My Literacy Autobiography

[Li W.]

To be honest,I hated writing before I went to high shool.now,I don't hate it any more.I even like it because my teachers.
I first learned about writing when I was in primary school,but it was Chinese writing.At that time,I didn't have any feelings about writing.I just had to finish it becanse I regarded it as a task.I don't like it and I don't hate it.It wasn't until that I began to like reading novels,everything had changed.The novel gave me the space dreamroom,I was addicted to the content of the first talk can not extrictrate themselves.
The novel could let my unrestrained fantasy have the character to consign.
Gradually,I was no longer satisfied with reading novels,I wanted to created a novel by myself.I wanted to write down my thoughts in words.I began to create my own novel according to my own ideas.But I failed,and I was not at all satisfied with what I had written.Because I think my writing skills are not enough to express my real thoughts,or my writing is too simple to give people space to iagine.
Looking at my own words,I felt something deep inside my heart.It was like something was pressing on my chest.Slowly I feel my nose a sour,tears do not fight down.Tears just like broken string of the same as the kite is not controlled,drop by drop on my paper,my paper was immediately wet by my tears,become crumpled.After a while,my emotions settled and I put the paper in the box.In those days,I felt my world,the sky was not so blue like before,the air was not so fresh like before,even the smell of flowers could not make me happy like before.however as a little kid,I quickly forgot about it after a few days.But I made up my mind to improve my writing.I would write my own works to my satisfaied.
Then I entered junior high school, my heart also remenber that I want to write prett good works.However,a large number of homework after school caused me to put my plan on hold again.My writing is just writing the require composition in the exam,but in junior hing school, I was exposed to English writing.Express what you want to say in Englisn.I like English,but what I am afriad of most is English writing.Because I could not remenber the grammar stucture,the English sentences I write are often wrong.I was hit again,so I was afaid of writing in Englisn.Gradually,I was not used to writing in Chinese,and I felt conflicted.
Three years later,I became a high school student,with more and more studies,with more and more homework,and less time for writing.As time went on,I became even less fond of writing,as the writing requirements increased and the number of words incread.I thought writing became a burden.I thought it is an action than spent 30 minites writing a article.Therefore,apart from the homework requirements,I have no desire to write at all during the exam.For three years in high school, I hated writing.I never opened the box that held my dreams.I just write to get good grades,and I forget my original intentions.
Then I went to college and became an English major.English writig became a part of my life,but I still took it as a task when I was a freshman.At the time I thought there might not be any changes.I did not really have that much to say,or the desire to say in words.I also did not use words to record my mood and the habit of experiencing things.So I did not pick up a pen and write anything except what the teacher asked us to write.But I still keep the habit of reading,sometimes I see some good sentences,I will use the book to accumulate,but I did not use these sentences.And then I did not even bother writing.
But by the second sezmester of freshman year,which everything was changed.I began to feel that I could no longer do nothing,I should work hard for my own ideal.I suddenly remendered that someone once said to me that a person should not only do what he likes,but also force himself to do what he does not like,It is meaningless to live a life jist doing what you love.We could not make our lives too easy.We would close the motivation to work hard.So I started changing myself,and I started trying to keep track of things that I thought were meaningful,because there were things I wanted to keep in mind.But I find it difficult to insist and I always want to give up halfway.At this moment,I told myself over and over that I shoud never give up.If you give up,I will despire you.Then,gradually,I fell in love with writing again.As before,I saw some sentences that I thought were wonderful,and I copied them into my notebook.After a while,I would review them,and sometimes I would apply them to my articles to make them more wonderful.
In the last semester of my sophomore year,I met a very interesting English teacher.He is my teacher of reading and writing.I remendered him as a tall,thin man.In the first class,he asked us to introduce ourselves in one sentence,and we wondered then,how can a sentence introduce ourselves in a complete way?Sure enough,many students used three to four sentences before introducing themselves.Next,he gave us five minutes of free writing.After we finished writing,we were to judge the communication between the groups,and choose one article that the menbers of the group think is the best. Later,the teacher found some mistakes in the articles of the students in the exchange,so that we could avoid making the same mistakes next time.I think I like this way of teaching.We have more opportunities to communicate and show ourselves,and we have interaction with teachers.But my favorite part should be writing for five minutes every day,which makes me feel unaccustomed to it.Now I am accustomed to it,and I think it is still a good way to improve my writing skills.
As the saying goes,interest is the best teacher in our life.Now I have renewed my interest in English writing.I hoped I can improve my writing abllity through my daily accumulation and my efforts.Writing works that make me satisfied.

