Personal Experience Essay Cody Zou

Throughout my life, I never really had any significant reading or writing

moments that I can remember of. Although nothing was really significant I

remember working very hard on my college essay last year. It was very hard

for me to start the essay, as I didn’t know what to start with nor did I have a

topic. I remember struggling for a whole week in my school library after

school brainstorming. After I talked to my friend, we eventually got a topic

for me to write about, although I don’t want to share it. I was stressing

when I first started my essay because I felt like I was a basic and boring

person. But even if I am, I still had many interesting events that I shared.

The hardest part for me when it came to writing this essay was definitely

the introduction. After the introduction, everything was smooth from my

body to the conclusion. It took me well over two weeks to finish this essay as

I revised it several times. When I finished the essay I remember not being

very confident about it. So I went to my English teacher from sophomore

year, I remember clear as day when he read my essay he enjoyed it very

much. That made me feel confident. Overall when I finished my whole

college essay I was so relieved after weeks of stress for an essay. Although I

might not have a lot of significant moments from reading to writing the

college essay that I wrote was very prevalent to me.

Personal Experience Essays

DUE SEPT 11: Please post your personal anecdote/experience essays here! Be sure to consult the Unit 1 Assignment sheet (I passed this out in class and I also sent it as an attachment via email).

Describe a personal experience that in some way describes or enables you to say something about your relationship to reading and writing. BUT! Stick with the description of the event–we will be expanding the experience to your literacy narrative next week.

Reading response “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros

I found Sandra’s story to be an interesting one because she’s the only daughter of 6 siblings and essentially she’s been outcasted by her own brothers and even father due to being a girl, due to that reason she’s developed her writing skills. Sandra’s States. ” But that aloneness, that loneliness, was good for a would-be writer it allowed me time to think and think”.  I found this intriguing because that same experience can be heart breaking to certain people however Sandra took that opportunity to develop and hone her writing skills to the point where’s she’s a famous author. Its really interesting how some people handle certain situations differently and I believe if she didn’t handle it the way she did she wouldn’t be In the same position she’s in today.

“Learning to read” by Malcolm X

In some way, I feel connected to Malcolm X’s experience in prison because sometimes I feel frustrated because I can’t fully express my ideas just because of my lack of practice of the language. This is connected to the text because before Malcolm X was in prison he did not worry about learning how to write and read because he did not need it. He did not realize how important it was until he really need it and the same happens to me because I was in a high school where every single person speak spanish I didn’t worry about practicing at all but, now that I need it I realize how important it is. Also, I can relate to this text because even though I have some level of writing and reading I know that there is big amount of words that I don’t know yet just like Malcolm X. To add, this text makes me feel like I haven’t done anything to end up my frustration of not being able to communicate my ideas. It also gave me the answer of what should I do to end it up, I just need to take actions as Malcolm X did.

Reading response to “Only Daughter” ~Moises Bautista

Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros is an interesting and wholesome story of her growing up as the only daughter in the family with six brothers. Her father treated her as another one as his sons but she wants her own self-recognition from her father as an individual, as his daughter. When she wrote her book in spanish it was her chance to make her father look at her differently. Her writing, which the father loved even to the point of wanting copies, was her way of showing her individuality from others and to show her father, she isn’t just one of her other “sons”.I can connect with Cisneros in this story due to myself having brothers and finding my own way to show my contrast from my brothers to my parents. Displaying your own identity is hard when you’re compared to others of higher or equal status.

Sandra Cisneros “Only Daughter”

I can relate a lot to how Sandra Cisneros feels. Not on the part of being the only daughter in a family of six sons but on the fact that I also want my parents to be proud of me and to recognize me for the things I achieve and as an individual apart from my sibling. Just like Sandra who wants her dad to think of her as more than a daughter who should go to college to find a husband, but as his only daughter, the writer. Instead of only his daughter who teaches. Everything she’s ever written has been for her father. To have his approval. Which I believe is something a lot of kids want from their parents; approval, understanding, appreciation, etc.

Malcolm X “Learning to Read”

What I found interesting about this reading was that Malcolm X didn’t waste his 7 years in prison doing absolutely nothing. He made use of his time by getting hold of a dictionary to study and learn some words. He started by copying words off the dictionary onto a tablet with his pencil down to the punctuation marks. Then he’d read out loud everything he had written down over and over again. Which I actually admire that he did because he didn’t let being locked away stop him from learning more words that he never knew existed or could possibly exist. I found it amazing that he didn’t just remember the words themselves, but their definitions all in a day. He took action, he changed the fact that he wasn’t able to express what he wanted to convey in letters that he wrote.

Reading response to Only Daughter Cody Zou

 Okay so I found many interesting things in the text “Only Daughters”, by
Sandra Cisneros. I find it very influential on how she made it from her situation. Her story could relate to many other kids. She says that her father put her in college to find a husband, She says she writes for him, the way that her father always includes her as being a son by saying he has sons makes her feel left out. It is probably very hard to go through what she goes through as she is the only daughter while having 6 brothers that don’t have the same worries as her. I know for a fact that overall she has worked hard and improved as a human being from the hard times with her father.

Response to “Learning To Read” by Malcolm X

I believe that I resonated with “Learning to Read”  by Malcolm X because although I did not have any problem being able to read and write, I did have problems with communication just like he did because of my boundaries of knowing one way to speak. I didn’t know how to properly communicate with people and even today, it does become quite a problem in situations where I can’t express myself. I know so many words in English and could write the most beautiful essay yet somehow when people are involved I stumble over words and I get nervous and the English language becomes a blur to me. At one point in time, just as Malcolm X did, I decided I needed to re-evaluate my comprehension of what is perceived as the  common English language in my community AKA slang, so I did the only reasonable thing which was to study the way people interacted, how they spoke and how to speak like them. At first it was complicated because you don’t just automatically know what words mean, you hear them and figure out by example what it is supposed to mean. Only then can you say “okay this is how I’m supposed to use said word” and then apply that knowledge. Without studying first I would have felt as Malcolm did when he read books and skipped what he didn’t understand. I would have been foolish to jump in head first into speaking without knowing what I was saying and luckily I understood that. At one point I finally caught up and it felt really nice to be able to connect with other people of my age or just other people in general. Even if they weren’t necessarily my age I could finally understand what they were saying and I could talk to them and not have them say I sound a specific way, as if I had no idea what was going on. Just standing back and actually taking the time to expand the little bit of English that I know, I am now able to communicate on so many different levels. It’s a liberating feeling to not feel restricted by whatever your circumstance is and I believe that’s exactly how Malcolm felt which is why he never stopped reading and writing when he could. You get to experience new things from such a small thing as broadening your vocabulary and every experience onwards brings some form of joy. Now I can code switch whenever I’m talking to someone. I know slang, so I can talk to people on a day to day basis on the street, I know “proper”  English, so I’m able to speak to somebody on the phone as if I were a professional with every ounce of slang gone and I probably know other forms of English as well through reading, writing, and speaking. Continue reading “Response to “Learning To Read” by Malcolm X”