Swinson 1

Charles Swinson
Instructor Marcum
UWRT 1103
January 29, 2016
Reading and Writing through My Eyes
I have always viewed reading and writing as an obstacle that I must keep pushing through
in order to finish school. I have felt this way ever since I could remember reading and writing
for the first time. I have just always thought this way and I highly doubt that my thinking will
change in the future. Now, I am not saying that I do not see the point or value in reading and
writing. I definitely see how reading and writing can change a persons life in a positive
direction. I understand how these tools are crucial for positive growth and self-growth.
Although I may not enjoy reading and writing as much as most people, I believe that I would be
nowhere without these skills.
Before I get into specifics about how exactly I feel like reading and writing have
benefited me, I believe that it is important to first reflect on just how important these skills are.
For example, most people have probably never stopped and just thought about for a while, where
their lives would be if they could not read or write. I had not done this myself until this past
summer when I went to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. I went to Haiti on a mission trip
with my church and what I valued most from this experience was how I was able to see a whole
new group of people who were distinctly unique from the average Americans I see on a regular
basis. One of the things that I came to realize the most in Haiti, was how much I have taken my
education for granted. A large number of Haitians in Haiti cannot even afford to pay for school.

Swinson 2

I had come to realize in Haiti just how much I valued my ability to read and write because I saw
those who could not read and write and began to feel a newfound thankfulness for the
opportunities that I have, and others do not.
Haiti was the first time that I truly have ever reflected on my own reading and writing
skills. In fact, I reflect on my own literacy skills more often than even I realized I did. It was not
until recently in UWRT 1103, that I began to realize why I do not like reading and writing so
much. I have come to the conclusion that my dislike of reading and writing stems from the fact
that I feel like I do not relate to the majority of the authors that I read from. Most of the literacy
narratives I have read in my career as a student have been about how much passion the author
feels when they read something for the first time. I just have never experienced something
similar to this. The story of Malcolm X is a great example of this.
In Malcolm Xs narrative, Learning to Read, he talks about how learning to read has
given him an education that he hungered for. In the narrative, Malcolm X says, I saw that the
best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some words (Malcolm X
120). In this sentence, you get an idea of just how much learning to read means to this man; his
desire to read is palpable. When I read Malcolm Xs narrative for the first time, I could not relate
to anything he said. I have never felt the intensity that he has to learn how to read. Even though
I could not relate to him, I still understood him completely. Is that not strange? We have very
few similarities, yet I can completely understand his thought process and why he is saying what
he is saying.
Reading Malcolm Xs narrative is just one of the few literacy events that I have
experienced recently. Another important literacy event in my life also came recently in class.
Sherman Alexies narrative, Superman and Me, which is about how he overcame his struggles to

Swinson 3

learn how to read was one of the few stories I have ever read where I can relate to an experience
of the author almost entirely. I am not talking about growing up on an Indian Reservation or
winning poetry awards. What I am talking about is how Alexie learned to read with a comic
book. Alexie starts off his narrative with, I learned to read with a Superman comic book
(Alexie 129). After I read Alexies first sentence, I realized that me and him are very similar. I
learned how to read fluently pretty much the same way that Alexie did. So considering that
Alexie talks about the importance of a comic book in his life, I was immediately invested in what
he had to say in his narrative. Reading a comic book was pretty much the only way to get me
excited to learn how to read. Now that I have finally read something where I can feel like I have
some similarities with the author, it makes me think that maybe I have not been trying hard
enough to explore similarities with other authors in other readings. What if I had many things in
common with many of the past authors that I have read from but because I did not put the effort
into trying to relate to what they were saying, I never found anything that I could compare to my
own life?
Now that I have figured out that writing can actually mean more to me than just an
assignment that I have to get done to acquire a grade, I feel like I have peeled back a new layer to
my potential of becoming a better reader. I feel like moving forward, I have a better chance to
grow as a reader now that I have a new understanding of how to read with the intention of
getting something new out of it that I can reflect on. I even realized a new technique for how to
fully reflect on my past readings where I initially got nothing out of them. Although it seems
simple, I have never really given much thought as to what literacy experiences that I have had in
the past. Since this semester has started, I regularly think about my past and what shaped my
opinions on reading. When I was really young, like most kids, one of my favorite series of books

Swinson 4

to read were Dr. Seuss books. As a kid, I thought his books was simply just to keep my mind
occupied for a little while. Now that I am older, I realize that Dr. Seuss books combine both
entertainment and education into one. His books may not be the most intelligent books in the
world, given they are childrens books, but what they accomplish is the task of helping young
kids learn to read and have fun doing so. This is important because when I was in elementary
school, I specifically remember it not being cool to be a bookworm. I remember the kids
who loved to read and write being the kids that were picked on the most and given the title
nerd. Who knows, this may have been one of the factors that discouraged me from ever
latching on to loving to read or write.
Although I may have been discouraged to read in the past, I have also been encouraged to
read in the past. In fifth grade, I remember reading Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. This is one of my
favorite books of all time because I felt as if I was experiencing every moment and emotion with
the main character, Brian Robeson, right when he did. Hatchet was probably the first mature
book that I ever read and I remember when the entire class first got the book, everyone moaned
and groaned at the idea of having to read a book that you would probably read once you got to
middle school. I was even one of the people upset with the notion of reading it. I was pleasantly
surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Reading Hatchet was most likely the first time I ever
enjoyed reading a book that I did not choose to read myself. This is also most likely the first
time I figured out that not all reading was bad. This is best summarized by the line in Hatchet,
Maybe it was always that way, discoveries happened because they needed to happen (Paulsen
109)
As time rolled on, I began to like reading more than I thought I would. Other books that
had a positive influence on me reading include The Outsiders and Of Mice and Men. I read both