[Wendy G.]

I very much enjoyed reading about your literacy journey! I am so glad that you have a renewed interest in writing. I teach English to eighth grade students (students about 14 years of age), and my students often struggle with writing. No matter what language we speak, I believe that writing is challenging for most of us! Here are my comments on your essay. Thank you for sharing your experience with me! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Reader Response Guide:

Overall Response: You effectively communicate your ideas; I was able to understand what you were trying to explain to me. There are times that your word choice seems to be inappropriate, but the reader can determine what you are saying by looking at the context of the sentence. The essay is honest and is descriptive in that it allows the reader to understand fully your thoughts on writing. There are areas (see below) that you could continue to work on in order to make your communication very clear. Using transitional words and phrases to guide the reader through your story is a strength in this essay. Your sentence structure is complex in most cases, which shows that you are a mature writer.

Focus: Your essay has good focus overall. You write of your journey as a writer, both as a writer in Chinese and a writer in English. There really were not parts of your essay that strayed from your main goal: to describe you experience with literacy. Your focus was clear throughout this piece of writing.

Development for Readers: For the most part, the reader is able to follow your essay. There are times where it seems that you are trying to add great description to your writing (a good thing to do), but your essay becomes more difficult to understand. For example, you write: “the novel could let my unrestrained fantasy have the character to consign.” As the reader, I believe your use of the word “consign” is not exactly what you meant, so this makes understanding the meaning of your sentence difficult. Your vocabulary will most definitely improve through your reading and writing of English, but this is one area that you could work on to make the reader better understand your message. I always suggest reading your writing aloud so that you may focus on how your writing sounds to the reader. Be sure you are very clear at all times. Proofreading your work is an essential part of the writing process. It is the best way to find your mistakes before the reader does!

Organization and Coherence: The sequence of your essay makes sense to me as a reader. You effectively use transition words like “gradually” and “therefore” to lead the reader along through your essay. You begin the essay with the start to your journey and then end in the present. The essay works together as a whole; it is well organized. At the end your second paragraph, you write that you are “hit again” and I am not sure what this means. Your sentence is perfectly written; however, it is because you do not elaborate on what to be “hit” means that I am unclear of your meaning. This is something that could be cleared up with proofreading your work. You could add more details to describe fully what you are trying to explain to the reader. Overall, this essay has great organization and is coherent.

Language, Grammar, Conventions: Work on checking the spelling of English words. You consistently misspell the word “remember” and other words such as “because” and “English” are written incorrectly. There are times you spell a word correctly, but then you misspell the same word later in the essay. Paying attention to these details will help the reader understand your writing. This should be a relatively easy thing to check before submitting your work, and it will greatly improve the clarity of your writing. Your use of punctuation in most instances is correct. You use many introductory phrases, such as “to be honest” and “after a while” show signs of a mature writer.

Main Emphasis for Revision: I suggest that for a focus for your revision that you work on increasing your understanding and spelling of English vocabulary words. Use technology, if possible, to look up the spelling of words. It is expected that you will not always use the correct word when you are learning to write in a second language, but improving your spelling will help with the overall clarity of your work. Proofreading would also greatly improve your essay because it is when reviewing your work that you will often find the areas of your writing that are not very clear. Very often in this essay, your grammar is correct but the meaning is lost because the words seem out of context. You have a lot of promise as a new English writer, and your understanding of grammar rules for English is much better than I think you realize! The fact that you acknowledge that reading makes for better writing is so important. Keep reading and writing!