Category: Unit 1 (Page 5 of 20)

As I read through both Texts “Maybe I could save my life by writing” and “Mexican American Disambiguation” Jose explained how he didn’t feel he belong in the United States hence he didn’t feel at home in neither places. An important idea from the text “Maybe I could save my life by writing” is “I was living in the wrong country. I didn’t make sense in the United States, but if I moved to México, I would make sense”. I found this sentence very interesting because he felt like he was not part of the United States and he was not feeling at home there however, as soon as he moved to Mexico he was also not feeling he would fit there as well. Furthermore, An important idea from the text “Mexican American Disambiguation” is “ those Mexicanos might call my family gringos, which is the word my family calls white folks & white folks call my parents interracial”. This sentence was considered to be quite interesting because even though his parents were Mexican but not living in Mexico they were treated as outsiders by the people who are living in Mexico and his parents would treat the white people as outsiders by saying “Gringo” which is reversible for them. Overall, the author clarifies the main idea through facts and turned them into stories thus the reader can understand the depth of the central idea.

After reading “How to Read Like a Writer” I found myself wondering whether I ever wanted to understand the aspect of the author nor I ever annotated a piece of writing. I found it very interesting how Mike Bunn uses casual writing to capture the reader’s attention for a long time. The questions and aspects he presented throughout his writing made me perhaps other readers as well, question whether they are understanding the author’s point of view or just casually reading without any motive. To better interpret the article, reading as a writer is not just acknowledging, it’s also about questioning. It takes what is taught and then extends it to our works. The three important ideas I have noticed in the article is when he mentioned that all writing includes a variety of choices which shows that the author makes different choices about how or what method he/she wants to use in his writing which readers must understand. Also, he describes there are two types of reading one normal reading and the other Reading Like a Writer which is very important to understand often we deny understanding the writer even though we are trying to understand the piece of writing.  Lastly, he said the reader must ask plenty of questions while reading a piece of writing. Nevertheless, he said “it’s probably impossible to identify all of the choices the author made and all techniques an author used, so it’s important to prioritize while reading” (78). Indeed it’s not always possible to understand the ways of the authors, however, what Bunn explains the reader should decide what they’re going to write and to decide what to pursue from the piece of writing. While reading the article “The Reader as Artist” by Toni Morrison, I have realized that she is inspiring her reader to think deep. The details the writer give think about the meaning of it and understand what the author is trying to say through the context. Throughout the article, Toni represented how to dive into the words and create an imaginary world while reading. I liked what she said at the end of the article “Skill is enough, but I prefer the art.” This demonstrates that reading might be easy and everyone can do it, but thinking and imagining the piece of writing is the best way to understand the writer’s choice or motive.