What Is Alex Done That I Might Try In My Own Writing?

Alexie's father was the reason he began to read which later became his passion. His father loved to read, and even though they did not have a ton of money, his father went out of his way to stock up on books. One-day Alexie decided to pick up one of his father's books and taught himself how to read. Before that, he had never read a book and could not even understand the words. A paragraph intrigued him; each house on the reservation was a paragraph, and each member of his family was a paragraph. The family members were separate people; however, there were still related making all of them together an essay. Then there was the Superman comic book he picked up one day. Although he could not read the panels of words the illustrations told the story. He would make up a story to go with the pictures and pretend to read the panels. Looking back at these times Alexie realized how lucky he was growing up with all these resources to teach

He may not have understood the words, but he realized the basic structure of a paragraph and how his family was a story with each person their own paragraph. He took advantage of every opportunity he had to read. He knew he was different from most kids on the reservation and didn’t let that deter him. Alexie was determined to be a better than the expected Indian child, “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open”.(495)

While Alexie states his voice by using metaphor, he emphasizes the meaning of reading repeatedly in his essay. He stresses how he strives to read variety of books, and he records that,” I read the books my father brought home from the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes… I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs” (18). Alexie lists out all the material he has read with the same sentence structure, yet he does not conclude all these things in one sentence. He exemplifies his passion to reading, for he tries to save his life. Due to his parallel repetition, Alexie impresses the audience by these

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

Jonah Jacob Goldberg, currently 47 years of age, was born on March 21st, 1969. Goldberg was born in Manhattan, New York. He is mostly known for being a senior editor, author, and columnist. Goldberg attended Goucher College in 1991 and received an “Alma Mater” (Article Bio). While he spent his years at Goucher, Goldberg was a part of the school newspaper, acting as the co-editor of the program. After his graduation, he became a part of the National Review and is now currently the senior editor. Jonah Goldberg has written columns previously for “The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The Public Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, The New York Post, and Slate,” and also writes for the Los Angeles Times on a weekly

As he grew up to become a writer, we see pain in the story he tells. “I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life” (pg.18). Alexie wanted to be someone greater than what others expected him to be. People would put him down constantly, but he fought back just as much. He tried to save himself from the stereotypes of being just another dumb Indian. He had more determination to prove others wrong when it came too exceeding in reading to further excel in his daily life.

To improve literary skills, lower class citizens should take the initiative outside of the education system to increase the likelihood of breaking through their class’ economic barrier. In the essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Alexie says that he grew up as a part of the lower class on a Native American reservation. His parents often had to find different jobs that only paid minimum wage, which made it difficult for his family to live comfortably. Even though his family was part of the lower class, his father continuously read books. Alexie began reading to follow his father’s passion. He looked at novels and eventually understood their composition. Alexie’s firsthand experience allowed him to learn how to read in a much more efficient manner than if he learned through the reservation’s mediocre schooling system. Outside reading also motivated him to learn more. Alexie loved the feeling of gaining more information on how to have a positive impact on society. If he did not dedicate time for reading outside of his

In the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing”, Charles Whitaker outlines eight points on helping students succeed as writers. The first

To help Joe reach his second goal of increasing his confidence in his writing, his teacher can create supportive settings and assigning appropriate tasks. The Star sheet states that, “Students need to be able to connect the tasks of an assignment to their own experiences in learning – culturally, academically, and personally” (Evertson & Poole). I believe that by assigning an appropriate task which allows Joe to relate culturally, academically and personally and providing the best setting for Joe, a teacher can help a lot with encouraging him to have confidence in his writing. The best environment for this goal would be one of support. Allow him to relate his assignment to who he is and provide him with support. Perhaps the teacher can let him know that there is no right or wrong information that he can provide because it is based on who he is as an individual.

Through learning to read, Alexie integrates the ethos of a writer by conveying his intelligent character. He was so bright that he

In "Superman and Me," Alexie's main claim declares that reading can make a major difference in a person's life. To Sherman Alexie, reading and books helped him get off the reservation and find his way out in the world. However, "Superman and Me” comes alive for readers due it implies that all a person needs is courage to fly pass their current situation, this story shows how the hostility of such bravery can even be emphasized in classrooms. In addition, he demonstrates to readers that all it takes is effort to make dreams come true, especially when living in a hostile world. Although, Alexie uses rhetorical strategies to appeal to the reader in more than one way and his ethical appeal comes from him illustrating what reading did for his situation

For five years, Alex would put his writing skills to work, writing and sending critical letters and drafted strategies and

I am tearing my hair to squeeze every single word from my poor mind to finish this letter. Yet deep in my frontal cortex, there is no part of mechanisms that is designed for writing a self-analyzing letter to my instructors. However, it has been ten weeks I studied in this course, and all my favorite works in these ten weeks are gathering in this tiny portfolio. I have wrote a several rhetorical practices that taught me basic rules of rhetorical essays. I have wrote a rhetorical analysis, which explained both the thesis of the reading and my own arguments against the reading. I finished my last rhetorical project three days ago with telling another interesting story. All these assignments were tiny pieces of my writing style and they built up together to present me a general concept of being a successful writer. I learned that, and I made a number of changes to upgrade my writing skills. At last, I decide to offer you these changes I have made as a start-up story writer in the college.

He shows the audiences that his father is the reason why he enjoy reading and writing, that his father influenced him. Alexie’s father liked reading that he often brought back books, newspaper, and magazine to read. His house is filled with books. Although Alexie taught himself to learn reading, I think it's his father who lead him to the word of books.