ENG 2100: Writing 1 with Jay Thompson

Month: September 2021

Jordan Hernandez Week 4

A person who is my literacy sponsor is my mom. Ever since I was little she was the one who helps me communicate help me learn, help me speak, tell me everything when it came to language. My mom taught me everything about herself, her language ,and her culture. My mom always tells me to practice my Spanish and to master it because She always teases me that it would be an embarrassment if I didn’t know how to speak Spanish fluently and I had two parents who were from Spanish speaking countries. 

My mom has told me about her childhood and how she had to work at such a young age. She told me how she had to clean the house and cook at such a young age because her father would always be out working and she was the one at home who had to take care of everything. So everything that she knows now she has taught me, she has taught me how to cook, she taught me how to clean, how to be organized and everything. My mom has influenced me in many ways to the way I speak in Spanish, to the way I handle my responsibilities.

WEEK 4 Reading Responses Eric Noah

  1. A detail that stood out to me in Malcolm x’s narrative was that he stated “In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life”( Malcolm Pg 4). I found it extremely interesting how a person who is under such horrible circumstances and locked up in a prison can feel so free. It lingered in my mind because when I think of a prisoner, I see a person trapped with zero freedoms. Another reason why this lingered to me is because of how difficult it is to learn English and to become literate for some people and he was able to take advantage as a prisoner to learn, gain a massive connection to literacy.
  2. The one Narrative that stood out to me the most was Malcolm X. He tells his story of his struggles through prison and how he was able to overcome these challenges. He stated in his writing how he was amazed when opened the dictionary and saw so many words. Although he wasn’t able to even finish a sentence he continued to read for hours until he succeeded. We can see how Malcolm  X overcame his hardships and has become a historic asset to black human rights.

Week 4 Reading Responses, Akosua Omari-Dottoh

  1. One detail that stood out to me in X’s narrative was his last line, when he said “In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.” It felt a little weird to me for someone in the setting he was in to be able to say that, but that feeling of weirdness quickly changed into a thought of beauty. It was beautiful that X was able to be in prison and still have the determination and drive to make a routine out of reading and writing. It’s like witnessing someone finding their calling in life because you could imagine how hard it must be to be able to feel freedom while being incarcerated. That statement suggested that just because he was a part of this discourse community didn’t mean he couldn’t have the same, or at least very similar, experience as someone who wasn’t. It showed that apart from stereotypes made about this discourse community, there is opportunity for real growth and education. His relationship to writing and reading shifted from one that you could describe as limited and frustrating, to freeing. It’s inspirational.
  2. I would love to imitate Manson’s structure of description.  This style grabbed my attention because when reading this essay it helped me as a reader understand what the writer was feeling. In my literacy narrative I believe that I am going to have a lot to say about how I feel about my experiences and things of that sort but fear telling without showing enough. Manson’s way of describing, I feel, would be very beneficial to me because in the middle of these thought processes there would be short examples and stories incorporated in to show the reader what Manson felt. I always learned in the past the skill of showing not telling in writing, but I believe Manson’s way of doing both is something that I would definitely want to adopt. When explaining my desires of fitting into the black community at a younger age, I can use Manson’s technique by showing times in my life where I felt like I had to do such.

Week 4 Reading Responses, Selina Wang

  1. One descriptive detail from X’s narrative that stands out the most to me is  “And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes- until the guard approached again.”I think the main reason that this caught my attention is that it’s really astonishing to me to see that X loved reading so much that he is staying up all night just to read for a couple more hours. This part also reminded me of situations in my own life, when I was younger,  I would be sneaky about playing on my phone after my mom told me to go to bed. I remember hiding my phone and pretending to be asleep whenever I heard her footsteps in the hallway and then the moment she left the room, I would go back to playing with my phone. I think it’s nice to include relatable situations in your writing piece because then it makes the readers more engaged. This suggests to me that the majority of the people in his discourse community are pretty intelligent and enjoy reading and learning. They make good use of the library and resources given to them at the prison, and use them as an advantage to gain knowledge and become better readers.
  2. In my own literacy narrative, I want to imitate Manson’s idea of starting and ending with the same scene but with completely different internal thoughts. I think it will be a nice strategy to incorporate to show the growth that has occurred over time. I may also try Tan’s technique since the topic of my writing is along the same lines as hers. Just like how she learns to embrace the broken English that her mother uses, I learn to embrace my Chinese culture. I can use a combination of their models to show my growth and transition into embracing my own culture.

