Introduction: Personal Growth as a Writer
When most people think of the word literacy, they just think it’s having the ability to read or write. Literacy means so much more than that. Literacy is having the capability and willingness to engage with dialect to communicate meaning in all aspects. As a writer, literacy plays a critical role in life. It is one of the most essential technique when it comes to personal growth. Personal literacy growth is where someone expands on the perception and comprehension of reading and writing. My personal growth has been this year in English 1010. My growth was impacted by the literacy readings and literacy threshold concepts this semester. I conducted my autoethnographic research on my writing process. I was able to see how I edited and revised my papers.
Applying Threshold Concepts
A threshold concept is where something could be considered as opening up a new way of thinking about something. This semester I have been exposed to several threshold concepts in English. These concepts have impacted my growth in literacy as a writer. One threshold concept from the literacy narrative unit that has changed the meaning of literacy for me was the concept expressed in Malcom X article, “Learning to Read” (Malcom X p. 106). The concept of “Learning to Read” is the burdens that he was challenged with and his inspiring expedition to becoming literate. Malcom used his battles as an illiterate African American with a heavy past to encourage his congregation to accomplish greatness regardless of any other delays. The quote, “In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there, I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional” (354), shows what type of person Malcom was. He was well spoken and a respected man. I understand the writers experience. It gave me a greater relation towards writing.
The second threshold concept, from the discourse unit, was in Tony Mirabelli’s article, “Learning to serve”. He presents the genre of communication used by different waiters and waitresses. He shows us the assumptions people are likely to have of many examples. He expresses that there is something distinctive and unique about the type of language of food service workers in the way they use literacy and language. Mirabelli states that a writer must be able to take in orders that are not in the menus and be able to determine if they may be done. Mirabelli states. “Literacy practices in this environment are nothing like those found in common classrooms, but they might be more comparable to those found in the emergency ward or a hospital or an air-traffic controllers tower” (p.158). Mirabelli takes an honest approach in proving his point. He was showing the reader a point of view that most people might not see for the purpose of not taking aside on the subject matter but promoting an understanding of what community has to go through on a regular basis.
The third threshold concept comes from the research unit, Carol Berkenkotter article, “Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer” (Berkenkotter p.830). Berkenkotter conducts a study that she did on writer, Donald Murray. Berkenkotter was interested how writers process and organize information and data in literacy. Berkenkotter proceeded by studying the habits, thoughts, and everyday processes that Murray went through in stages in a period of 62 days. I learned that if someone writes in a more naturalistic setting they tend to do better. If someone is writing in a “laboratory” type situation it would be difficult to complete anything. I also learned that planning and revision has a process and is different depending on each author.
The concept that helped me get a better understanding of discourse communities came from John Swales, a professor of linguistics, that is well known analysis. Swales describes a discourse community as one who shares a common set of goals, has intercommunication among another that has information and feedback, uses more than one genre, has a specific lexicon, and finally one who has members in the community. All these characteristics could lead to multi-literacy, which highlights two key aspects of literacy: linguistic diversity and forms of linguistic expression and representation. To explain more about discourse communities, swales outlined six characteristics of a discourse. The image below shows what these characteristics are.
These defining characteristics and features can allow someone to analyze a community and resolve its discoursal traits, new members, and the way they communicate with one another. The characteristics as a writer will allow me to analyze different discoursal traits for a specific audience. Furthermore, the article, “Sh!tty First Drafts” (pg. 852) by Anne Lamott says that the viewpoints that most communities have of how writers work is different from the sensibility of work itself. I agree with this. People have trouble sitting down and typing out a paper. They tend to put writers in a higher outlook than others in assumption.
Writing Process Encountered through Autoethnographic Observation
Autoethnography is a form of research in which an author uses self-reflection and writing to explore experiences. Autoethnographies are important because it is documenting your personal experience as a writer and your values. I conducted an auto recording during my writing research on a psychology paper. I started recording my drafting process. Drafting is when the writer puts his or her ideas into complete sentences, thoughts, and paragraphs. It’s when the writer organizes their ideas so that the reader will be able to understand the information given. Drafting is the hardest part for me.
After recording my out loud thoughts from drafting I went back and replayed it to listen to what I had said. I wasn’t focused enough while typing my paper. In my recording I kept telling myself, “okay Aliyah focus on what is actually important in the paper.” I was distracted and was a little confused on what was actually important. I didn’t put my all in the draft. I wasn’t really concerned with it at first, but once I got concentrated and knew what I was doing the flow of writing the paper became better. For the revision process I talked more in my audio recording. I was focused on correcting my mistakes and reflecting on the feedback I had received. I took my revision process more serious rather than my drafting process. In the audio record I heard myself saying, “okay”, “what’s the correct way in restating this”, “uhh”, and “what different wording choice could I use?” This is when I’m focusing on revising my paper and applying the feedback I received.
