Amber Cousin

February 4, 2016
UWRT 1103 Section 065
Ashley Marcum
The Impact of Literacy

Many people believe literacy is only important if you are going to be focusing on English
your entire life, but that if far from the truth. Literacy is extremely important. By important, I
mean it is the foundation of learning and without basic literacy skills it is almost impossible to
grasp new concepts and knowledge (Boyse, Reading and Literacy: Your Child.). Lacking a
strong literacy foundation causes many individuals to struggle throughout life, that is why I am
thankful for mine. Learning to read is usually the first step and then you begin writer. From there
it is just a repeating cycle and it gradually becomes more complex, thus increasing your level of
literacy. Reading and writing eventually become something you are accustomed to.
Reading is a part of everyday life. From a very young age, I have always been extra happy
about reading. Reading to me, is a way to expand my knowledge and increase my word bank.
When I think of reading, I think of relaxation and alone time. Since I am pretty happy when I
have alone time, I would say that reading is an enjoyable task for me. In school, reading used to
be a joyous thing. I would read things like A Series of Unfortunate Events and The
Adventures of Captain Underpants. Readings of other sorts did not bother me either, the words
in English textbooks actually seemed to be pretty interesting, but as the things we read began to
change, so did my perspective of reading in school. It went from being happy fun time to cry and
pout time.

My first bad experience with reading was when I was in middle school. I had to read from a
textbook in my social studies class. First of all, I do not like social studies so automatically I was
put in do not disturb mode. Once I opened the book things became worse. All I saw was small
words and ugly pictures. It was like reading and reading only to find out that I had only read
paragraph one out of twenty-seven and there were about thirty-five pages that all looked
identical. I was so dismayed that I believe I could have cried for about an hour or however long
we had to read. Eventually, I forced myself to read every boring word that was typed.
From that moment on, it was like pulling teeth to get me to read things I was assigned to read
in school. Even though I dreaded the assignments, most of the time, I became more and more
intrigued as a read which helped to make the experience more enjoyable. Today this day
whenever I am in a classroom and I hear someone mention reading something, my entire
expression will change. On the other hand, you can catch me in my room almost every day
reading a romance novel. Readings went from being something completely simple to complex,
making it less enjoyable. The same thing happens with writing.
Writing has never been a frustrating task for me, but rather easy and enjoyable task to
complete. Whenever I first think about writing, ironically, fun is the first word that comes to my
mind. Writing is how I express what I am feeling at any time. It could be in the form of a short
story, a poem, an essay, or it could very easily just end of being a mess of words. Writing gives
me the opportunity to say exactly what I want to say without anyone judging me or having
someone say something in response.
When it comes to writing in school my thoughts are pretty much the same unless it is in a
subject that I do not find interesting or worthy of writing about. For example, whenever I heard
someone mention writing in a history class I was devastated. My mood would completely change

from being cheerful to being completely dejected. It is not that I do not want to write, but when it
comes to writing about things that I am not interested in the writing process tends to become a bit
harder for me.
The first time I ever received an assignment in that made was harder for me to handle was
when I attended NC State last summer. In an English class we were given the task of writing an
annotated bibliography. I had only heard of annotated bibliographies once before, but I had never
had to write them. Not to mention that my professor wanted me to write twenty-five of them in
two days. It is not that I was not interested in the subject I had to do them on, it is just that the
type of writing I was asked to do was not enjoyable. Even though I only had two days to
complete them, I moaned, groaned, and procrastinated. Even while writing them, I kept the worst
attitude and was angry at the world. I never would have thought that writing would have been so
hard to do. It is easier for one to write about something that relates to them (Sharma, 107). I
experience this all the time, eventually I do finish writings that are not about me, but it often
takes a lot out of me.
As reading and writing becomes more complex, it becomes harder and harder to complete
the tasks of doing them. Me being a more judging than perceiving individual, I tend to plan out
everything with my mind becomes cluttered and confused. This is why I developed my own
processes for when reading and writing becomes difficult, this usually helps to make thing go a
little easier.
Reading is a very complex and mentally draining task that everyone ends up having to
complete at one point in their life. I never really thought that one would need a process to read,
you just do it and get it over with. My reading process is fairly easy, even though I do not always
use it. Sometimes a reading process is needed because you have to retain certain information

from what you have read. When reading for leisure, I would not try to use my process simply
because I am just reading for fun and no one cares if I remember Kate or Anna kissed John first.
When reading, not for fun, I tend to do a bit of research about what I am reading first. This
helps me to gain insight and have background knowledge so I am not blind-sided when I begin. I
then move on to read the summary on that is included, if there is not one I dive right in. As I
read, I take notes usually writing the page number along with my notes so I may refer back to
that section. I then continue my reading. At the end of a section or chapter, I attempt to
summarize what has happened only if I feel like it. I do not want reading to feel like doing work
so I try to do it in portions. I also never stop reading something in the middle of a section. I feel
as if I will lose my place, lost my thought, or simply lose my mind if I do so. Therefore, if I am
reading and I happen to ignore you, dont take it personal. I most definitely will finish what I am
reading before I respond, whether I like what I am reading or not. Around the middle of the
book, when I feel a bit accomplished, I summarize the first half. This is mainly done so that I
will not forget what I have read thus far. After completing the entire reading, I read the beginning
and the ending. This gives me the opportunity to fill in the middle section and create a vivid
photograph or movie in my brain. Although reading may require some type of effort sometimes,
whenever I actually start reading I feel completely happy and at one with the world. The process
just acts as a catalyst and assists in speeding into the enjoyment stage. Since I created a process
for reading, it was only right to create one for writing.
Writing has almost always been something that has come naturally to me. When I was
younger, I could sit and write forever about any subject. This being true, I have never really had
a writing process that was uniform for every writing task. Many of times, I never even used a
process to write, I would just write and make changes after proofreading. As what I was required

