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Gabriel Palermo
UWRT 1103 052
First Draft Due 2/2/2016
Literacy Memoir First Draft
While many people may have written about a growing love of literature through a series
of major literacy events, that is simply not my passion. No matter how hard I tried, literature is
simply not my passion, but science is, which requires a whole set of literacies to even begin to
understand, from just getting the jargon to understanding the complex mathematics used to
describe the universe. Most of my literacy experiences, while giving me an appreciation for
literature, has propelled my obsession with anything related to science. From my grandfather to
engineering to my father, a diehard sci-fi fan, I have been exposed to all the coolest topics in
science for most of my life, and I have decided to devote most of my time to trying to understand
and maybe advance our knowledge of the universe.
I was homeschooled up until the fifth grade, which means my literacy experiences might
be a little bit unusual compared to most other people. Despite my familys efforts, I always shied
away from reading and writing. Instead I was drawn towards math. I saw this show called
Numbers on TV when I was a kid, and this genius was solving crimes using his skills as a
mathematician. I would also hear about all these scientific phenomena from my dad (who was a
physics major like myself). I wanted to know exactly how they were doing it, like how could
someone use math to predict human actions, or physical phenomenon. I knew that it was
possible, but I was fascinated with the exact mechanics by which these predictions occurred.
This is why after a point, I really wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Really good reading and

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writing skills (and literacies such as that) were basically put on the back burner, something to be
learned just because everyone wanted me to learn them. I really acquired my literacies early on
as a means to an end for understanding the technical side of the universe.
I started attending a public school in the fifth grade, and naturally I was a bit
apprehensive about my English class, but I specifically remember thinking that it was not as bad
as I had expected. It really started clicking with me when I had to write my first formal paper. I
think we had to write about some sort of prominent even in our lives, or maybe something we
did over the past summer (I do not remember many of the specific details). The summer before, I
took my first flying lesson out of a local municipal airport which basically kick started my love
for aviation, so it seemed to be the most natural thing to write about. I think the point of the
assignment was to introduce us to the official writing process, the one that is divided into
discrete steps. (maybe compare with graff article here). In doing this assignment, I really learned
that English is not really as difficult as I had been making it out to be, and that it is rather easy to
do an essay of the same sort of scale that I had done.
When I was in middle school, I did the science Olympiad every year. The one event I
remember above all others is the one called reach for the stars - basically an introduction to
astronomy and astrophysics. This event consisted of compiling and memorizing enough
information to fill a one-page study sheet and take a test at the event. I fell in love with it almost
instantaneously. In order to explain this, let me give a more detailed background on my family.
My grandfather was an engineer who worked for IBM and helped design the navigation
computers for the Apollo program. Basically he helped us get to the moon. When I was growing
up, I remember gawking at this poster he had that compared a bunch of different launch vehicles.
I had a toy model of the Saturn V that I used to play with all the time. I basically gravitated

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towards his interest in space. And then theres my dad, he inherited my grandfathers love for
space and got his pilots license. He majored in physics, measured the speed of light as his
capstone project, and passed his love of aviation down to me. You can pretty much say that a
love for science runs in the family. As I scanned through all the online articles, databases, etc.
about space, I gained most of my knowledge about our current understanding of the universe. I
wanted to keep learning as much as I could, which is why studying for this event made me want
to study astrophysics, and while I have broadened to simply understanding more about the world,
I still have the passion for the cosmos that I attained while in middle school (I think it has
actually started growing since I started playing Kerbal Space Program).
Near that same time, a certain book helped to expand my interest (and eventual growing
literacy) in space travel. This book was the story of a few kids my age who managed to build a
space craft and fly it to mars, with the help of a retired astronaut, his nephew, and a means of
propulsion that is impossible by todays understanding of the universe. This book was Red
Thunder by John Varley, and while it did not have any immediate effect on me when I first read
it, I somehow kept thinking about the premise for years.
My experience with literacy is somewhat similar to Gerald Graffs. In his article,
disliking books, Graff explains how he grew up with an aversion to books. He decided to
major in English in college (something that does not quite make sense to me considering he isnt
into the whole reading business). While there, his experiences with literary criticism changed his
mind, and discussions about literature became his passion. As opposed to Graff, I did not actually
have an active aversion to literature; rather, I was simply interested in other things and I never
really bothered to find the time to devote to general reading. I did have a bit of a turnaround
much like he did when exposed to literary criticism. Over the course of my senior year in high

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school, I became interested in becoming more knowledgeable in general, leading to a greater

interest in books.
Last semester was probably one of the most prominent literacy events of my life. I had a
seminar class specifically for new physics students, and I had to write a research paper based on
new research. Frankly, there was always some doubt in my mind whether or not going into the
research business was right for me. This started changing when I had to research a topic in
physics and write a paper on what I found, modeling it after an actual research paper. In my
search for a topic, I found that I could get interested in just about any kind of research I could
find, even though I could barely understand a majority of what they were saying. This solidified
my interest in going into research for a living. I found that I could get interested in just about any
scientific paper no matter how boring it may seem on the surface (I did my paper on freeform
lenses in street lights). I have come to the realization that this will come in handy when I end up
as an engineer for NASA trying to pour over the technical details of some obscure part on the
engine trying to make it more efficient.
I guess you could say that this paper was like my introduction to the discourse
community formed by physics researchers all over the world. By making me pour through a
bunch of research papers looking for material to write about, my professor got me exposed to the
activities of the scientific community, and in a sense, had me jump in for a bit to see what it was
all about. This became my entrance into the discourse community as defined by John Swales.
I think my introduction to the scientific discourse community provided by that
paper helped me to learn to read science in the same way that Sherman Alexi learned to read
with a superman comic book. I used this research paper as an opportunity to learn about and
research some jargon commonly used in the physics community as well as a specific subfield.

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Similarly, Alexi used a superman comic book to become acquainted with some basic words and
grammatical structure (such as the usage of paragraphs).
To finish off, I still have a very long way to go with my literacy development. While I
have not developed any sort of burning passion for literature like many of the authors we studied
described, I have developed an interest in literacy to be explored during my free time. My
familys background in the sciences have sponsored a strong interest in science myself,
particularly in physics. A few science fiction books recommended by my dad coupled with my
learning about current space exploration efforts are inspiring me to develop my literacy in rocket
science. As a result of this push, I have become obsessed with learning as much as I can about
the universe, which includes general information in addition to the math behind it.

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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." Writing about
Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. N. pag.
Print.
Graff, Gerald. "Disliking Books." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth
A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. N. pag. Print.