Humanities Commons Learning Goals 1. Write about primary and secondary texts on the topic of literacy from the perspective of English Studies and at least one additional discipline in the Humanities Commons in a manner that reflects their ability to read critically; 2. Engage in a process approach to writing college-level prose; 3. Produce rhetorically effective college-level expository prose; 4. Demonstrate effective use of scholarly sources in their writing; 5. Recount in college-level prose their personal literacy histories and current literacy practices; 6. Examine in writing the discourse of a community different from themselves with respect to factors such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and so forth. 7. Explore the relevance of Catholic intellectual tradition for the study of reading, writing, and/or rhetoric as human endeavors. you are to put together your Final Exam Portfolio. In this, you should have your Diagnostic Essay, drafts and revisions of your Literacy Narrative/Metawriting Assignment, Catholic Intellectual Tradition Response, Discourse Community Ethnography, and Argumentative Proposal Synthesis. You also need a final reflective essay discussing how you have grown as a writer over the term. This should be around one to three pages, but may go longer. As a review, here is an overview of the material we covered: Humanities Commons Learning Goals Write about primary and secondary texts on the topic of literacy from the perspective of English Studies and at least one additional discipline in the Humanities Commons in a manner that reflects their ability to read critically; Engage in a process approach to writing college-level prose; Produce rhetorically effective college-level expository prose; Demonstrate effective use of scholarly sources in their writing; Recount in college-level prose their personal literacy histories and current literacy practices; Examine in writing the discourse of a community different from themselves with respect to factors such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and so forth. Explore the relevance of Catholic intellectual tradition for the study of reading, writing, and/or rhetoric as human endeavors. Metawriting “Sponsors of Literacy” - Brandt Portrait of the Artists as A Young Person – Literacy Narrative A Young Adult – Autoethnography MLA Conventions Library Research Grammar Write in Active Voice Seven Comma Rules Affect/Effect; it’s its; etc. Introduce Quotations Quote, Summary, Paraphrase Hamburger Metaphor for integrating quotes Classical Aristotelian Essay Form Rebuttal Compare Contrast Essay: Block vs. Alternating Works Cited List Top Twenty Errors Discourse Community Ethnography “The Concept of a Discourse Community” – Swales C.A.R.S. – Creating a Research Space – Swales “Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers” – Mirabelli “Rethinking Subcultural Resistance: Core Values of the Straight Edge Movement” – Haenfl ...

1. Humanities Commons Learning Goals
1. Write about primary and secondary texts on the topic of
literacy from the perspective of English Studies and at least one
additional discipline in the Humanities Commons in a manner
that reflects their ability to read critically;
2. Engage in a process approach to writing college-level prose;
3. Produce rhetorically effective college-level expository prose;
4. Demonstrate effective use of scholarly sources in their
writing;
5. Recount in college-level prose their personal literacy
histories and current literacy practices;
6. Examine in writing the discourse of a community different
from themselves with respect to factors such as race, class,
gender, sexuality, and so forth.
7. Explore the relevance of Catholic intellectual tradition for
the study of reading, writing, and/or rhetoric as human

2. endeavors.
you are to put together your Final Exam Portfolio. In this, you
should have your Diagnostic Essay, drafts and revisions of your
Literacy Narrative/Metawriting Assignment, Catholic
Intellectual Tradition Response, Discourse Community
Ethnography, and Argumentative Proposal Synthesis. You also
need a final reflective essay discussing how you have grown as
a writer over the term. This should be around one to three
pages, but may go longer.
As a review, here is an overview of the material we covered:
Humanities Commons Learning Goals
Write about primary and secondary texts on the topic of literacy
from the perspective of English Studies and at least one
additional discipline in the Humanities Commons in a manner
that reflects their ability to read critically;
Engage in a process approach to writing college-level prose;
Produce rhetorically effective college-level expository prose;
Demonstrate effective use of scholarly sources in their writing;
Recount in college-level prose their personal literacy histories
and current literacy practices;
Examine in writing the discourse of a community different from
themselves with respect to factors such as race, class, gender,
sexuality, and so forth.
Explore the relevance of Catholic intellectual tradition for the
study of reading, writing, and/or rhetoric as human endeavors.
Metawriting
“Sponsors of Literacy” - Brandt
Portrait of the Artists as
A Young Person – Literacy Narrative
A Young Adult – Autoethnography
MLA Conventions
Library Research

