The Influence Of Diction On Reading And Writing

In his essay, Rodriguez shows all four characteristics of expressive writing which are self-definition, emotional responses, the expression of values, and subjective language. Rodriguez defines himself as someone who struggles with the validity of reading and learning to read. He states books were “unquestioned”. Rodriguez asked, “What was the connection between reading and learning? (172)? “Did one learn something only by reading it .“(172) He was made to think he should value books as a friend when he found reading a “chore”. Still, he values the opinion of others and “basked in the praise” by reading for academic approval. His narration of learning to enjoy reading is an emotional roller coaster from the loneliness of reading to the pleasurable joy he learned through experience. Thus the title of the book makes sense,

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

Reading and writing is an important aspect in the lives of all individuals. With reading and writing, there are many levels of love and hate, and as much as I hate to say it, I was on the hate side for a very long time. Strangely enough, a teacher I had in high school, Mr. Shafer, change my whole outlook on writing.

In literary education, from childhood to maturity, individuals are taught how to write not to improve themselves as critical thinkers, but to fulfill the requirements given to them in a prompt. Whether to analyze or argue, this form of writing has led to a cease of literary improvement in students today, making many question the effectiveness of writing classes. Mike Bunns, in his article “To Read like a Writer”, explores this topic and stresses the necessity for young readers to critically examine the author’s choices in order to improve their own pieces of work. Bunns effectively argues to his audience of college students that improved comprehension comes from focusing on the rhetorical choices authors decide to make in their compositions by tying personal narratives with repetitive questioning throughout his article.

For many people reading and writing are the most fundamental skills a person can learn, it can also greatly influence a persons cognitive thinking capacity and the sharing of information with others. However, in some parts of the world, people still do not have access to education or the ability to learn to read and write. Lacking the skill to read and write can make things tough for some one in todays society, however with the right resources and mentors to support, one can find a hidden passion for reading and writing. For me, reading and writing has never been one of my greatest skills, I had always struggled throughout my younger years of schooling to keep an interest. As of today, reading and writing has made a great impact on my life, especially in the last few years since I began college.

As Welty describes one experience from the library that gave her value’s as an adult; “You could take out two books at a time and two books only; this applied as long as you were a child and also for the rest of your life to.” This shows me how the librarian’s rules of the library had influenced her values of reading as a child and as an adult.

Curled up under warm, weighty covers, propped up on a plump pillow or two, buoyed up by the prospect of an uninterrupted hour, I open the cover of a book and immerse myself in the story. As a child, this was the scene night after night as I devoured books as fast as my mother, or the library, could provide them. I remember reading in the attic on warm summer afternoons, surrounded by piles of books as flies buzzed lazily on the window panes; I remember reading in the car on visits to Grammy’s, plagued eventually by nausea as the miles ticked away under the tires; I remember reading in my bed on Saturdays, undisturbed by parents, siblings–anyone– as the hours slipped away into Sunday. I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. I believe the ability to read is a gift that every person deserves.

Ever since I began reading as a small child, I have loved literature and the written word. However, even though this has always been the case, I originally was not a literature major when I entered Arizona State University. Instead, I began my college career as a Physics major. What I came to realize after completing some of the required courses for the major was not that I was not good at physics since I had done exceptionally in all my classes, but that I was more interested in reading the articles and writing the assignments for my classes than I was in actually doing research in the physics department. Therefore, even as I was pursuing an entirely different degree, my love of literature and writing was still fundamental to my learning, and it was this that eventually lead to me changing my major to English Literature. Coming to this decision to switch majors was difficult, however the experience was beneficial in the long run. Not only am I now enjoying the work I am doing as a student more, I also understand that writing, editing, and reading critically is important to all disciplines. Had I not first begun my

