Daniel Whitmire

UWRT 1101
Professor Arnold
21 September 2014
Compare/Contrast Reflection Essay
When creating an altered book, and a narrative about how I became literate in fire
fighting, there were pros and cons of both making one the better choice over the other in
description or visualization. The altered book had better visualization aspects while the
essay was better at including all of the information and not leaving anything important
out. On the other hand, they did compare to each other, positively, in getting the point
across about how I became literate.
In the narrative essay, I was able to express through a lot of words about how I
became literate which made getting my story across a lot easier in my opinion. I was able
to describe all of the equipment I use in detail, but unfortunately it did leave a lot of
interpretation up to the reader about what the equipment actually looks like if they have
never seen it before. Though there was this problem, I preferred the essay more because
one, I dont like crafts since Ive never been much good at them, and two, because Ive
never been able to write about how I became literate in fire fighting before.
Contrasting the essay was the altered book. With the altered book, I was able to
incorporate pictures so that the reader didnt have to make his or her own guess about
what a lot of the equipment looks like. I was also able to incorporate pictures of myself
struggling, or being proficient in different areas when I was training to become a fire
fighter. This was definitely a more creative way to get my literacy across to the reader
and a more interesting way as well. Having a book with pictures and small phrases is a lot
more interesting than reading a seven-page essay. The pictures stimulate the mind along
with all the colors of the pages that help to resemble a firemans gear and fire; while the
last spread is water extinguishing the fire that had occurred through the whole book.
Though it was tough getting all the colors to form together and create the narrative essay
I had written, this was a great way to accompany the essay.
Bringing both of these two genres of work together, they both do the same job of
showing my increase of literacy. One is more wordy, and specific; while the other is
more free flowing and colorful with hidden meanings. Though I liked writing the essay
more, I dont feel as though the whole message could have been conveyed to the reader
about how I became literate in fire fighting by just choosing to do one over the other. I do
think that I could have combined the two into one genre. That genre would be a paper set
up Chicago style with pictures I was referring to along the sides of the paper so that the
reader could read about what I was writing about, and then refer to the picture to the side
for better clarification.