Swinson 5

these books in eighth grade. The first one I read was The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. I had never
given it much thought until now, but that book was one of only two positives that I had in that
horrible eighth grade class where nothing got done and we never had a teacher. Other than never
getting anything done in that class, I call that class horrible because it seemed like all the bad
seeds were dumped in that class and I was all alone in there. The other positive thing in that
class was the second book I read, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Both these books
managed to keep my interest while also making me ask questions to myself on what I would do
in a given situation. If I accidently killed someone like Johnny in The Outsiders, What would I
do next? When George was faced with the tough decision on what to do with Lenny at the end
of Of Mice and Men, how would I have handled it? These two books forced me to ask really
personal questions.
On the other side of the literacy coin is writing. Unlike reading, I never came around
from hating writing. To this day I still dread doing writing assignments. I may have gotten
better at doing them, but I still do not get any type of joy out of doing them. Part of the reason I
dread doing writing assignments and any other kind of writing is the fact that I have bad
handwriting that seems to not want to improve despite the best efforts of time. Another big
reason I do not look forward to writing assignments is the fact I lose focus pretty easily. I do not
think that it is a big secret that writing requires a lot of focus. When I am in the process of
writing, I often get many ideas of what I want to write down, but when it comes to transporting
them on the page, my ideas get lost in translation.
Memories that I get from writing are all filled with stress for me. Ever since my junior
and senior year of high school, when I hear the word writing, I instantly think back to when I
had to write my graduation research paper in order to graduate from high school. All my friends

Swinson 6

who lived in Fort Mill bragged that they just had to do some type of survey based graduation
assignment in order to graduate. I used to get very jealous when I heard that all they had to do to
graduate was fill out a survey, and I had to write at least seven pages on a topic that I regretted
choosing as soon as I started writing the first paragraph. The topic I chose was whether or not
the death penalty was a deterrent to crime. Do not get me wrong, it is a very meaty subject to
write about. The only problem was that I needed to have a lot of facts in order to back up what I
was saying and I needed to sound like I knew what I was talking about. I ended up getting a C
on the paper I think. To this day I think that I did better than my grade suggested I did.
So as you can tell from my last paragraph, the mere thought of writing only brings
painful memories to my mind. I honestly cannot think of one time where I had a fun time
writing anything. I just view writing as a chore that must get done. I guess that is why I prefer
reading over writing. Instead of actually doing all of the work and writing something, all I have
to do is look at the words that someone else wrote. Whereas I see writing as a chore or task, I
see reading as a recreational or fun activity sometimes. I say sometimes because I usually only
like reading if it is on my own time because I get to choose what book I read and when I want to
read and finish it.
So far, the narratives that we have been reading as a class are about the impact that
reading and writing have had on the person writing the narrative. Scholarship Boy by Richard
Rodriguez was about how the pursuit of knowledge created a rift between his family and his old
life. The only thing that I could relate to with this author was that I agreed that home life and
school life are at cultural extremes, opposed (Rodriguez 18). I have personally never pushed
my family away in pursuit of more education. I related much more with Gerald Graffs
narrative, Disliking Books. I related more with this narrative simply because at one point in my

Swinson 7

life, I disliked books. Like Graff, I enjoy reading science based texts over literature because of
the clear-cut answers (Graff 23). I highly doubt that I will become a teacher like Graff, but I
certainly like books much more than I used to. I do not quite relate to the desire that most
authors have to learn as much about literacy as possible, but I do understand why they want to
and what motivates them. Something that I like to do is figure out the motivations of people. I
enjoy trying to figure out how people got to where they are and why they are there. So all
though I do not like writing as much as the authors of the narratives we have read as a class, I do
enjoy trying to understand why they want to learn so much about literacy.
If there is anything that taking UWRT 1103 has done for me so far, it has been that is has
forced me to dig deeper into what makes me feel the way I do about reading and writing. This
class has helped me get to the bottom of what experiences have made me into the kind of reader
and writer that I am. I have had bad experiences with writing, so I do not like writing. I have
very fond memories of reading, so I enjoy reading. As I have said before, I enjoy discovering the
motivations of other people; especially authors. What I have rarely done before, is try and
discover my own motivations behind reading and writing.
I have a new understanding of how I have developed from a child who could not stand
the thought of reading, to a man who now enjoys reading from time to time. I also have come to
the realization as to why I could never get over my dislike of writing. Maybe even one day, if I
keep digging into my library of memories, I will overcome my dislike of writing and figure out a
way to make writing a little more enjoyable for myself. Maybe I will have an assignment in
class that I will even look forward to writing so I can get my ideas from my head to my paper. I
have never had the thought before where I even considered that I could go from hating writing to

Swinson 8

enjoy writing. Now that I have finally considered it for the first time, I think it is possible for me
to grow even more in my literacy skills.

Swinson 9

Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me. Writing about Writing:
A College Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 128-31
Graff, Gerald. Disliking Books. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. 3rd
Ed. Eds. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 23-28.
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Bradbury, 1987. Print.
Rodriguez, Richard. Scholarship Boy. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader.
3rd Ed. Eds. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 1622.
X, Malcolm. Learning to Read. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds.
Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 119-26