The second shelf holds the timeline of my progression from an innocent child to a passionate preadolescent. Tales of Mother Goose no longer filled my desire for knowledge, and tales like The Great Gatsby began to satiate that desire. These were the years that I found myself with too much time on my hands, and turned to books to fill my time and mind. I would sit and read, always ready to snap at anyone who dared to interrupt me. I read anything I could get my hands on. Newspaper clippings, leaflets, travel guides, and flyers are strewn about on this shelf. I read because I wanted to learn. Reading began to take me out of reality and into the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I accumulated a personality based on the characters I read about; I found little pieces of myself scattered throughout each novel I

Over the past month, we have been studying the concept of reading and writing in different communities. To assess this, we have read two different texts. Richard Rodriguez’s the achievement of desire”, from his autobiography “Hunger of Memory”; and Lucille McCarthy’s “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum” from “Research in the Teaching of English”. Both answer key questions regarding what it takes to become a great reader and writer, however, from the reading that I have done, each one only answers one part of the question. Rodriguez’s main focus is in the aspect of reading, whereas McCarthy mainly focuses on the writing portion. Both do a decent job of analyzing and putting forth a view of how they believe a person can best perform in these environments. This then allows us to use their concepts and create our own version, based on their points of view. But why should we care? Most people at this level of academia will have developed a system of writing that works for them, and will have a difficult time breaking from it if they’re process doesn’t meet the criteria that Rodriguez, and McCarthy put forth. The reason it’s so important is because of implications these ideas have. Both authors put forth concepts that are indirectly related to one another and that are highly beneficial to all who will apply them. They will force you to conform to new environments in order to succeed, this in turn will make you more

The comforting sound of the click-clack of the keys, the smell of freshly printed words, the crisp feeling of having finished writing a master piece. For some, the art of writing is a frightening feat that has the equivalent appeal of being water-boarded. If you would have told me five years ago that I would be forced to write a five-paged essay with the use of scholarly books as well as peer-reviewed articles, I would have silently wept tears of fear. My writing is something that has taken me years to evolve and continues to be a learning process. From a young age I had always done everything in my power to escape having to write. I felt as if I lacked some magical ability to connect. I feared that my readers would not be able to grasp my message. For some obscure reason I felt that I was not capable of reaching pass the margins of the page and into my reader’s minds. But if this class has taught me anything it is how to push past my own mind and enter a world of ambiguity, obscurity, and creativity.

It was a blasé Saturday evening when twenty-four year old Christopher Jackson was driving home from an extensive day of work. Fortunately, the drive from his work to his abode was only a five minute drive. Christopher was anxious to get home because he was planning on reading a book. Most people could not relate to Christopher’s obsession with books. He was a true bookworm. Once at his house, Christopher quickly pulled into his driveway and parked the car. He then walked into his two-story house and went straight to his personal library to pick a book to read. Christopher’s eyes scanned down every aisle of his library. His library was in perfect alphabetic order, and he had twenty-two aisles of, as he believed it to be, bliss. His library

My refuge as a child was the library. The walls and isles lined with books, the smell of pages, and the quietness was my tranquility. I spent my days at the library, reading and playing games and puzzles; timing and challenging myself to see if I could do them faster and better. I was easily lost in adventures, ideas, and minds of characters through endless hours of reading. It was this time spent at the library that ignited my curiosity to understand how things worked, and sparked my passion for learning.

“Where are we going?” I asked my older sister Kenese as we walked down Chicago’s busy streets. “To the library” She explained but slowed her paced, and never let go of me and my brother’s hand. This was the first time in my five years of living, that I been to a place where so many books where held. That same day, was the day when I received my first library card and checked out my first picture book about a spooky witch riding around on her broom. Now every time when my elementary school took a trip to our local library, I was astatic to pull out my new library card.

Books – new ones that remain to be sorted, you guess – tower precariously on either side of the counter, and above the register is the name of the bookstore in an olive green. Surrounding it are small, framed chalkboards. They advertise things like story time on Sundays and a book club in intricate handwriting. Everything has a nostalgic tinge to it. From wooden bookshelves to chalkboard handwriting, the Open Book seems to be a space removed from the digital age of Kindles and fancy computer search systems. Even the store décor is reminiscent of a simpler time, with hand lettering painted on the walls and framed artwork from past art competitions the bookstore has held.