English Writing
Example 1 Student Example Professor C.N. Myers English 1010- E01 5 May 2009 Don’t Ever Let Someone Tell You That You Can’t Do Something: A Literacy Narrative I will never forget learning how to read and write for the very first time. I used to closely watch my sister do her work for college. Then, I would innocently sit by her and read a book to mimic her. This memory immediately comes to my head when I think about how I learned to read. I remember my sister getting me ready for a bath on one warm su mmer night before my first day of kindergarten. I told her how excited I was for the next day and asked her, “Will I learn how to read and count?” She replied with “Yes, you’re going to learn your ABCs and your 123s and everything else.” I went onto to ask her, “But what are ABCs? ” She said, “You’ll find out.” Then, I washed up quickly and continued to get ready for the next day. Ever since that first day, I would annoyingly show my sister my books and worksheets and ask her about every word I couldn’t p ronounce. She would tell me to just sound them out instead of telling me every one of them. So I did exactly that. I would patiently sit there every day and analyze words that I couldn’t say. I broke them down word by word, never giving up. I would divide the words up by their letter s as if they were math problems. I built word upon word every day. I was fascinated by books series such as Arthur and The Bernstein Bears. I loved every thing about them from the way they felt in my hand to the world that they took me into just by reading. I also mimicked my brother when he did his reading for school. I loved being around my siblings and doing everything they did, no matter what it was. So while they were Example 2 reading to accomplish goals in school, my earlie st recollections of reading and writing were simply for the enjoyment of being closer to the people I loved the most. As I went through elementary school, I always especially enjoyed reading books and writing. I used to read books such as Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid . I would read the books then rewrite my own version of a certain chapter because I thought my version would be more interesting and whimsical. I had composition books full of my imaginative writings. They also had different cartoon sketches I would make up. Those books were amazingly colorful due to the fact that I wrote mostly with colored pencils. I spent months upon months perfecting those composition notebooks that I called book s. Page by page, I would fill them up. I remember also asking my friends for help along the way. They weren’t as interesting; in fact, they may have thought it was a little silly for me to actually think my writings were real books. I remember days where I used to get in trouble for writing those things in school without permission. Books that I read through elementary school fascinated me so much that I would carry them around with me all day to read whenever I had free time and also to write my different versions to the books . I remember being required to check books out once a week in elementary school and how overwhelmed I was by the selection ; frankly if it was not a requirement at all , I would’ve still done it. It would take me an extensive amount of time to actually check my book out becaus e I never knew what to choose.
U nfortunately, we could only check out two at a time. Along with those positive memories of reading early on in my life, there were also not so positive memories. There was one specific ti me where one day we paid a visit to the library as we normally did once a week. We usually were told to only pick books from a certain section of books where I guess those were eas ier. I decided to venture off into the other sections of the Example 3 library because I was uninterested in the books we always had to choose from. I scrambled through the books until I finally found one that I wanted. It was a biography about Martin Luther King , Jr., which was clearly written for kids because it included vivid picture s. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name of it. I was really interested in the civil rights movement, even at that young of an age. I took the book up to the checkout station and the librarian immediately said with attitude , “You cannot read!” I replied with shock, “Yes, I can.” I was appalled by this because I didn’t understand why I was doubted. I felt as I was being stripped of my chance to expand my literacy skills. I hated that the school system was try ing to make me into someone who waite d for instructions to expand my reading rather than doing it on my own. This wasn’t even the worst part. The librarian then said, “If you can read me the entire first page , then I will let you check it out.” I stumbled through it , but I completed the first page and was able to check it out. By her attitude with checking my book out, I think she felt t he satisfaction of knowing she was right; I couldn’t read the whole thing at that point. When I got home, I told my mother the enti re story. She then gave me words of encouragement that would always stick with me and would come to me any time I had to read and write. My mother told me, “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something.” It is a simple statement , but it was very powerful and definitely something I hadn’t heard before. That motivated me , and by the end of the day, I had researched how to say every single word in that book. I proudly read it aloud to my entire family as they listened to me cheerfully . With that, the situation died down, but it always stayed in the back of my brain every week when I stepped into the library. I can remember a time in 6 th grade where I got in a great deal of trouble at school because I was caught cheating on a test. After n ervously breaking the news to my family, they started in Example 4 on me. They took everything I had that entertained a young boy: my video games, my cell phone, and my access to television . At that point several different thoughts were running through my head. When will I get my things back? Will I ever have fun again? All of these questions were answered a day or so after the incident. My parents, who were still furious at me, told me that the only way I would be able to get my things back within the next week was if I wrote a two -page letter of ap ology to them, my teacher, and t o the principal of the school. That idea was insane to me, and frankly I didn’t think that it was possible for me to do it. Then again, I wanted my things back and I wanted my life to return back normal, so I had no choice. After minutes of debating and trying to come up with a simpler way, I decided to go ahead and roll with it. Surprisingly, my parents rejected my first attempt . My dad scolded me saying, “Do it Over! It doesn’t flow .” The next time I decided to start on it, it took me three whole days to complete it. My dad was astonished that I was able to grow my work in such a short period of time. After that, I showed my teacher , and he was just as surprised. After accepting m y apology, he even assigned that as a regular punishment if one of the classroom rules were broken, pretty much all because of me.
What I learned about literacy through my young years put me on a wonderful path for how I approach lite racy now. I approach it now not as something that is forcefully thrown at me because of school curriculum, but as something that will advance my mind, body, and soul for years to come. I came to understand that even though literacy may not be something that I would like to ma ke a career out of, it will indeed carry me out through life. Literacy ties into every second of the real world , no matter what path you are on or what field you are in.
Example 5 Works Cited Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing: A Coll ege Reader. ed. 2. Ed.
Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 43- 62. Print.
Brown, Marc . Arthur. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986. Print Stan and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstain Bears. New York: Random House, 1980. Print Pilkey, Dav. Captain Underpants. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Print Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid. New York: Amulet Books, 2007. Print