A famous author Wang Meng says, "One important reason why there appears a flippant atmosphere in this age is that some people never read and they are short of appropriate demeanor and lack concentration on things." Indeed, if a person can't set his mind at rest properly and do some reading and writing, his bearing and upbringing would not be respected totally. In many relatives and friends' eyes, I'm a versatile girl who has the typical "bookishness". Just reading and writing in spare time, maintaining a peaceful, imperturbable and unassuming mind with people are throughout my twenty years' life. That is often said, the emotions do not form at the color, and such people always lose a few. Instead, they will get more. Actually, from my literacy experiment, I find my belief, my aim and my perfect world.
In my kindergarteners' impression, I was a naughty girl, for I always rushed into their office to watch TV after school. In my mom's impression, she's often required to read books with me in the classroom once a week on average. What's worse was that I couldn't pay attention to those wonderful fairy tales in class, because I preferred talking to reading. When I heard stories about prince and princess, I was so cordial to share feelings to my classmates and ignore class discipline. Apparently, mom was "invited" to the office. The reason why I made those troubles was that I didn't enjoy reading indeed. Later, mom and I usually went to the bookstore to cultivate my reading interest. However, it didn't work. This attitude of reading continued to grade four.
We wanted to be mature at elementary school.So girls in our class started to read romantic novels. Boys began to read detective or horror stories. However, our head teacher didn't allow us to read these kinds of books. The result of the requirement was that nobody stopped the step of reading. We read after class, after school hiding from teachers. Maybe everyone enjoyed this stimulating atmosphere, my classmates and I at least read twenty books in one semester. Gradually, I tended to read magazines. Sometimes I read technology stories to acquire new and odd knowledge. Looking through unsolved mysteries could inspire curiosity. What's more, the attraction of romantic stories was like poison for girls. They were something of relationship experts.
Unlike other peers, I was fond of watching football games. From this charismatic sport, I found not my idol, but the spirit of struggling for my dream. Since then, I have written the comments of each game of FC Bayern Munchen in a thick notebook. Therefore, I always bought sports magazines to acquire current sports news. So there was a thick pile of sports magazines lying on my desk. After expressing my own thoughts by reading information and writing, I felt contented. In my mind, those notebooks lying in my drawer were my reliable friends in the world, because they kept my secrets which even my mom didn't know. Although mom agreed with the teacher, she observed that I could tell "big ideas" to her. So she acquiesced. From that time on, I projected my attitude about reading. I would endeavor to keep going on it.
An accidental opportunity, I found a new media technology--radio drama. Narrators read conversations of the novel. Audience would be like being on the pot to feel the vivid figures. I listened to one episode every night. Gradually, I immersed in the martial arts stories. I considered if I could write such stories by myself. So my "writing career" started. I often created many distant and unreal scenes in my mind then wrote them own. Regretfully, my first novel failed because of going halfway.
I remember that summer holiday before I went to high school. Maybe it could be called "book holiday" for me. Reading twenty books and writing short essays made mom so shocked. She couldn't imagine how I was immersed in those stories so that forgot to eat and sleep. To be honest, I was absolutely attracted by various and wonderful worlds in the books. The young light of morning came through the I was eating up book after book. I saw Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy expressing their most loving vows to each other under the light of dawn. Opened the window, rushing toward me was a light rain started falling day. A myriad of thoughts crowded into my mind. Francesca cherished the memory of Robert still in unforgotten affection. She overlooked the bridge of Madison County. After finishing part-time job, I got to study magic, grew noisy plants in science class, and flew around on supercharged broomsticks with Harry in the Hogg. Through reading, I broaden my "circle of friends." In my heart, they are not fictitious. They live in this world with me in every insomniac nights.
It's a pity that I hardly read any extracurricular books in high school. I just concentrated on text books every day. What's worse, my diary notebook had been forgotten in a gloomy corner for three years. Going to bookstore, I must control my heart to find novels or prose which I'd focused them for a long time. "I can't buy them. Study is imperative." Teachers also commanded us that it's an unwise opinion to read other books.
When I got a new mobile phone, I immediately tried to run an account in the LOFTER, a writing app, to wrote about what I saw, what I heard, what I thought every day. Now I have several enthusiastic fans. Usually we exchange our ideas with each other. The feeling of being appreciated is so nice. Therefore, I have enough confidence to continue my reading and writing work.