to write became more difficult, I ended up creating a process even though it varied with the type
of assignment.
I would start by reading over the prompt or instruction about five times and doing research
just to be sure I understood what had to be completed. After this, I would take a moment to
brainstorm. Brainstorming for me is not a long task, I would only take about two minutes to do
this, it is just for me to gather my thoughts. If I am writing something that is required to be
unusually long, I plan and outline my paper. My outline would also include about how many
words would be needed in each paragraph in order to fulfill the word count requirement, if one is
provided. From there I begin writing. The hardest thing for me to do is write my first sentence,
once I get past this everything seems to flow right onto the paper. I end up spending about thirty
minutes trying to create an amazing first sentence. If thirty minutes has passed and I still I have
nothing, I begin writing the rest of the paper and come back to it. I write and write until I have
finally reached the end. I then ask someone, usually my mother, to proofread what I have written.
After getting my work back with mistakes, I correct them and read over it myself. This is usually
when I go back and add the synonyms of certain words and add extra thoughts in. After
completing this, it is proofread once again and hopefully this time it is ready for submission. It is
never really hard to do, thinking about it makes it worse.
It is not truly possible to teach yourself the values and skills of literacy. This is why literacy
sponsors are extremely important. Literacy sponsors are what get one started in the field of
literacy, they usually play a major role in your success. My mother was my main literacy
sponsor.
Literacy has been something very important to my entire family and more importantly, it has
been vital to my mother. I know a lot about my mothers literacies because this is what almost of

entire relationship is based upon. My mother did not attend a university, but her literacy has
always been extremely important to her. She loves reading and writing! Working as a reference
librarian has caused her to focus on literacies a lot more than she would if she had a different
occupation or a different life. Growing up, my mother had to work extremely hard to get an
education because of the time period she was born in. This made her learn to value literacy in
every aspect.
Entering my home, you will find books and journals everywhere. In our mini library, we have
two sets of encyclopedias and at least three hundred and fifty novels and children books. Reading
is how my mother coupes with various things in her life. For example, while she was going
through chemotherapy she would often be seen carrying the bible or a novel, as well as a journal
wherever she went. Literacy helped her to escape the realities of life. Even now, while she is
cancer free, I can find her sitting around the house reading almost every day.
I would have to say that my mothers literacies make my relationship with her a closer one.
For example, no one else understands how truly passionate I am about writing and grammar.
When I make a mistake she corrects me and I do the same with her. Her literacies have
influenced my strong interest in reading, writing, and knowledge in general. Without the
literacies of my mother, I probably would not have been reading a young age. I would not be
writing as well. Many of my accomplishments would not have even been possible without the
literacies my mother has and the ones that she passed along to me. Contrary to what many
believe, literacies are important and they always will be. Literacy learning literally never stops.
This is how discourse communities come into place.
Entering a new discourse community of any kind can always be kind of difficult,
especially for someone who is an introvert like me. It can be weird being forced into a new group

of individuals. One must learn how to adapt and become an active member by engaging in
interaction with other members. In order to communicate with those in a particular discourse
community, one must be able to speak the language.
Most discourse communities have specific terminology or lexis that they use, so one must
become fluent in this new language. I know before I became an Emerging Leader, I was a bit
nervous. After attending the first meeting, things were still rather vague. For example, I heard a
lot of unfamiliar terms and acronyms. It made me feel as if I did not fit in and I would often sit
confused because I had no idea what they were talking about. This only made me more nervous
and being new was already hard enough! Finding someone you can relate to and kind enough to
explain things to you is vital to becoming successful in a new discourse community. For me,
Nadia was this.
The leader of our program, Nadia, served as my sponsor when I first became a member of
the Emerging Leaders Program. Whenever I seemed a bit confused, she would break things
down for me. She also took the time to go over much of the lexis that would be used so I would
not be clueless when individuals talked during meetings. After a few meetings, I was speaking
the lingo myself. By the time the new year rolled around, I knew what was going down and how
things were supposed to go.
In the past three months, I have learned what it is like to be a member of Emerging
Leaders. Now I am able to stand up and speak out without being worried about saying the wrong
thing. Discourse communities are difficult at first, it is a learning experience and things get
better. Just like that you expand your knowledge of literacy in various forms.

Literacy is not just needed to learn, but it is needed for everyday life as well. I never
realized how important it was until I actually reflected upon my past literacy experiences and
how they have influenced me and my success. Knowledge is not power, literacy is.

Works Cited
Sharma, Ghanashyam. Cultural Schemas and Pedagogical Uses of Literacy Narratives: A Reflection on
My Journey with Reading and Writing. National Council of Teachers of English (2015): 104110. Web. 27 January 2016.
Boyse, Kyla. "University of Michigan Health System." Reading and Literacy: Your Child. Oct. 2010.
Web. 15 Jan. 2016.