Aria Malovany Reading Response 6

  1. “That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary,” (Malcolm X, 3). This quote stood out to me because I couldn’t even fathom how one could do this. It got me thinking about the mental capacity it takes for one to absorb all of that information. It lingered in my mind and intrigued me because I can’t imagine learning/knowing every word in any given language. This suggests to me that his personal relationship to written literacy grew tremendously.  The fact that he was imprisoned but took the opportunity to learn every word in a language is a huge step towards a good relationship with him and his literacy.  
  2. I want to imitate how Liao illustrates and describes in her writing. When I read Liao’s piece, I noticed that she used prominent descriptions and details that allowed her narrative to stick with me. I want to be able to create descriptions that help my reader understand my story’s context. Like Liao, I want to explain clearly to my reader what it’s like to live between two worlds. 

Week 4 Reading Responses: Wedad Mourtada

What is a piece of advice on responding to student work in Straub’s essay that is new and helpful to you, and how is it helpful? What is a piece of advice you wish a previous teacher had followed in commenting on your writing in high school, and how would it have been helpful?

One piece of advice that was new to me was not to be too general when commenting on someone’s writing. I never knew how much is too little or too much, so I would always keep my comments pretty broad. This is helpful because now I know it’s okay to get specific as it will help the writer, and now I expect to see particular comments on my writing that will help me improve my piece. One piece of advice I wish a previous teacher had followed in commenting on my paper in high school is not entirely rewriting some parts of my essay. I always felt like it was the right thing to do, but at one point, I realized my teacher wasn’t showing me how to improve a specific part in my essay; he was changing it to be “better” without teaching me how to strengthen my writing. It would have been helpful if the teacher didn’t rewrite some parts entirely in my essay because it would’ve helped me know what was wrong with it. Most of the time, I didn’t know why my teacher would rewrite parts of my essay; it was confusing because I wasn’t getting the knowledge I needed to write better. My final piece would look similar to the first draft except for the parts that my teacher completely changed.

Baldwin’s argument

Baldwin explains that Black English is a language rather and systemic racism is the reason why it is recognized as a dialect. He argues that language reveals a person’s identity and people shouldn’t be defined with a language that doesn’t identify them. Baldwin explains that White Americans would not sound the same if it weren’t for black Americans and that black Americans have created their own language to help them through the circumstances. This argument is related to Belmihoub and Corcoran ideas of translanguaging as translanguing is when people add new features to a language to adapt socially or in other words “to communicate in a variety of different circumstances’ ‘ (JTC 65). Baldwin explains that Black people have created their own language because of their circumstances. Anzandula explored the same ideas as Translanguaging. She explained that she spoke different languages with different people to adapt to the community. For example, Anzandula says “from kids and people my own age I picked up Pachuco.” Pachuco is one of the seven languages that Anzaldula speaks with different groups of people in order to adapt to each community.

Literacy Sponsor: Wedad Mourtada

Dealing with grief isn’t easy when you don’t know what you’re feeling. We often look for closure in the most random things in life. How was I supposed to cope without knowing anything about what I was feeling? I would always question if I was even feeling anything at all. The only way I could describe this type of pain was strange: there’s something that’s blocking out all the words that I want to say. That was fine with me because who would I even say these words to? I didn’t want to know what I felt because no one understood how I felt. I didn’t think anyone could teach me how to cope because it’s my feelings. What can anyone possibly tell me about dealing with a loss of a loved one?

My father barely showed any emotions, so when I heard him advise me, I was shocked but at the same time grateful for all that he taught me in a matter of ten minutes. It was winter of 2017, and he had asked me why I looked so upset, “It’s dark and cold outside,” I said. He knew that wasn’t the problem because I always loved winter. “Do you think that it makes her happy when you’re upset all the time?” I didn’t know what to say because I wasn’t aware that he knew why I was so sad. “She’s an angel now; you don’t see anyone upset when they think of angels.” I replied saying “I miss her, but at least she was part of my life at one point.” I knew I was only saying that because I thought it was the right thing to say. “If it stays in your head, it’ll hurt your heart, so let it out.” He showed me my sister’s stuff, her toys, clothes, and her drawings, and told me to describe to him how I felt when I saw her things. I found that thing that was blocking out all the words I wanted to say. I didn’t have anything to say because I didn’t allow myself to grieve. I needed something to remind me what exactly was upsetting me, and I’ll forever be grateful for how my dad taught me to deal with grief. He taught me that I need to allow myself to be upset. I no longer ignore all the things that remind me of my sister; I acknowledge those things, which helped describe how I feel. No one could tell me how to feel, but my dad taught me how to deal with grief.