3. Grammar
Write in Active Voice
Seven Comma Rules
Affect/Effect; it’s its; etc.
Introduce Quotations
Quote, Summary, Paraphrase
Hamburger Metaphor for integrating quotes
Classical Aristotelian Essay Form
Rebuttal
Compare Contrast Essay: Block vs. Alternating
Works Cited List
Top Twenty Errors
Discourse Community Ethnography
“The Concept of a Discourse Community” – Swales
C.A.R.S. – Creating a Research Space – Swales
“Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of
Food Service Workers” – Mirabelli
“Rethinking Subcultural Resistance: Core Values of
the Straight Edge Movement” –
Haenfler
Coaching article - Branick
Writing is a Recursive Process
Research Synthesis/Argument
Qualitative Research
Field Notes
Observations
Reflections
Ethnography
Interviews
Readings:
English 100 Reader
Brandt
Brown, Hawisher, and Selfe
Douglass
Kingsolver
Liu

4. X
Ortiz
Rose
Freire and Macedo
Freire
Norris
JPII
Branick
Gee
Haenfler
McCarty & Watahomigie
Mirabelli
Silko
Swales
KEEN
Curiosity
Connections
Creating Value
Goshgarian
Rhetoric and Reader – Writing and Research
Logical Fallacies
Rhetorical Triangle
Toulmin
“Advertising”
Surname 1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
The Role of a Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s Life
The article is Finding God in all things: A sacramental
worldview and its effects by Michael J. Himes. In this article,
Himes evaluates the relevance of a Sacrament and the

5. Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s life. According to him, this
principle is what makes Catholism Catholic. He offers a
description of the Sacrament Principle as “what is always and
everywhere the case must be noticed, accepted and celebrated
somewhere and sometime” (Himes 3). In addition, God is
described as the creator of the universe who created out of love
without expecting anything in return (Himes, 4). Moreover, God
is viewed as mystery that man cannot describe adequately. It is
for this reason that metaphors such as the creator and king are
formulated to describe the nature of God (Himes 7). However,
Christians have a fundamental metaphor to refer to God that is
derived from the New Testament. “God is Love” from the New
Testament First Letter of John (4: 8 and 16) is a fundamental
metaphor such that all the other descriptions of God revolve
around it. In addition, God’s selfless love, agape, is contrasted
to eros kind of love. Agape represents love that expects nothing
from the receiver while Eros seeks to gain satisfaction from the
receiver (Himes 9). Agape is the source of God’s creation
(Himes 11). In addition, God loves his creation perfectly.
However, Human being respond imperfectly by failing to
appreciate what God has given them such as grace (Himes 12).
Grace goes unrecognized in the same way that man fails to
recognize other things such as Oxygen that have been offered
freely. There are different Sacraments such as Baptism,
Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination
and Last Rites. A Sacrament represents occasions when grace is
made effectively present. In addition, Himes argues that a
Christian ought to recognize God’s love and offer it to other
people. Religion should also enrich a person’s imagination and
sensitivity to others. Incarnation means becoming more human
by embracing qualities such as wisdom, love and being more
human. I agree with Hime’s argument that a Sacrament plays a
meaningful purpose in a Christian’s life. There are a number of
ethics that a Christian should emulate from this article such as
exercising selfless love towards others, embracing holiness and
appreciating what God has offered to us.

