A Partial Literacy Narrative

Jill Saba

WSC 002

Paper 4

5/9/2011

A Partial Literacy Narrative

I write for many different reasons. I write for school, for my professors, for a good grade. I write for my family, my friends. I write for myself or for others. I write to get something off of my mind of just because I can. There are many different forms of writing and I do not think I could ever write for one specific reason. However, whether I write because I have to or because I want to I am still writing.

            My writing style may change depending on my audience or the medium I use. Typically when I write for school I try to complete my thoughts and sentences, however, if I am blogging or writing with a crayon the reasons for my writing change and therefore my style of writing changes. When I am writing on Facebook or sending a text, again, my reasons for writing have changed; here I am most likely writing to communicate with someone else. Sometimes I write for enjoyment or to get something off of my mind.

            When I read the title “Why I Write” and was told to write about it I immediately began writing every possible reason of why I write, beginning each phrase with ‘I’. Than I began reading Joan Didion’s article Why I Write. Didion’s article was different from my passage in the sense that she is giving background to why she writes where I was giving the reasons. Didion states “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear” (2). It seems as though she is writing entirely for herself and no one else, almost as though the readers are the lucky ones, the one who get a look into her mind. I want to be that kind of writer, I want to let myself be vulnerable for a minuet and let the page be my escape, my telling the reader that I have a voice that should be heard.

              When asked to give new writers advice on how to write, I was at a loss. My writing itself is not complete, I still need advice or maybe I should for once just take my own advice. Writers need to be expressive and think outside the box. You do not necessarily have to write for your readers but almost more for yourself. Make the readers want to read your work. As I mentioned in “Why I Write”, as a writer you almost need to be vulnerable and let the page be your escape. Your writing is supposed to express you and only you. Writing is not necessarily easy, no matter what form it is. I have gone to write a comment on Facebook and typed then deleted the comment dozens of times before it was finally what I wanted. On my blog Here and Now there is an entry a sentence starts out like and I completed the sentence with building a house. Not only does a sentence start out like building a house, but writing as a whole is like building a house. The introduction is like the foundation to a house. The foundation and structure has to be just right or it can ruin the whole house, however you don’t know exactly how the house is going to turn out in the end. The foundation to a house and the introduction to a paper are important because the introduction is what draws the reader in, it is the first thing the reader will see, it needs to be strong and secure. Similarly a foundation to a house needs to be strong and secure, the introduction is the foundation, without a good foundation there is no paper. 

I believe that writing and text can be powerful to a reader. Having the traditional black text on a rectangular white page allows for the reader to really focus on the words that are on the page rather than visuals. One examples of this was with the Taylor Mali videos. Personally I enjoyed the text video more than the one of Taylor Mali himself. I liked how the text changed depending on what the word was and what the emphasis on that specific word was supposed to be. For example when Mali spoke louder or with more force, the text was written larger or bolder. Or whenever Mali said "like" it was written in a cursiveish font almost giving it a somewhat sarcastic feeling. In the text version of the video I appreciated what Mali was saying more. The video had more dimension and angles and gave a different feeling than the video of Mali did. The use of fonts, sizes, and style played a role in how the words and their meanings were perceived. Yet only black font was used, so there were no colors to distract the viewer. And there were no other people or images to distract the viewer from what Mali was saying, where in the video of Mali himself, I was constantly trying to read what his shirt said under the word "Scrabble" or looking at the people in the audience. I believe that a writer has done their job if they are able to create an image with words.