To be honest, I feel as if I can relate to what Carillo is trying to convey. From 4th grade even up until know, I get the feeling that whenever someone edits my work, I have to accept it, must listen to them, and cannot say no. A good example of this was when I was in the 7th grade. I had just finished writing my book report and my teacher said to hand it to the person next to me. So I did exactly what he told me to do and swapped papers with the person next to me. He said for the remaining time of class, we have to edit the other person’s paper. I reviewed their book report and mostly found grammatical errors. In their essay, I also found that in some cases they wouldn’t quote the text when they were supposed to. When our time was up and I went home, I saw some of the edits they made. To be honest some of the edits were legit. However, there were a few that I thought shouldn’t be made. So when I was making my published book report, I did the ones that I felt were legit. But then I thought to myself, ‘what would happen if I don’t do all the edits?’ So I did those edits as well because I felt as if something will happen if I don’t add them. To be honest, looking at all the edits made me feel pressured because I felt that if I didn’t add them, maybe I would get a bad grade however I knew what I was writing and felt that I didn’t need to add the edits. To be honest, I haven’t rally though of a difference between “knowledge” and “understanding”. I thought that they were one and almost the same. These things are important to know because in live, there are times where you need to be knowledgeable and there are times where you need to be understanding.
When I tried writing different “Englishes” like Tang, I really enjoyed myself. When I was younger, I liked to write little comics and fun stories. Looking back at it now, I wish that I would continue it but sometimes you just grow out of things. My experience is similar to Tan because I would, “…spend a great deal of my life thinking about the power of language.” (para 2; sentence 3) If we all think about it, language could be very powerful. The way we use words can really convey the meaning of the text. Not only that, it also coincides with speaking as well. The way people speak can motivate not only one person, but a community as well.
Great comments! Writing can be so much fun if we allow ourselves to play with it the way you talk about. The horrible part is in the story you tell — in fact, that could make the basis for a great Education Narrative, about the process and how it makes you feel somehow “less.” Question: when you did all the suggested edits, did you think it made your work better? Worse? Less yours and more somebody else’s? And what grade did you get? Anyway, you write well and if you continue thinking about the implications of that process, it would make a great Education Narrative!