Hutchinson 1

Derrick Hutchinson Literacy Memoir Mrs. Caruso English 1101 September 4, 2013 Literacy Memoir Part I My stance on reading and writing is that they are essential in todays society. Good reading and writing skills are necessary in order to convey an idea to others in a clear, effective manner. I realized this because of my extensive practice in reading and writing throughout my educational career. The importance of reading and writing is everywhere. If we did not have a form of writing, communication would be very tough and through verbal communication, the message is not always exactly detailed. Specifically, throughout my schooling and into my house and in stores and other places in society reading and writing is essential. Without the skills of reading and writing at a high level I wouldn't be able to further my education and even attend UNCC. I wouldn't be able to read a map, or even know not to drink bleach because it says it is poisonous. Writing has helped me reach out to others, and more specifically and more recently, I have written to my friend who just graduated from boot camp in the Air Force. Without proper writing skills I wouldnt have been able to communicate with him for about 6-8 weeks. People everywhere influence my writing and reading skills, however, the most influential people would have to be the authors of the numerous novels I have read throughout my educational career. I use different bits of things from different authors to help design my own unique style of writing and diction. Important things about my literacy history would be that I have always been into reading a good book because, to me, reading a good book is much better than watching a movie that requires no active thinking. Whereas in books, I can imagine what is taking place and shape characters inside my own thoughts. I've also been decent at writing and communication through text since middle school keyboarding classes. To me, reading an action or adventure novel, such as Huckleberry Finn, or The Boxcar Brothers, was always an entertaining experience. As for writing, I enjoy writing poetry because I like the challenge of rhyming lines together, and at the same time, telling a story. My writing process doesn't typically involve brainstorming unless it is a given prompt on an exam. However, I do revise my papers and check for syntax and grammatical errors. I should most likely change the fact that I do not brainstorm and have no structured thought process written down to help guide me to write. Something that would help me write better would be to learn more vocabulary to expand my word choice.

Hutchinson 2

Hutchinson 3

Part 2 This semester holds a lot of importance for me I think it is imperative to start out college with a bang. I want to get the best grades as I can possibly get. Everyone Ive talked to about college has told me that having good grades freshman year is vital to ones future years. This is why I am approaching this class with an extremely determined attitude towards getting all of my schoolwork out the way before I can go have fun with my friends. Business always come first for me, and once I start something I can only finish it. Therefore, I feel very excited and somewhat nervous for this class. I dont think that my writing is that impressive, and it could be much better, so I hope to improve my writing skills immensely. I feel that proficient reading and writing skills enable a student to succeed in their studies. So my main concern is to improve those skills as best as I can. Hopefully by the end of this class I will be at a high level of reading and writing in order to breeze through later courses.

Hutchinson 4

Hutchinson 5

Hutchinson 6

Literacy Memoir Part 3 Expanding on my previous Part 1 Literacy Memoir, reading and writing are major parts in todays society, and being literate is vital. This is evident through the use of language in every culture. However, Ive learned that you can be literate in things other than books. I am an extremely literate soccer player. It is the thing that I am probably most experienced at. Writing and reading proficiently is essential in every place that humans inhabit. This includes schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and more. I consider reading and writing extremely essential and if my literacy skills werent up to par, I may have never been able to attend UNCCharlotte. Not only are reading and writing essential to myself, I also consider my literacy skill in soccer to be very important as well. I have played soccer just as long as I have practiced my reading and writing abilities. I consider both to be of about equal importance, with reading and writing taking a bit of an advantage. Writing has affected me recently when I mailed letters to my friend in the Air Force. We continued to talk throughout the entire time he was at boot camp in San Antonio, Texas. We have known each other since my sophomore year in high school, so he has become close to me. Writing him changed the way I write and so have many others in my life. Mainly it has been affected by reading and observing other authors writing techniques. Each time I read another persons writing, I cant help but trying to examine their own unique things in how they write. For example, I gained some helpful vocabulary words from reading difficult books such as Great Expectations. I try to build my skills each and every time I read or write. As for my soccer skills, I improve them by watching professional teams such as FC Barcelona or Manchester United, and then focusing on one player and trying to look at his technique. Meanwhile, I am copying it into my head and imaging myself doing the things he does in order to help me develop a better technique. However, I still need to improve in all areas of my literacy, whether its soccer or writing an essay. Events in my life such as reading interesting books and practicing my soccer techniques are some of my best memories as a child. For example, some of the most important events in my childhood were scoring my first goal and my mom reading me bedtime stories. I cherish these moments and will continue to for as long as I can. Some of my favorite reads as a child and young teen were The Boxcar Children and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I specifically remember those books because I loved adventure novels and always will. As a kid, I flew through many of The Boxcar Children novels and enjoyed every time I read one. However, I always loved to write rhyming poetry throughout my years in school. For me, poetry is an escape in which I can focus on my writing and rhyme words together. Figuring out elaborate rhymes is fun and challenging to me. As for my writing process for assignments such as essays, I usually just go off the top of my head and edit as needed. Unless it is a very important essay, in which case I would actually spend time brainstorming in some form. The main ways I brainstorm before writing are creating bubble webs of connected ideas and making a list of common ideas structured into some kind of first draft. Improving on my brainstorming abilities could be a possible way to improve my writing. Perhaps another way would be to continue to learn new vocabulary words and improve my mental word bank. Using intricate diction is not of the utmost importance for me unless it is for a school paper.

Hutchinson 7

Literacy Memoir Part 4 Certain events in my previous part could be portrayed differently by others. When I was younger and my mom read stories to me before I went to sleep couldve been a smaller deal to her than other events such as my graduation from high school. Perhaps the other players on my soccer team as a kid had a tougher time in the games I remember. For example, my first goal scored couldve been a sad part of the opponent team members memories. Brian, my friend in the Air Force, had a completely different experience being in the intense Texas heat every day in boot camp. This could have caused for him to remember writing the letters in a different mood or different circumstance than me writing inside with air conditioning. I can recall his letters were handwritten, but I typed mine on the computer. Some of the stories that I remember best could be skewed over time and changed due to other events later in my life. In class we read about these such instances with certain people remembering the events on 9/11 differently the day of the attacks and a number of years later. Perhaps my favorite book to listen to my mom read to me as a bedtime story, Goodnight Moon was actually not my favorite. Maybe my mom recalls things differently or with a different book and she may be correct. A different instance that could have been different for others could be writing poetry throughout my years in grade school. I can look back at a time when my senior level English class had to write a tale similar to that of Beowulf. While my classmates wrote their stories as a novel, I turned mine into a poem. Poetry, as Ive said previously, has always been a fascination of mine. However, it may be hated by other members of my class. Memories are personal to each individual and each person can have a different viewpoint on a memory of an event that other people also experienced.