The story about literacy and me

[Xiuying Y.]

I was not a student who with excellent grades in my primary school. Naturally, I was not the one of our teachers favorite students who could got good academic record and could be award scholarships. Again I was not the one for saunter. There is only one thing that I love and deeply rooted in my heart, and became the vital part in my pleasure, which is reading .

Sometimes I had to admit the fact that in my class I was not the one of best students but my best friend was, and which really made me depressed. Perhaps only a true discontented child can seduced by books as I was. She was so popular that most of time I did not have friends who can talk with me. I felt so lonely but it was reading saved me from despair. Since then, books start up a new world for me. I sitting next to the litter prince accompanied him to watch the 44 sunsets when I was reading The Little Prince, Margaret linger in my mind after reading The Lady of the Camellias, "Life is more than the repeated fulfilling of permanent " rooted my heart, I had been to Palace of Placentia , with the high ceiling and unforgettable history as I read British History. I could not remember how many times had I gone up the step to the guillotine with Sydney Carton as he went to that far, far better rest at the end of A Tale of Two Cities… I was so fascinated to "book world" that I read them no matter where I was, unfettered by the bounds of reality, my imagination flourished. Then I started to write down something about myself, something such as diary. Like old friends, I told the diary everything I want to say and everything I want to share with friends.

In the years since those days I enjoyed reading and writing' company, I learned that I was not alone in the big world, though at that time I surely was. In reading I have traveled, I had known other world, and in writing I into my own. I learned who I was and who I want be. I never thought about anything to achieve good results in that time but I really got it. I did not realized that my literacy was better and better until I first got touch with poetry and I was the only winner in our school. There is no more enthusiasm I can given to reading and writing.


I grated my grade school with presentable marks in the end, By the time I became a junior middle school student, gradually, For academic reasons, I read more and more books were contacted with my school work, and almost everything I wrote was connected with my study. Although I know that while my satisfaction in the sheer act of reading had not abated in the least, I wanted to keep a record of my confession, my observation. Undoubtedly, I got great grade in my grade, I was really became the one our teachers loved and believed. However, there was something only I know. I lost myself in piles of tutorials. I did not know who I was, what did I was doing, and what is the meaning of something that I was doing. I finished my junior middle school in this way, opened the gate of senior middle school at the same time.

There was nothing worth to be written for me until I become a Senior 3 student in this period. This was a very hard time for me when I was facing the college entrance examination. I was not able to slough off the helpless at that time of my memories up to now. Everything we did just for the examination. There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were exercises. Everyday we opened our eyes with endless test papers and homework. Then I meet a boy who was a junior in our school and was the light in my dark high school memory. Before I got to know this boy I always hide myself in the highest lever of our teaching building to read my borrowed books and extract some sophisticated words, phrases and sentences without eating anything. That place has always been my home, my great companion. so if I had any free time I would be there. One day this boy find me and know everything about me. From then on, whenever he was free, he would come to be my side. At first, he planed the phone game, slowly he found some books to read under my influence. The most impressive scene in my memories was we all sat on the ground with our different book on the bench, the book of mine is The Love In the Time of Cholera, and his is The Three-Body Problem. Maybe most of people around me accepted the idea that alone leads to loner, loner leads loser. Yes, I have to recognized that I was really feared of loneliness, feared to be the one was always lonely, but the more I have read, the more I was sure that I was not alone. and now I find that not only can I make more friends who are similar with me, but affect more friends to join me by reading and there is no other time I can know myself better than I was writing. There were words, a kind of parallel universe in which I might be a newcomer but was never really a stranger.

After senior school, we will turn to my college, which is also a important turning point, if the junior middle school is one in my reading life. It is time to write something about English reading and writing. As an English major, I came into college, there is no doubt that I would have affinity with English. Although I have never write anything with English, except preparing English exams.The first thing I have to write is one of my courses, Creative Writing Workshop. And in that class I write not as ever before which we have did writing only for the different kind tests. we write for the beauty of words in this class.And at that time I got a gift of that junior, which gift is BLOWING IN THE WIND by Bob Dylan. So I combined the poem with our writing. First time I felt that English and Chinese are both so attractive, and also this is the first time to be award of that English to Chinese is not a translation, which is another way to express same meaning if you can make good use of those two languages. Different languages have different charming. All those discoveries are come from after you reading the English original, and after you really used English words to express yourself. You can not really appreciate foreign literature in translation.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not breathing. " says Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. For me, reading and writing have made me what I am today. This is the story I want to share with you.

[Christina S.]

Hello Xiuying,
First of all, thanks for the opportunity to read your work, I hope my responses will be helpful for you.
Overall Response:
Reading your essay, I could really see that reading is very personal topic for you. Your essay is filled with emotions, so I can tell that your all your experiences had an important impact on you as an individual. It is great for me to learn that both reading and writing helped you through difficult times in your past and that you were able to use both to express yourself.

Focus:
I can see how you are telling the story of your past from your time in school to your college time, referring to the incidents that made you enjoy reading and writing, which is a logical and appropriate way to structure your thoughts.
Development for Readers:
I think that most readers could follow your essay and its purpose well. By giving specific different examples of the works you enjoyed reading, you keep the audience interested. At some points of your essay, you mentioned some information, and I was not quite sure how they related to the story you wanted to tell. For example, when you talked about your best friend’s popularity back in school. Giving information that is not relevant to understand the story might confuse readers.
Organization and Coherence:
As I mentioned earlier, most readers could probably follow your essay and its purpose well. I would advise you to always write an introduction as well as a conclusion paragraph because both make reading and understanding easier for outsiders.

Language, Grammar, Conventions:
You sometimes seem to be confused about using the correct tenses. Especially when you talk about things that happened in your past, you tend to not use the past tense, but also the future or present tense (“After senior school, we will turn to my college, which is also a important turning point…”). Therefore, one thing you can improve is the use of the correct tenses. The reader can generally understand what you want to say, but sometimes those mistakes can cause confusion and even affect the overall understanding. I would also recommend to pay more attention to using periods and not commas because when you don’t differentiate between both, your sentences become longer and longer, which also affects the understanding.

Main Emphasis for Revision:
I think the most important thing to improve for your next essay is the grammar. I would suggest to revise the rules and check if you are using the correct tense. You should really make sure that you’re following grammatical and syntactical English rules because sometimes poor syntax and incorrect grammar can make it seem like you’re using an online translator. However, I enjoyed reading your emotional story and I hope the feedback I’m providing will be helpful for you.

Kind regards,
Christina

[Xiuying Y.]

Dear Christina,

First of all, thank you for your revisions to my essay, and I will do some edit again to make it better. Meanwhile I am sorry for this reply have kept you waiting so long, because of my inattention.

When I finisheded this essay, I really also realized my essay is filled with emotion for my own experience. And sometimes I also felt puzzled because I did not know what I really want to express when I was writing this essay. But I thought this is what something really happened,so I just writed down.

You mentioned Organization and Coherence, I read this essay again as if I were a reader, then I found maybe some other ways I can do to deal with some problems in the essay. I will pay more attention to these points in my next Englisth work,and thank you again.

You also noted the Language, Grammar, Conventions, and I have to say you are right. The grammar is the my flaws that handwaved in the article. Although I have tried to avoid many mistakes, I did them too. But when I will do it again with more attention to detail.

All in all, thanks for your feedback, which is really helpful, and I will improve my essay according to them.

Wshing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, in the end.

XiuYing