Author: Leslie De La Cruz (Page 7 of 7)

After reading and annotating both “Maybe I Could Save Myself By Writing” by Jose Olivarez and “The Fourth Of July” by Audre Lorde, the key ingredients to writing an education narrative is including your own perspectives, opinions, and experiences into the writing. The other ingredient that that I saw was that it doesn’t necessarily have to be all about the author, although their anecdotes are sort of a main principle in the writing, the authors tend to be open minded and also make the topics of discussion something that the readers can also relate to. In “Maybe I Could Save Myself By Writing” the author gives specific details of their background. I didn’t understand at first but as I kept reading he made a connection to an overall audience about feeling left out or like you don’t belong which is something that I personally related to as well. By using his personal experience he made the piece more personal yet relatable. When writing an education narrative of my own, a good place to start would be asking myself how I can make a general statement more personal. In other words, can the hardships I’ve faced help others navigate their own experiences?  This would make a broad topic become a learning experience hence the education narrative genre. My concerns when writing an education narrative would be making a topic too broad and not knowing how to circle back as well as adding anecdotes and when to incorporate them into my writing.

When I think of the things I write I think about emails, texts, etc. I tend to gravitate more on the formal side when it comes to drafting an email to someone of importance, whereas texting I can write casually and informally. In these forms of writing I am trying to make a point and make sure that the person reading on the other end also receives the message I am trying to convey. Using specific words in conversations also allows us to properly communicate with one another and help a message come across correctly. This can also be seen in our tone or facial expressions. If I am sad or feeling happy, certain words come across differently due to our tone and how well the other person can read our expressions. Word choice and context is definitely something that can help me in my college reading and writing career, it can improve my ability to understand an author and myself when I create pieces that send out a certain message. When reading/ writing one can’t see the expressions physically therefore, its up to the reader/writer to form an emotion or message from using context of a passage. By dissecting a passage and questioning the author you can learn more about the authors style and how to incorporate it into your own writing, that’s what reading like a writer is all about.

Something in particular that stood out to me was the ability to connect personal experience of the author to reading like a writer. The switch between wording where the author uses formal words to attract the attention of a reader is something that also grabbed my attention because when I write formally I don’t include casual words and vise versa. If I text formal words to my friends it comes across as weird and out of the ordinary because shooting a text should be something that’s quick and easy. Something I struggle with is finding the right words and when to use them. I tend to use filler words that don’t help expand my vocabulary therefore, learning when to use formal words is something I look forward to incorporating in my writing.