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Dylan Mayer English 1101 Ms. Elizabeth Hinnant 9/17/13 Personal Way of Reading, Writing, and Speaking Growing up in a rich culture and southern background has shaped and defined the way I write, read, and speak. Also the different influences and impacts that surround me have affected my literacy, such as, family, church, friends, activities, and origin. The way readers and audiences get an understanding on your view points is through writing and speaking. On the other hand, to see what the writers purpose or reason is through reading a book or a piece of writing. Reading, writing, and speaking are vital communication tools to help others understand the meaning of who you are. Generally I like to format my writing in a calm and laid back way. I try to write clear and understandable sentences and this depicts my way of writing. I feel in writing a paper from the heart will represent your purpose and show your strong points. For instance, my purpose behind writing is I try to give the reader a visual or picture to the topic I refer to. However, writing has never been any easy task to comprehend and I take a lot of time on improving my mistakes. In the past writing was brainwashed and forced to my learning through education. The different methods and techniques from past English teachers have not prepared me for new unfamiliar material in college. Furthermore, writing was first influenced to me through school and not from the household. Growing up there was pressure or being forced to write and I preferred to draw or paint pictures instead of writing sentences. Some aspects that I need to improve on are

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vocabulary and grammatical error. I think that my use of vocabulary is slim and I work with using less complex words. I try to learn from others and build on my mistakes by practicing and practicing. Some of the topics that I enjoy to write about are fishing, hunting, and sports. Since I am from North Carolina these are the main subjects that are discussed or what go on in my life. I write about the ocean, because that is where I have lived my whole life. What I write about helps people understand my culture and where I grew up. The way I write is I like to paint a picture and give the reader a visual on what I am writing. I love the outdoors and I love the ocean. These are also some of the subjects that I have an interest in writing about. Family is a key concept I love to write about. I have a very stable and connected family that love each other very much and that is something hard to come by. My writing ties to church and helping others around me. I like to get involved with my community and help the people who are in need, because where I am from everybody knows each other. By helping others around my community it gives me a sense of inspiration and integrity towards my writing. I write with strong intention and try to not convincing the reader, but I try to persuade the reader in a certain way. I do not write about something that I am not interested in or something that I do not clearly understand. For instance, I do not like to write about politics or social media. These topics are something that I do not watch or pay attention to on a daily basis. I prefer to write about what I have been influenced around and what has persuaded my attention throughout my life. Reading is another way of expressing to others, but in a different way. Reading is a way to visually get an understanding of someone through their words and text. The way I choose books depends on what interests me or the mood I feel at the time will depict on the type of reading. My area of interest in reading has changed dramatically due to the transition in maturity. The outdoors and hunting has always been a preference to my reading. My reading skill is not

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the best. I do not read fast, but I read at a continual pace that I feel is right. I do not like to read big books that have a lot of pages. Most of the time when I read long books I tend to lose focus, and I have a hard time remembering the details and story. Some specific books that I remember my mother reading to me were The puppy who wanted a boy, somewhere in the ocean, and the three little pigs. I remember these books, because these were the books that influenced me and were the symbols of what I enjoyed in reading. Short story books that are in a series were interesting to me and books that always keep you on your toes are an exciting reading. During my earlier years I read Dr. Seuss books. Now that I am older and more mature I enjoy reading about other countries and how other people live. I still like to read environment books such as fishing and hunting. Reading for me is harder to comprehend and understand the meaning of the word. Reading takes me longer to understand what a person is trying to tell me. When I read I am the only one who interprets it and that is what makes it difficult to know what the writer is really trying to tell me. I learn from reading about things that I have strong feelings about and gain more knowledge. Material that I read doesnt stay in my head as long as things that I hear or when I write it down. I feel my strongest point comes from verbal communication. When I speak I try to be as clear as possible and try to express myself in an understandable way. I do not try to sound cocky or arrogant when speaking to others. Sometimes the way I speak changes depending on who I am speaking to or the area that surrounds me. For example, I am not going to speak the same way to my two year old nephew as I would to my friends. One of the ways that determines my accent or the way I sound is where I was born. I have a southern accent, because I was raised in North Carolina. I was taught to speak in a well-mannered way. Speaking with respect and politeness are important aspects to my life, and I try to follow this choice. Half the time I am a quiet person

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and I choose to be a listener and use what I have learned from listening to others. I speak about things that I know well like football, soccer, the ocean and family. I hope what I have learned from life will help others. I am comfortable when I share my ideas verbally. Listening to a person talk tells me more about them then reading about who they are. I learn from hearing and visualizing what a person is doing. Verbal communication is so important for my comprehension. Communication without writing and sharing my feelings and goals would be difficult for me. I like people and I enjoy hearing new ideas and sharing my opinion. I remember these conversations, but reading makes me feel like I am alone. When I am in front of a person, I can see their expression and hear their voice and know what is important to them. It is more comfortable for me and I know quickly what they are saying then understand what a person has written. I listen and talk at football and soccer games, listen to noises in the woods, and listen to my family at dinner and talk with them. People share with each other better I think when they share with words. I do not hate to read or write I just prefer to interact with a person face to face. I enjoy interacting with people, because I feel it is the best way for me to express what I want to say or the way I feel. The way I write, read, and speak is different from everyone else. I feel that in todays society people are more freely open to their opinions. We have more rights and freedoms to express ourselves and this helps us get a better understanding on our viewpoints. Each person is created differently and the foundation where you were raised is what molds our language and style.

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Dylan, As youll see in my comments, its really difficult for me to assess this draft because I dont feel like youre meeting the assignment guidelines. The goal of this paper is to force you to critically think about how one major social force has affected your reading, writing, and verbal communication, and I have no idea what that social force is. You talk about your family briefly, church, and your Southern culture, all of which seem to have some minor direct correlations with your literacy. In other words, this is a story, a kind of backtracking, and not a literacy narrative. In revision, youll likely need to re-write the whole draft. If you choose to use the South as your social force youll need to make clear connections between how it affected your reading, how it affected your writing, and how it affected your verbal communication. No matter what you choose, I need to know from the intro what force youre talking about so that I can logically follow your arguments throughout. If youre having trouble, I suggest visiting a tutor at the Writing Resources Center in Cameron. Also, feel free to e-mail me with any questions or concerns.