Literacy Narrative 6f3m1q

Tyson 1 Kattie Tyson Professor Rebecca Agosta UWRT 1101-035 9 October 2015 A Reader, Writer, and Communicator My parents exposed me to reading and writing at an early age. I my mother pointing to letters and slowly mouthing out the words as I sounded them out alongside her. “Cuhcuh, ah-ah, teh-teh. Cat!” My father would always read me stories like “The Little Engine That Could” every night before I went to sleep. His dramatic tone and sound effects always kept me interested. My mother showed me how to write my name by writing “Kattie” on a piece of paper, and I would try to imitate it. These short recollections show my early access to reading and writing, which could be why I seemed to do well with it later on. I recall taking a writing test in the second grade and scoring the highest out of everyone. We were given a prompt – which I do not now - and were told to use it to write a story. I looking around the classroom nervously, as all my other classmates had already taken off into their stories. I began to brainstorm and used the best idea I could think of to write about. As I started my story, it felt like the words began to flow from my head to my paper. I finished in no time and was astonished to find out that I had the best score. I felt very accomplished and excited. From that point, writing came easily to me. Perhaps the natural ability that I discovered came from my early access, but I know that the sense of accomplishment that I felt after this only began to build my confidence in writing. Writing felt so natural. I would be assigned to write a paper or essay in school and it felt more like a hobby than work. I seemed to struggle with many other subjects, but writing was my

Tyson 2 strong suit. Almost like my comfort-zone in school. I think this is partly because of my parents. As I previously stated, they would read to me every night and taught me the basics in reading in writing. Fortunately, I had a strong start. Many kids today cannot say that for themselves. This makes me wonder about the relationship between early access and reading/writing. I feel like my early childhood experiences had a positive impact on my writing, which makes me wonder about those who struggle with it. Maybe they had less access as a child, or maybe they just naturally struggle with writing. I can’t speak for them, but I can speak for myself when I say that the access my parents gave me impacted my writing early on. I consider my parents one of the biggest influences on my writing and on the way I communicate. Vincent Cremona’s, “My Pen Writes In Blue and White”, talks about how his parent’s different dialects impacts his writing and speech. He compares his father’s dialect to his mother’s dialect to find that his dialect is a combination of the two. Cremona states, “I, myself, have taken the plain, frank, honest words of my father and ed them with the proper and formal words of my mother to form the dialect that I now speak.” When I think about my parent’s dialect, like Cremona, I think about the way they say things and how that affects my writing and speech. My father, a pipefitting company owner, sees things realistically. He is a businessman. Very straight forward and to the point. One of his famous sayings is, “Chicken pays the bills”, (the pipes his company puts in are often located in chicken plants). He does not beat around the bush when he is speaking to someone. His realistic way of thinking is almost to the point of being pessimistic. A sticker on his computer actually says, “My daughter and my money go to Clemson”, referring to my sister, who goes out-of-state to Clemson University.

Tyson 3 My mother on the other hand, is more optimistic. She also owns the family company with my father. She sees things in a more hopeful perspective. Her speech is very comforting and makes you feel better. I always tell her “I’m going to fail” or “I can’t do it” and she replies with, “Kattie, no matter what, it is all going to work out. You aren’t going to fail anyways, you are smart.” Her positive and warm words make you see the good in things and allow you to look at things differently. It gives you options. My speech is sort of a combination of my father’s bluntness and my mother’s optimism; kind of like Cremona, but in different aspects. I think that this helps my writings and when I am reading. I see things in my parent’s two different perspectives. Take my views on writing for example. Frankly, though my father’s view, I see writing as just writing. Words on a paper. Not much to it. Reflectively, through my mother’s view, I see writing as self-expression. A way of getting a point across. This helps when there is a time for writing more simplistically and to the point, such as journals, or when there is a time for writing more reflectively or complicated, such as blogs. My parent’s dialects go hand-in-hand with the way I write and speak. There have also been some outside influences, such as teachers and peers, that affect the way I communicate. I recall in the fifth grade, one of my English teachers always corrected my speech, which was improper in her eyes. She was the very picky type of teacher and things had to be just perfectly according to her standards. I would ask, “Can I use the restroom?” and her reply would be, “I don’t know can you?” She insisted that we say, “May I use the restroom.” As annoying as she was, my teacher’s smart comebacks always motivated me to say things properly to avoid embarrassment again. She and many other overbearing teachers along the way are the reason I speak the way I do at times.

Tyson 4 My peers have also influenced my communication. Through them, I have picked up slang /phrases. It is almost like a language within a language. Instead of saying, “Okay, cool”, we might say, “Word.” Another common term that many people use is “selfie.” These words that I hear from people around me slowly accrue in my everyday vocabulary. I think the use of these phrases have a lot to do with social approval. Many times people, myself included, will begin using the words they hear around them to fit in, such as the common phrase “selfie.” Using that same phrase as an example, I also think people use these words because times are changing. As the world continues to progress and change, new words must be created to effectively communicate. What would you call a selfie if you did not have the word “selfie”? Old words are changing into new words as well. Many years ago, the word “gay” meant to be happy. Today, it means to be homosexual…If people do not change along with the world, they could obviously become very confused and be left behind. There are many factors such as these that impact the way I communicate. My access to different types of writing has also affected my writing style. Throughout school, I was taught many different ways to write. It began with simple sentences in the lower grades, building up to paragraphs, to short stories and so on. This access was not just because of teachers, but because of the writing programs implemented where I went to school. For example, in middle school, my entire grade went through a writing program that taught us the famous five-paragraph essay. We were taught how to do it. Introductory paragraph. Three sub-topic paragraphs. Finally, the conclusion. Then, we were assigned to write one. After we wrote it, we were given and were taught how to edit. I recall another time in middle-school when we were assigned to write a research paper. We were walked through the process of doing background research, finding a legitimate resource to pull information from,

Tyson 5 and then the paper part. Exposure to different types of writings, like these, is how school has given me access to different writing styles. Experiences like these have shaped me into the writer that I am today, and I would have to thank my school system for that. Fortunately for me, writing and reading hasn’t been much of an issue for me so far. I think this is because of my parents and their early influences on me. I also look to my parents as major influences on the way I write and communicate. I have combined their dialects to form my own unique dialect. I have also integrated the dialects of my teachers, peers, and the people around me into my own. My access to different writing styles has directly influenced the way I write. It is what has shaped my own writing process. Over the years, I have become an even stronger writer, reader, and communicator because of the influences and experiences I have described.

Tyson 6 Works Cited Cremona, Vincent. “My Pen Writes in Blue and White.” PDF file.