6. Selfless Love
Christians should exercise selfless love towards others. Himes
says that God shows agape love towards human beings. He
created the earth and sustains it as an expression of his love
(Himes 9) Therefore, a Christian, should emulate this quality by
acting kindly towards others. This involves taking part in
community services and helping the poor as acts love.
Christians should also perform their duties thoroughly without
expecting any praise or gratitude from anyone in the same way
that God does not expect anything in return from his creation. A
Christian leader should also be sensitive to his/her juniors. He
/she ought to treat them with kindness just as God loves his
creation perfectly despite man’s imperfections (Himes 9). A
Christian must also avoid vices such as corruption and nepotism
because they affect others negatively. This would be contrary to
God’s selfless love.
Appreciation
Christians should appreciate what God has given them. In this
article, Himes notes that human beings tend to ignore free
things that God has offered to them. He uses a personal example
that he did not understand the significance of blinking until he
suffered from Bell’s palsy (Himes 12). Therefore, a Christian
ought to be thankful to God for thing like children, parents,
friends, nature and air among others. Part of appreciating is
taking good care of these things. For example, the environment
should be protected by discouraging poaching and wrong
disposition of waste. Furthermore, Christians should be part of
organizations or initiatives that preserve God’s creation such as
children homes that prevent children from suffering.
Embracing Holiness
Christians ought to embrace holiness. Himes describes holiness
as an act of being truly human. It involves undertaking acts that
makes them braver, wise, more intelligent, freer, more
responsible and more loving (Himes 16). Therefore, every
Christian has a responsibility of empowering himself/herself.
For example, a Christian youth should go to school and gain a

7. good education. In addition, Christians should facilitate the well
being of others by helping them to mould themselves. These can
be achieved by offering scholarships for students or seminars
that empower people.
Some people might argue that a Sacrament or the Sacrament
Principle does not have any significance in a person’s life.
However, there is need to understand why a Sacrament is
offered. It reflects an individual’s recognition of God’s agape
love to man. It is for this reason that there are different
Sacraments at almost every stage of a person’s life. God
sustains his creation and loves it perfectly. Man on the other
hand has a weakness of failing to recognize this love through
ignorance. However, a Sacrament helps us remember of God’s
perfect love that sustains us at all time. Therefore, a Sacrament
and the Sacrament Principle are vital element of every
Christian.
In conclusion, a sacrament is a reflection of God’s love and
kindness to man. There are many ethics that a Christian can
learn from this love such as kindness and love. It is also
important for Christians to understand the role of the Sacrament
Principle in their life. Understanding God’s selfless love might
be a subjective topic since God shows grace to each person
differently. However, every individual should evaluate their life
and identify acts that might be considered as God’s grace.

8. Work Cited
Himes, Michael. "Finding God in all things:A Sacramental
worldview and its effects." Einfler, Karen and Landy Thomas.
Becoming beholders. Collegeville,Minnesota: Liturgical Press,
2001. 1-17.
Surname
1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
The Role of a Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s Life
The article
is
Finding God in all things: A sacramental worldview and its
effects
by
Michael J. Himes. In this article, Himes
evaluates the relevance of a Sacrament and the
Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s life.

9. According to him, this principle is what makes
Catholism Catholic. He
offers a description of the Sacrament Principle as “
what is always and
everywhere the case must
be noticed, accepted and celebrated somewhere and sometime”
(Himes 3).
In addition,
God is described as the creator
of the universe who created out of love
without expecting anything in return
(Himes,
4).
Moreover,
God is
viewed as
mystery
that man
cannot
describe adequately.
It is for this reason that metaphors such as
the creator and king are
formulated
to describe the nature of God
(Himes 7).

