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Kattie Tyson
Professor Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
9 October 2015
A Reader, Writer, and Communicator
My parents exposed me to reading and writing at an early age. I remember my mother
pointing to letters and slowly mouthing out the words as I sounded them out alongside her. Cuhcuh, ah-ah, teh-teh. Cat! My father would always read me stories like The Little Engine That
Could every night before I went to sleep. His dramatic tone and sound effects always kept me
interested. My mother showed me how to write my name by writing Kattie on a piece of paper,
and I would try to imitate it. These short recollections show my early access to reading and
writing, which could be why I seemed to do well with it later on.
I recall taking a writing test in the second grade and scoring the highest out of everyone.
We were given a prompt which I do not remember now - and were told to use it to write a
story. I remember looking around the classroom nervously, as all my other classmates had
already taken off into their stories. I began to brainstorm and used the best idea I could think of
to write about. As I started my story, it felt like the words began to flow from my head to my
paper. I finished in no time and was astonished to find out that I had the best score. I felt very
accomplished and excited. From that point, writing came easily to me. Perhaps the natural ability
that I discovered came from my early access, but I know that the sense of accomplishment that I
felt after this only began to build my confidence in writing.
Writing felt so natural. I would be assigned to write a paper or essay in school and it felt
more like a hobby than work. I seemed to struggle with many other subjects, but writing was my

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strong suit. Almost like my comfort-zone in school. I think this is partly because of my parents.
As I previously stated, they would read to me every night and taught me the basics in reading in
writing. Fortunately, I had a strong start. Many kids today cannot say that for themselves. This
makes me wonder about the relationship between early access and reading/writing. I feel like my
early childhood experiences had a positive impact on my writing, which makes me wonder about
those who struggle with it. Maybe they had less access as a child, or maybe they just naturally
struggle with writing. I cant speak for them, but I can speak for myself when I say that the
access my parents gave me impacted my writing early on.
I consider my parents one of the biggest influences on my writing and on the way I
communicate. Vincent Cremonas, My Pen Writes In Blue and White, talks about how his
parents different dialects impacts his writing and speech. He compares his fathers dialect to his
mothers dialect to find that his dialect is a combination of the two. Cremona states, I, myself,
have taken the plain, frank, honest words of my father and joined them with the proper and
formal words of my mother to form the dialect that I now speak. When I think about my
parents dialect, like Cremona, I think about the way they say things and how that affects my
writing and speech.
My father, a pipefitting company owner, sees things realistically. He is a businessman.
Very straight forward and to the point. One of his famous sayings is, Chicken pays the bills,
(the pipes his company puts in are often located in chicken plants). He does not beat around the
bush when he is speaking to someone. His realistic way of thinking is almost to the point of
being pessimistic. A sticker on his computer actually says, My daughter and my money go to
Clemson, referring to my sister, who goes out-of-state to Clemson University.

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My mother on the other hand, is more optimistic. She also owns the family company with
my father. She sees things in a more hopeful perspective. Her speech is very comforting and
makes you feel better. I always tell her Im going to fail or I cant do it and she replies with,
Kattie, no matter what, it is all going to work out. You arent going to fail anyways, you are
smart. Her positive and warm words make you see the good in things and allow you to look at
things differently. It gives you options.
My speech is sort of a combination of my fathers bluntness and my mothers optimism;
kind of like Cremona, but in different aspects. I think that this helps my writings and when I am
reading. I see things in my parents two different perspectives. Take my views on writing for
example. Frankly, though my fathers view, I see writing as just writing. Words on a paper. Not
much to it. Reflectively, through my mothers view, I see writing as self-expression. A way of
getting a point across. This helps when there is a time for writing more simplistically and to the
point, such as journals, or when there is a time for writing more reflectively or complicated, such
as blogs. My parents dialects go hand-in-hand with the way I write and speak.
There have also been some outside influences, such as teachers and peers, that affect the
way I communicate. I recall in the fifth grade, one of my English teachers always corrected my
speech, which was improper in her eyes. She was the very picky type of teacher and things had
to be just perfectly according to her standards. I would ask, Can I use the restroom? and her
reply would be, I dont know can you? She insisted that we say, May I use the restroom. As
annoying as she was, my teachers smart comebacks always motivated me to say things properly
to avoid embarrassment again. She and many other overbearing teachers along the way are the
reason I speak the way I do at times.

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My peers have also influenced my communication. Through them, I have picked up slang
terms/phrases. It is almost like a language within a language. Instead of saying, Okay, cool, we
might say, Word. Another common term that many people use is selfie. These words that I
hear from people around me slowly accrue in my everyday vocabulary. I think the use of these
phrases have a lot to do with social approval. Many times people, myself included, will begin
using the words they hear around them to fit in, such as the common phrase selfie.
Using that same phrase as an example, I also think people use these words because times
are changing. As the world continues to progress and change, new words must be created to
effectively communicate. What would you call a selfie if you did not have the word selfie? Old
words are changing into new words as well. Many years ago, the word gay meant to be happy.
Today, it means to be homosexualIf people do not change along with the world, they could
obviously become very confused and be left behind. There are many factors such as these that
impact the way I communicate.
My access to different types of writing has also affected my writing style. Throughout
school, I was taught many different ways to write. It began with simple sentences in the lower
grades, building up to paragraphs, to short stories and so on. This access was not just because of
teachers, but because of the writing programs implemented where I went to school.
For example, in middle school, my entire grade went through a writing program that
taught us the famous five-paragraph essay. We were taught how to do it. Introductory paragraph.
Three sub-topic paragraphs. Finally, the conclusion. Then, we were assigned to write one. After
we wrote it, we were given feedback and were taught how to edit. I recall another time in
middle-school when we were assigned to write a research paper. We were walked through the
process of doing background research, finding a legitimate resource to pull information from,

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and then the paper part. Exposure to different types of writings, like these, is how school has
given me access to different writing styles. Experiences like these have shaped me into the writer
that I am today, and I would have to thank my school system for that.
Fortunately for me, writing and reading hasnt been much of an issue for me so far. I
think this is because of my parents and their early influences on me. I also look to my parents as
major influences on the way I write and communicate. I have combined their dialects to form my
own unique dialect. I have also integrated the dialects of my teachers, peers, and the people
around me into my own. My access to different writing styles has directly influenced the way I
write. It is what has shaped my own writing process. Over the years, I have become an even
stronger writer, reader, and communicator because of the influences and experiences I have
described.

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Works Cited
Cremona, Vincent. My Pen Writes in Blue and White. PDF file.