Week 4 Reading Responses, Erick Nunez

A detail that stood out to me from X’s literacy narrative was how he was inspired by another inmate to be on his knowledge level. Bimbi was his reason for learning and it’s amazing to think how if he didn’t meet him, Malcolm X would have possibly been under different circumstances in terms of his penmanship. Even before he began improving on his English, the diverse community that was around him during prison allowed him to gain more knowledge. It’s safe to assume that being incarcerated was a good thing that happened to him. It motivated him to work hard in order to succeed and eventually it paid off. 

One thing that I would want to imitate from these writers is their descriptive details when writing about personal examples leading to their main idea. However, one style that stood out to me the most was Anzalduas writing. Her constant use of spanish terms really connected with me because as a hispanic, I understood these terms. Even if the reader didn’t understand these terms Anzaldua made sure to translate them for everyone to understand. I don’t see this kind of writing often so perhaps I can include it in my narrative, especially since it is also on the topic of spanish. 

Week 4 Reading Responses, Gabrielle (Ellie) Nolan

One descriptive detail from X’s narrative was in the quotation “Much of the big private collection that Parkhurst had willed to the prison was still in crates and boxes in the back of the library- thousands of old books. Some of them looked ancient: covers faded; old-time parchment-looking bindings.” From this quotation, one descriptive detail was “old-time parchment-looking bindings”. This compelled me because it created a visual image in my head of old books falling apart. It lingered in my mind because it made me wonder about the condition of the books he read and related it to the facility where he read them in- prison. It suggested that his changing personal relationship to written literacy was growing. Even though the books were in bad condition and he was locked away, he had a passion to read and learn. He took the worst case scenario and made the best out of it by becoming literate. 

 

While reading Tan’s literacy narrative, one thing I wanted to imitate was how she described speaking to someone not fluent in her language and the awkwardness that followed. It pulled me in after reading it because I experienced something similar to this as a child. I remember trying to speak to my brother when we were around 5 years old. I remember our dog was going crazy and biting my leg. I was screaming for my brother to help me and call our mom, but he had no idea what I was saying. It was almost as if his body was present in the event, but not him. I would use this example to utilize Tan’s style of writing.

Week 4 Reading Responses, Tasnim Khan

  1. Choose one descriptive detail from X’s narrative that especially stands out to you. What do you think compelled you about it? Why did it linger in your mind? What did it suggest to you about X’s discourse community, his changing personal relationship to written literacy, or the widening of his idiolect while incarcerated?

One detail from X’s narrative that especially stood out to me was when he explained how he would stay up late at night reading books and only get 3-4 hours of sleep, however, that was enough for him. I think this compelled me because I put myself in his shoes while reading and was wondering if I would do the same. I feel that I would definitely make use of the library but X took it to another level and read all day if possible. What this suggested to me about X’s discourse community was that he was influenced and surrounded by inmates who were good characters. To pass time in prison, instead of the stereotypical trouble-making behaviors seen in this setting, this community displayed a drive for education and learning. This could be a result of the “heavy emphasis on rehabilitation” X mentioned. An environment plays a huge role in how a community performs. In this case, it led to X’s changing personal relationship to written literacy being a positive one.

  1. Look back over the literacy narratives we’ve read so far (X, Tan, Sedaris, Manson, Ku, Anzaldua, Liao in excerpt) and describe one thing you want to imitate from these writers in your own literacy narrative. Is it Anzaldua’s mixing of languages? Sedaris’s strong, funny, weird characters? Manson’s focus on silence and not-quite-readiness? What technique, structure, or style grabs you, and how will you try to use it?

Based on the literacy narratives I’ve read so far, one thing I want to imitate from these writers into my own literacy narrative is the use of descriptive story-telling with sensory details. This style was seen in X and Tan’s writings and these two writers had me the most invested in their stories. I think this is because the imagery used in their writing almost allows readers to visualize the story in their heads and as a result, this captures our attention. I will try to use this technique by describing experiences in my life using sensory details and imagery in the course of my literacy. For instance, I could tell a story about a moment I shared with some new people I’ve met in my journey to growing up as a Bengali-American in two cultures.