To tell the truth, my attitude of literacy is contradictory, because I have spent more time improving literacy skills these years. Maybe my lopsided study method is unwise. In my opinion, only when we focus on things we care about. I acquire other particular knowledge through reading and writing. Wang Meng says, "In China, bookishness is a derogatory term sometimes. But I think an appropriate touch of bookishness at all; I would just stay at a respectful distance from him." When I read and write more, I find clearly that I actually know a little. So, to improve myself, I must take in various knowledge from various books to heighten my abilities and express ideas critically then lighten my literacy future.
The Story of a "Bookish" Girl
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Chelsea R.
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:13 am
Re: The Story of a "Bookish" Girl
Dear Lilin,
I greatly enjoyed reading your entry about your journey with writing and I found it very relatable. Below you will find a more in-depth response:
Overall Response
I think the greatest strength of the essay is that you were able to convey your feelings about writing. The reader was taken on a journey that included joy as well as sadness and regret. You were able to get the emotion into the essay with your word choice and narrative structure. I liked that the essay had a story-like quality just like the characters you chose to include.You are very creative!
Focus
I think the focus is about your journey with writing. You share with the reader some of your success as well as some of your difficulties. You also showed the reader that you have perseverance and would ultimately overcome to continue your studies with literature and writing.
Development for Readers
I think the audience was well considered and I think your audience, like me, can relate to the many ways that we come to writing and reading.
Organization and Coherence
I liked that the essay was linear and that the essay followed your story as you grew from a child to a young adult. The first paragraph was a little hard to understand, but the rest of the essay was very strong and got stronger as the story went on. My favorite part was the part about romance novels.
Language, Grammar, Conventions
There were a few word choice issues in the essay. Mostly, bigger words can be difficult to use in English and sometimes they can be a little off in terms of meaning. The simplest word is sometimes the best one.
There were also a few instances of grammatical error—although not many—but most had to do with sentence fragments. I think reading through the essay to make sure sentences are finished with a period can remedy this problem. Additionally, if a sentence ends in a quotation, the period goes inside of the quotation marks. Also if you are using an apostrophe to denote ownership, the apostrophe goes before the s. For example: That is Chelsea’s book.
Main Emphasis for Revision
I think the fist paragraph requires the most revision. I feel that the quote might not be needed, as your own writing is very strong and more fun to read. You have a conversational style that is really interesting and I like that you share parts of your personality in the story.
Overall great work! Thank you for sharing!
Best,
Chelsea
I greatly enjoyed reading your entry about your journey with writing and I found it very relatable. Below you will find a more in-depth response:
Overall Response
I think the greatest strength of the essay is that you were able to convey your feelings about writing. The reader was taken on a journey that included joy as well as sadness and regret. You were able to get the emotion into the essay with your word choice and narrative structure. I liked that the essay had a story-like quality just like the characters you chose to include.You are very creative!
Focus
I think the focus is about your journey with writing. You share with the reader some of your success as well as some of your difficulties. You also showed the reader that you have perseverance and would ultimately overcome to continue your studies with literature and writing.
Development for Readers
I think the audience was well considered and I think your audience, like me, can relate to the many ways that we come to writing and reading.
Organization and Coherence
I liked that the essay was linear and that the essay followed your story as you grew from a child to a young adult. The first paragraph was a little hard to understand, but the rest of the essay was very strong and got stronger as the story went on. My favorite part was the part about romance novels.
Language, Grammar, Conventions
There were a few word choice issues in the essay. Mostly, bigger words can be difficult to use in English and sometimes they can be a little off in terms of meaning. The simplest word is sometimes the best one.
There were also a few instances of grammatical error—although not many—but most had to do with sentence fragments. I think reading through the essay to make sure sentences are finished with a period can remedy this problem. Additionally, if a sentence ends in a quotation, the period goes inside of the quotation marks. Also if you are using an apostrophe to denote ownership, the apostrophe goes before the s. For example: That is Chelsea’s book.
Main Emphasis for Revision
I think the fist paragraph requires the most revision. I feel that the quote might not be needed, as your own writing is very strong and more fun to read. You have a conversational style that is really interesting and I like that you share parts of your personality in the story.
Overall great work! Thank you for sharing!
Best,
Chelsea