Ariyana Dozier

UWRT 1103
Professor Cassandra Blandford
9 December 2015

Analysis Paper

The major paper that I have chosen to do my critical analysis on is my Literacy Memoir.
Overall I think I did a great job writing this paper. However, there is always room for
improvement. One of the first things I would change or add, would be going more in depth about
my relationship with my brother. For some reason I left this major part out because I did not
want my paper to become too lengthy and more about my family members than me. My brother
who is 20 months older than me had a huge effect on my literacy. He introduced me to many of
the books and movies that I love today. Me and him would also have competitions between
ourselves to see who could finish a book faster. These competitions were fun friendly and it
encouraged me to read more as well. As I got older however, the competition between us became
a little less friendly. Going through middle and high school was challenging for me. My brother
has always been an exceptional student. With him being older than me, and us obviously going to
the same schools, I majority of the time ended up with teachers he already had. That alone set the
bar high for me. My teachers expected me to be just as smart as or even smarter than him. I was,
but the pressure was too much. I would come home with Bs and Cs in math and everyone
would always say, Get your brother to help you. Some of my teachers would even pull me

aside and tell me how my brother was their favorite student and I had so much potential to be
just like him. At first I was jealous of my brother, but as I got older I learned to appreciate him
and the challenges he brought upon me.
Another topic I would go more in depth about would be my psychological disorders.
When writing my paper I originally thought including this would be a bit too much. Now, I feel
like it played a very important role in the development and molding of my literacy. At the age of
eight years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, I also had a stutter and a lisp. My OCD
was especially severe and hindered me from accomplishing everyday tasks. To help me with my
disorders I turned to art. Art is not what most people think of when they hear the term literacy,
but it is. It was a way I could express myself and how I felt without words. My freshman year of
high school, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and bulimia nervosa. I spent a lot of time in hospitals due to my issues. There isnt
much to do in a hospital, besides read, write, and watch television. Many of the long days I was
there were spent writing in a journal. It helped with the boredom but was also therapeutic for me.
Literacy in some ways healed me. I watched many documentaries on the illnesses that I had, and
they motivated me to get better.
After reviewing and critically analyzing my Literacy Memoir the things listed above are
the only things that I would change, along with a few grammatical errors and sentence structures.
I was overall very satisfied with my memoir and how it turned out. My memoir is a very accurate
representation of the start of my literacy journey.