Isela Pena

Outline
Intro
I: According to Elizabeth Wardle and Doung Downs, reading Writing about Writing asks
students to work from their own experience to consider how writing works, who they are as
writers, and how they use (and dont use) writing. (Downs and Wardle v). Therefore, if an
outsider considers the readings from this course they would learn about themselves as a writer
and how their backgrounds have an affect on their literacy.
I: Likewise, readings from this course also offer skills students can learn and then transfer to
their own writings. (Downs and Wardle v-vi).
Thesis:Although it is important to know how a person's background and community shapes their
literacy, it is more important to consider the readings that provides readers with writing skills.
For this reason, units What Counts as Good Writing and Understanding and Applying
Rhetoric are more important than What Contributes to My History as a Reader and Writer?

P: It is important to know how a community can affect a person's literacy.

I: According to Deborah Brant, sponsors can be ...older relatives, teacher, priests, supervisors,
military officers, editors, [or] influential authors. (Brant 47)
I: Furthermore, Brant states that some literacy sponsors [can be] organizations or institutions,
like a public system or a major corporation, whose sponsorship affects large numbers of
people. (Brant 44)
E:This demonstrates how these sponsors are part of a community who can make a difference in a
person's literacy. Therefore, it is important for readers to be aware who are the sponsors because
they become sponsors as well. It is important, especially a student considering in becoming a
teacher, to know how their sponsorship will greatly affect others literacy.

I: In Sponsors of Literacy, the author shows how a person's sponsors can affect their future.
(Brant 52)
E: For this reason it is important for a community to be able to sponsor people's literacy. For
example, if a school doesn't have good sponsors, it would greatly affect students literacy and
would cause many to struggle in school. This lack of sponsorship will greatly affect students
literacy for the future and possibly make them fall behind. For this reason, it is important for
readers to know how people in a community can affect others literacy. If readers know the
difference sponsors can make in a person's literacy, it will make them as sponsors themselves
become better sponsors.

P: In addition, Brants reading allows reader to see how a person's background affects people's
literacy.
I: Brant states that poor people and those from low-case racial groups have less consistent, less
politically secured access to literacy sponsors (Brant 49)
E: Brant tries to point out how people who are minorities or poor are put at a disadvantage. This
is shown by comparing two people who one was a minority. With her example, Brant
demonstrates how much harder a multilingual person must work to get literate.

P: Another important reading from this course that shows this is How to Tame a Wild Tongue
by Anzaldua Gloria.
I: Anzaldua states that being Chicana sometimes makes them feel embarrassed or
uncomfortable. (Anzaldua 58) Also, that speaking her native language would get her in trouble
and would often be judged.
E: It is important for readers to see how a person's background affected the way people viewed
her. This then affected many chicanas literacy because they had to adapt to others expectations.
Since the course focuses on ML students it's important for people considering this course to see
examples/stories of other ML students and their struggles.

P: Reading Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott is one of the most important readings that
students considering this class should read.
I: In this article, Lamott makes readers realize how all writers struggle with writing. She shares
her writing process after writing a shitty first draft such as ... sit[ting] down, go[ing] through it
all with a colored pen, tak[ing] out everything [she] possibly could, find a new lead somewhere
on the second page, figure out a kicky place to end it, and then write a second draft.(Lamott
530)
E: Reading this article allows reader to see how writing a shity first draft is not bad after all.
Many students struggle when writing and tend to writes a shitty first draft; however, Lamott
demonstrates how no matter how long and bad peoples first draft may seem, they can always go
back and do all the things mentioned above. She demonstrates the process of what doing a good
writing is like such as 1. Doing a shitty draft, 2. Fixing the first shitty draft and finally 3. The
final draft where people fix the last errors.

P: Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitive Analysis of Writers
Block by Mike Rose is another important reading students should consider. This reading
changes students perspective on writing rules; in fact, Rose discusses that having less rigid rules
can be better.
I: Rose states that student experience writer's block because they are trying to stick to the writing
rules that ultimately affect their writings instead of helping. (Rose 534)
E: This shows that people who experience writer's block usually tend to use writing rules. Seeing
how writing rules affect people's writing will allow them to move away from the rules and
realize that the writing rules students learn are not always very useful and can even have a
negative affect when writing.
Conclusion:

P: Unit What Contributes to My History as a Reader and Writer? has two reading that do not
benefit readers who are considering this course.
I: The readings Sponsors of Literacy and How to tame a Wild Tongue discusses how a
person's background and community shapes their literacy.
E: It is good to know this information, but these readings are not as important because it doesn't
teach writing skills student can then transfer to their own writings.

P: Units What Counts as Good Writing and Understanding and Applying Rhetoric has
many reading that would greatly benefit a student considering this course.
I: The readings from these units provides readers with writing skills and things writers should do
to create successful writings.
E: This course requires a lot of writing assignments; therefore, it is important for students to
consider readings that teaches writing skills rather than general information.
E: Reading these assignments will not only benefit students for this class but others as well. The
readings from these units offer many writing skills that can be transferred into their own writings
for this and other classes as well. These reading will have a long term effect and could benefit
students writings unlike the reading from the first unit.