Reading Strategies

Reading is so much more to just reading the text and turning the page. You have to try and understand exactly what they are saying to you, the reader. Are they trying to convince you to buy something? Are they trying to tell you an old childhood story?

No matter what, you are definitely going to have an opinion on this. If you are wanting to show how you feel there are several strategies to truly understanding that and the text. One in general is the "believing and doubting game."

Text Analysis

There is so much to textual analysis. This section showed all sorts of different kinds. One in particular that I liked was how the Gettysburg Address applies to Americans after 9/11. I think that is really cool how it can be used to today's terms.

With all of the different kinds of textual analysis, I think it is kind of hard to say that there is one form of a correct way. Everyone has so much different opinions on things. However this will be a very useful chapter to help out on things of that such.

Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading is an essential part of writing. If you take the time to do this right on every paper, your writing will have much more to it and also cleaner. You need to check your paragraphs and make sure that they don't run off course of the paper. Also when you are proofreading, make sure that the words you use are correct (ex: wright, right.) If you continually do this, your papers will become much better

Read, Reread, and Reread Again?

This section was about revising and fixing your writings. I didn't really get that much from it because, honestly, it felt like it was stating the obvious. I think it gave some good points on peer revising. It went as far as asking is the title catchy?

However when the book was giving pointers on how to write it I felt that it wasn't much help. They kept saying how you need to always keep rereading it over and such. Duh. You can't fix a paper without reading it over. All I'm saying is that I believe they could have emphasized other points, but that's my thoughts.

More to Writing than Meets the Eye

This section was primarily about writing techniques for narratives. I believe that this is going to be extremely helpful in my writing for our technology assignment. As I was reading the chapters, I couldn't help but stop and think about how much there truly is in writing that we don't even think about.

What type of writing is it? Who am I writing to? Should I put a quote or a story? These questions are unending. However, even though it puts so much more in my writing, it will help me to make my papers much more interesting and enjoyable to write.

Literacy for Freedom

This reading was primarily on ethnicity and fighting for freedom. They were narratives that ranged from not learning a language because of pride to Frederick Douglas to Malcom X. Many of them used literacy to help them fight for equal rights. One of which that I really thought was interesting was Frederick Douglas.
Frederick Douglas taught himself how to read and write so that he can find a better way of escaping and moving on to a better life. He states, "I consoled myself with the hope that I should one day find a good chance. Meanwhile, I would learn to write." Since he chose to do that, it helped him in the future of becoming a free and educated man. He showed other slaves that it was possible and was a huge influence on how slavery came to and end.