Literacy Memoir

              Throughout my life, I have read many textbook and novel assignments and wrote required essays for English classes.  Usually I see my writings as the same every time.  Once finished, they all seem to blend together.  It seems as if I am writing about the same old topics over and over again.  The assignments we just finished, however, made me think about what we are really writing.  Each exercise seemed to “pop out” in its own way.  While reading them, I noticed I used different words and phrases in each one.  This helped me realize that no matter what you are writing or reading, each person sees it from a unique perspective.

Almost every evening while lying in bed as a kid, my mom used to read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” to me.  I would intently listen as I began to fall asleep.  Once asleep, she had to quietly close the book, kiss me goodnight, and leave the bed without waking me up.  It was these nights that I fell asleep thinking about Peter Rabbit and what happened at the end of the story.  I still wonder if I even lasted one night to hear how the book actually ended.

While in Kindergarten, the teacher made us put phonics books together that had small pictures you could color.  I always wanted to color them perfectly instead of reading the actual book.  When we started reading them, I saw how easy, and yet challenging they were to read.  I remember when the books were to be read aloud in class and the teacher had to help pronounce some of the bigger words for us.  This experience helped me realize everyone reads and writes in different ways.

Even though I do not know all the “rules” about reading and writing, I have come to figure out that it does not matter how much or little you have composed for each class.  It is the quality of the work that has been completed.  A writer improves their work by writing more papers that build on what they have learned from other mistakes in the past.  A “good” reader becomes a better reader by reading more books and by taking notes.  I believe the more you read, the better your reading and writing skills will be.

Looking back on these experiences and what I have come to find true, I realized the more experience you have with reading and writing papers, the better you will become.  Reading novels for fun increases your reading vocabulary and allows you to see how authors use certain writing techniques.  You can then build off these ideas in your own writing to become a better reader and writer.  Each reading and writing experience, gives one the opportunity to better themselves in every way possible.