Shou-Wen Pai

Professor Agosta

UWRT 1101-006

15 February 2017

Personal Literacies Reflection

My process and experience were a bit confusing writing and revising my literacy

memoir. I read the examples that were given and learned that some of the examples were

written about how they gained knowledge in something. However, when I did peer review

with my classmates, all of the members in my group that I did peer review with talked about

literal literacy. So I began to panic if I needed to rewrite my whole paper because I was not

sure if I actually needed to write about how I learned to become literate, which will be

confusing for me because should I write about how I become literate in Chinese or English?

Then I learned that my paper was fine since I can write about subject of knowledge. Which I

wrote about my literacy in being independent.

I performed critical reading and had some of my inspiration from If You Are What

Eat. Then What Am I? by Geeta Kothari. Like her, I tried to cover events through a span of

time while focusing on one specific theme, which was my literacy in being independent. I

used two events because those were two main things that shaped my independence.

The first event is my experience living in a dorm at Hong Kong during my middle

school years:

When I was 12 year old, after I finished primary school in Taiwan. My family sent me

to a boarding school in Hong Kong so I could continue my studies. A completely new

language, new country, and new culture were thrown at me, and I knew nobody to take on the

challenge with. I moved into the dorm of my boarding school young, scared, and alone. I
remember vividly the very first night I slept in the top bunk of the twin sized bunk bed. The

unfamiliarity of it all caused tears to begin streaming down my face. The tears were

composed entirely of fear as I went from being completely dependent on my parents to what I

saw as absolute independence. It was at that moment right then that I realized I had to grow

up.

The second event is my experience living a whole school year alone in United States:

I moved to America when I was 15 years old. Approximately 18 months after moving

to America, my father was diagnosed with stage 3 liver cancer. Because of the universal

health care offered in my home country, Taiwan, my parents returned so my father could

receive treatment for an affordable cost. Because I was halfway through high school in

America, I was left alone to finish out my studies. Second time around I did not have the

luxury to cry and mope and feel sorry for myself. I did not have the luxury to panic or worry

about my father. Right away my responsibility became to maintain - to maintain my grades,

my house, and my health. There were no maids, no helpers: just me, myself and I.

I performed critical reflection after rereading my first draft. I wrote it in my cover

letter to communicate with my instructor what I needed help with my memoir:

What went well during the writing of this draft I did not have
a lot of trouble thinking about what I wanted to write about, which was my
literacy in being independent. I used several specific examples but I am not sure if
its too dragged on.
What was challenging about the writing of this draft I am
having a lot of trouble on elaborating my reflection. Also, I am not sure if this fits
the genre expectations of a memoir.
One passage/paragraph/aspect you know you want to keep
I want to keep the idea of being independent.
One passage/paragraph/aspect you might want to revise I
covered two events in my life that helped with my literacy in independence, but
Im not sure if that covers too long of a span of time.
One question you have about this draft for me How can I
elaborate more on my aspect on my literacy in independence, what should I
include/emphasize more?
Also, In my journal I did some very brief self reflections:
 My composing process was not complicated. I started the process of brainstorming by

myself since the first day the assignment was announced. The idea of my literacy in

independence jumped right out to me because it was such a significantly great and difficult

time of my life, and it is a huge reason of shaping who I am today. I finished my first draft

fairly quickly, however, I was struggling when I tried to edit, revise, rewriting it. The

comments my peers and instructor left was extremely helpful, it gave me some directions on

which parts I need to edit specifically. Most of the problem was trying to make my two

examples more complex.

As far as genre expectations is concerned, my knowledge of convention I used to

compose a memoir was mostly from the notes I took during class, as well as reading the

examples that were given. However, I still struggled a bit, as stated in my cover letter.