Norman Angel

WRITING
L1 Draft 1
Starting back to my first memory of being literate (and being that I have a bad memory), I
remember when I was just learning to read; sitting in the back of my mom's Landcruiser, reading out
loud all of the billboards, for every billboard and how at first my family was so proud and happy, but
over time, they began to get frustrated (as any human would). My journey into the literary world began
like a train full of fresh steam, but it dwindled as school work multiplied. The happiness that was
brough on by a new found skill was so exciting and created a burning desire to try and and abuse the
new skill, but as teachers abused the new skill, my desire's flame burnt out.. but not completely.
Literary sponsors throughout my progressing life began rekindling the flame of my love for literacy.
The first, but not necessarily the most important, is my second grade teacher, Mrs. Spicer. Her
methodology that had kept me trying to learn more and more was by posotive phsychology, using
rewards for good work. Anytime a student got aove an 80, they were given fake money, which Mrs.
Spicer would allow you to "buy" real toys from a make shift store she would set up every friday. As I
was a child in second grade, this strategy really had me working hard to know my vocab and sentence
structure. I remember forcing myself to write every word five times each, even if I did spell the word
properly, or wrote the sentence properly. She engrained in my mind that 'good language [or literacy] is
rewarded'. Granted literacy was not what I was focused on, Mrs. Spicer trained my mind to think
positively about literacy.
The second strong memory that I recall in terms of literacy has to be the librarian from my
elementary school. I remember being so excited going to the school library on the days that allowed as
much, because I would be able to see the school librarian who became one of the go-to adults that

young kids usually have aside from their family. Everytime I went to that class, she would have a new
book for me, that she would keep hidden for me. She would set up the audo books or read to our class
and I just loved allowing imagination to run parallel with the story (with help from the illustrations of
course). As a literary sponsor, I think her biggest contribution is that she helped me with the
imagination that ties into literacy. Growing up hearing the classic children books like Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs, Verdy, Sunday is Spaghetti, etc.
One experience that I would definately consider a literary sponsor, is my little 'news man' role.
From third grade until fifth grade, I had been the morning and and of the school day reporter on the
school news. This isn't much of an accomplishment in my personal opinion, but at that young of an age,
it planted a seed that helped me with speaking in public. Given, I was recorded and the news would be
played the following time, I still had to clean myself up, make sure my pronunciation, grammer, and
structure was all proper. It taught me to actually pay attention to grammer, to a point that grammer was
already a moderately well defined second nature. Its not, nor will it ever be perfect, but it was better
than most of my peers at that time.
In the memories I have presented to you, so far we have come to the understanding that I have
started my literacy sponsors at a young age. Mrs. Spicer had taught me that literacy is something to be
positive about, even if she was bribing us with new toys and things. My librarian had taught me how to
use my imagination, and helped continue my intriege with literature, as well as the desire to use my
imagination. Working as a little anchorman I was able to help develope my speaking skills, and the
ability to speak in front of others.
The next set of literary sponsors occurred after I had made a large transitional move entering my
sixth grade education, so these sponsors had very different interactions with myself when it comes
down to how we worked together. It was a different stage in my life, and the literature that I became
drawn towards was along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe. I liked the difficult nature of older styles of

writing, and especially with more of a thriller or horror theme. It is almost as though I went from happy
children books, with vivid pictures and stories, to overly complicated, and difficult work that tends to
be too much for my peers at the time.
High school english is where my next literary sponsor comes to fruition. Mrs Carlin was one of
the strictest teachers I have ever had in my life and after my first week with her, I had quickly learned
she was a very harsh grader. Although she was a very difficult teacher, she seemed to always take
intrest in my work. Most of the work that had been done in that class focused on themes of text and
fictional writing, but when I used a theme, it usually seemed to have a negative tone to it. Whether it
had been about the suicidal thoughts in Cacther in the Rye, or the death in Gilgamesh, I always took on
the moral wrong when it came to themes. One reason this teacher is on this list of literacy sponsors is
the fact that no matter what I wrote, how I wrote it, or how I interpreted it, she never said I was wrong.
Not once, when it came to writing papers. I still remember her note on one of my papers. I had written
something along the lines of "Murder is an instincual action, that has blown out of proportion by
society. Murder is a word used as a negative term of taking a life, when in reality, life is lost daily."
(that is also the type of negative work that I am talking about). She commented, 'that is extrodinarily
intresting perspective, and the way that you argued it was very compelling'. Regressing from that
moment and trying to look at it in a Meta state of thought, she was the only one who never said no,
thats bad and dark, don't say things like that. She saw that it took my intrests, and it had apparently
taken hers, and as she says, 'getting someone's attention and keeping it on a paper is very difficult, but
if you can do it with this type of work, then why stop you?' She had showed me that if you're not
intrested in your work, then how can someone else be? She also showed me that just because I write
different, or I wrote about things that people dont like to be subjected to, does not mean that I shouldn't.
Everything is fair game.
The next literary sponsor that I take into account would have to be my old architectural teacher,

Professor Swisher. He is not a literary professional when it comes down to writing, although he is
close, being that he has written books and he has done a lot concerning writing, he is one of the most
eye-opening people I have ever learned from. Over the past year he has helped my mind access the
perspective of others. He taught me that everyone else's perspective should be second nature. For
example, if I'm writing a paper, I shouldnt be writing for me, I should be writing for you, the reader. I
should talk to you formally, if need be, but if a special case is permitted, I could talk to you as a friend
to a friend. How was your day today? If it wasn't too grand, don't worry! You can't have a rainbow
without a rainy day. (You can take a second and answer that before you continue reading). Did you feel
a little bit different reading that? Probibly not being that I had basically told you I was going to do that,
but you get the point. Literature needs to be in correlation with a lot of things. You need to take into
account interpritations and perspective.
My final literary sponsor is my current teacher, Professor Senske. I have been learning more
from him in a month than most of my high school education, but I think it would be easier for both of
us if I just name some of the big ones. The biggest one being, 'so what?' You wrote a literacy draft? So
what, why? 'I did it because I wanted to talk about how I developed my literary skills.' So what, why do
I want to know that? 'Because it may help others with how they work with literature.' Having an
understanding is being able to continue going back and forth with your answers and the question of 'so
what?'. The other most prominent thing he has taught me is the use of understanding. If you know a
topic, explain it in two minutes to your grandma and allow her to use what you taught her. This cant be
elaborated on much more, but he is basically saying that if you can teach it to someone with little or no
knowledge of it(sorry grandma), then you understand it, and if you understand it, you can refine it to
keep getting better and better.
So over all of my years of life I have come to learn the following. Understanding material is just
as important in the process of creating it, and if you can't answer someone asking you 'so what?' then

your work is not all too good. I have also learned how to speak properly through rigorous public
speaking. This can only be ruled out by being intrested in a topic. If you are intrested in a topic, then
you are more comfortable talking to people about it, especially in public. Although, if you're still
having trouble, try and use your imagination. Imagination is always helpful when it comes to literature
because that is it's foundation in fiction.
Growing through all these events have slowly shaped the man I am in terms of literature and
personally, I wouldnt want it any other way.