can learn to read and write over time but it’s not something that you have to be born with when he stated “I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-based broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying”. This shows that Malcolm X learned how to read and write while in prison.
It shouldn’t be that hard for me to learn to write but somehow I just can’t grasp the concept of becoming a good writer. Anne Lamott has said it all for me in her essay “Shitty First Drafts”. She mentions that “Very few writers really know what they’re doing until they’ve done it”. This goes to show that I am not the only person that sucks at writing and after people review and help revise and edit my paper then I slowly start to get on the right path and organize all of my thoughts to go into one direction.
Lamott also exclaims “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts”. This gives me hope that my essays in college may turn out exceptional. I understand that other people have the same problem I do and although they went through elementary, middle school, and high school they too cannot produce a wonderful first draft. One day I hope to become a person that gets an idea and can take out a sheet of paper and write down everything on my mind without having to stop and think if I could reword something to sound better.
Writing should be like watching television something that relaxes you and lets you vent out all of your stress and problems. I know a lot of people who use journals or diaries to vent out onto and as they are writing away they don’t stop to rephrase something or let their grammar get in the way and that is how a first draft should be. As for me, I worry all the way through about if it makes sense if I am repeating myself, or even if I am writing what is asked of me.
People who are authors, writers because of their love for writing and I know authors that are terrible at getting their point across or take the whole book before spilling the gossip but people still read their books and still get intrigued by their writing. I hope throughout the next eight years of college I will become more literate as a reader, writer, and speaker. I will have a larger vocabulary and use it in a unique way. I understand that I won’t have an English class for the next eight years but I will continue to perfect my writing into something people enjoy reading about.
I will make every effort to perfect my writing in this class and the rest of my future. As a student reading and writing skills are vital to success so this class and others shall help me perk mine in the right direction.
Works Cited
- Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts. ” Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. 1994. 301-304.
- X, Malcolm. “Learning to Read. ” Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. 1965. 354-357.
