An Importance Of Literacy in Modern World Free Essay Example

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Literacy Rules the World

Literacy plays a large role in life today. Whether we realize it or not, literacy is everywhere- from the text we just sent to our best friend to advertisements in magazines to what everyone dreads, essays. To some people, literacy means nothing to them, and to others, their lives revolve around literacy. I, however, sit right in the middle. I have times when I am obsessed with reading or writing and times where I will go months at a time without even opening a book.

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Every piece of literature has. Every writer out there has what is called a literacy sponsor. This is the person, object, or reason, why we read or write. Someone or something that can push them beyond their capacity. Everyone has one subconsciously or not.

I started reading and writing at the usual time that everyone does; kindergarten. At first, I was extremely slow and struggled with many aspects of literacy. I had horrible handwriting and had a hard time reading my own writing.

When I would read, I would stutter and skip over words. At first I hated reading and writing. I got the sense that it would be a pain in my ass for the rest of my life, but I quickly got over that when I began to practice it more and realized it was a lot easier than it seemed. I also got the sense that it was going to be a really important skill to have in my life, and I was right.

I read stuff without even realizing that I was reading; it’s such a regular day thing now.

I first started getting into reading in third grade, when I was required to read for AR points. AR points is a system that the schools in my hometown uses, to encourage students to read. You would read a book and take on online quiz about it. The better you do the more points you receive. There would be prizes to pick from at the end of a month in exchange for your AR points. However, my school required AR points as a grade instead of prizes. This resulted in me reading a lot more than any other kid in my grade. My third grade teacher would allow me access to her classroom and her books, and I would sit in during recess and even after school to read historical books about the Paleolithic times (I was a nerd back then). After that, reading was my getaway. I loved the way that I could put myself in someone’s shoes and experience something that I wouldn’t normally experience. Every year, when I went to my aunt’s farm in Alabama, I would sit out on the porch in the humidity and bulldoze through a book, while I listened to my uncle’s Bob Marley CD’s. I could finish a book a day if I tried. One of my favorite books is Until They Bring the Streetcars Back by Stanley Gordon West. I read it my sophomore year in highschool and at first, I thought it was such a boring book and I actually despised it. However, the further I got into it, the more interesting it got. The ending just blew me away and I had no idea how to feel about the book after that. I also enjoyed The 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey, but I ended up throwing the book across the room, after I finished reading it. My mom is a reader as well; she and I could sit with each other for hours and read books. We even would trade books when we were done and fangirl about certain characters. She encouraged me to keep reading and learning new things until the end and I love her for that.

I didn’t start to get into writing until sixth grade, when my teachers required a 500 word writing prompt per week, called KBar. At the time, 500 words took me at least an hour to write and it felt like so much writing. My English teacher would write an optional prompt up on the board, but we could write about anything. KBar was extremely painful at first. I thought it was too much work for a sixth grader. However, I began to turn my KBar into short chapters of a story. Then, I began to really enjoy them. I came up with the wildest stories anyone has ever seen. From there, I began writing longer stories. I would also try to write books, but would fail because I always got new ideas for a story. Every time I would get a new idea for a new story, I would drop what I was doing and start writing that. Then, I would never finish the one I was originally working on. In my 18 years, I have only finished two real short stories that were on my own time. In my contemporary literature class, I wrote a narrative about a man obsessed with revenge, then when he got what he wanted, he felt guilty and regretted his actions. The short story made my teacher cry, and I got a 100 percent on the assignment. That year I had also gotten a 100 on a research paper on criminal profiling. The hardest thing that I had to ever write however, was a narrative about my life as the twelve stages of being a hero. I wrote about everything I had ever gone through in my life, and it ended up being my twelve page final paper of my high school career. Writing had made me contemplate a lot of the things in my past and ask myself, “What if I had done this differently?” However, there were times, where I could not stand writing. For instance, the term papers…. I hated those stupid term papers. I would get so frustrated and stressed about due dates, note cards, citations, etc. Some of the teachers I had, expected so much from us, and would bulldoze through everything, leaving most of us struggling in the dirt to catch up. Bad term paper experiences ruined how I felt about writing. Only senior year, did I start to feel the same about it again because of some of the teachers I had.

Everyone has their own habits for reading and writing. For example, I have my good habits, and my bad habits. I got a lot of my habits from my mom. She was an amazing literacy sponsor for me. I always spent so much time reading and writing with her , that it isn’t surprising that I got most of my habits from her. I always read a paper or essay backwards at least twice, when I’m editing it, to look for grammar and spelling errors. It was a little trick that my mom taught me, and proved to be useful in the past. However, when I would read an essay without editing, I always had the bad habit of zoning out, and overlooking certain aspects, which would really hurt me when I took classes like the ACT’s. These habits really guided be as I went on with writing. I was able to figure out a plan and the process that worked best for me.

I only have a few sponsor’s for my reading and writing, but I am so thankful for them. Of course, I had my mom, but I also had my sixth grade teacher. She was the first person other than my mom to encourage my writing. She pushed me beyond anything I ever thought I could do. Because of her, I was able to get an essay I wrote about why I was proud to be an American published in a book with other similar essay’s from around the United States. Then, when I graduated from eighth grade, she gave me a journal to write in. I even have a situation I was in that acts as one of my sponsors. I used to struggle with depression throughout highschool, and when it came to my final paper for high school about my life, as hard as it was to write about that stuff, it made for a great paper. I realized that I could help people by letting them know that what they are going through, isn’t forever, and that they aren’t alone.

At times, Literacy can seriously suck. You can be cramming to finish a paper the night it’s do (like I am right now), and think “Wow, I really hate literacy.” However, when you really think about it, Literacy is one of the main things that unite us as a people, and has helped us as a culture develop into something so divine. I started out hating literacy; I think almost everyone does. In the end, literacy turned out to be my entire life, from reading that last sentence in a book, and wondering what to do with your life after that, to completely controlling the world, one letter at a time, literacy is life.