10. However, Christians
have a fundamental
metaphor to refer to
God that is derived from the New Testament.
“God is
Love”
from the
New
Testament First Letter of John (4
: 8 and 16) is a fundamental metaphor such that all the
other
descriptions of God
revolve around it. In addition, God’s selfless love, agape, is
contrasted to
eros kind of love. Agape represents
love
tha
t expects nothing from the receiver while
Eros seeks
to gain satisfaction from the receiver (Himes 9). Agape
is the source of God’s creation
(Himes
11).
In addition, God loves his creation perfectly. However, Human
being respond imperfectly

11. by failing to appreciate what God has given them such as grace
(Himes 12).
G
race
goes
unrecognized in the same way that man fails to recognize other
things such as Oxyg
en that have
been offered freely. There are different Sacraments such as
Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist,
Surname 1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
The Role of a Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s Life
The article is Finding God in all things: A sacramental
worldview and its effects by
Michael J. Himes. In this article, Himes evaluates the relevance
of a Sacrament and the
Sacrament Principle in a Christian’s life. According to him, this
principle is what makes
Catholism Catholic. He offers a description of the Sacrament
Principle as “what is always and
everywhere the case must be noticed, accepted and celebrated
somewhere and sometime”
(Himes 3). In addition, God is described as the creator of the
universe who created out of love
without expecting anything in return (Himes, 4). Moreover, God
is viewed as mystery that man
cannot describe adequately. It is for this reason that metaphors
such as the creator and king are
formulated to describe the nature of God (Himes 7). However,
Christians have a fundamental
metaphor to refer to God that is derived from the New

12. Testament. “God is Love” from the New
Testament First Letter of John (4: 8 and 16) is a fundamental
metaphor such that all the other
descriptions of God revolve around it. In addition, God’s
selfless love, agape, is contrasted to
eros kind of love. Agape represents love that expects nothing
from the receiver while Eros seeks
to gain satisfaction from the receiver (Himes 9). Agape is the
source of God’s creation (Himes
11). In addition, God loves his creation perfectly. However,
Human being respond imperfectly
by failing to appreciate what God has given them such as grace
(Himes 12). Grace goes
unrecognized in the same way that man fails to recognize other
things such as Oxygen that have
been offered freely. There are different Sacraments such as
Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist,
Running Head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY
1
DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY
6
Institution Affiliation
Student Name
Discourse Community Ethnography: Humane soceity
Course Number
Course Name
Professor’s Name

13. Date
Introduction
Discourse communities is a fancy terminology that is used to
refer to a group of people who have common ideals and shared
goals. The group of people have a communication that tends to
bring things in order, this is to mean that the since they share a
common approach to things they can be categorized as one.
Swales sets about common criteria that one will need to fulfil so
as to be able to fulfill the criteria of the discourse community.
The six basic criteria include: share common goals. Genre,
communication, type f rhetor and hierarchy maintained
throughout the system. Each and very concept will be explained
in the process of trying to provide an explanation to the concept
of Humane society so as to be able to show that this discourse
community exists.
Literature Review
John swales has been able to highlight in his book about the
concept of a discourse community and the need of
understanding the concepts and what it entails and also the
requirements. Swales begins with comparing and contrasting the
different that exists between communities, this is based on
speech and text. This type of discourse shows how a community
can primarily be able to focus on how their messages are able to
be gotten across language has to be taken into consideration,
this is therefore effective on how the will end up speaking. This
should not be confused with the notion of people having the
same language which automatically implies that they belong to
a certain group. This is because one can come from a different
population but he or she is part of a totally different discourse.
This was well explained in the article of companion to linguistic
Anthropology a speech a community needed so as to be able to
fit with the requirements of having a local knowledge of the

14. choice of language (Steve, 2006). The other type of discourse
that seems to exist focuses on intertextuality. This has been best
explained in the article titled Intertextuality and the discourse
community, this articles looks at how other texts can be derived
from other texts. Everything that connects to each other in one
way or the other. This is compared with plagiarism where ideas
are borrowed from somewhere else or rather information
acquired to be able to expound on certain issues (Porter, 1986).
There are ideas that simply fulfill the speech through writing.
Swales in his writing states that for one to be able to figure out
the discourse in either the ultimate share of common goals.
There are helpful mechanisms that can be used by people to be
able to retrieve information and feedback. The fourth is
different types of genre to be able to get the intended message
out to people. The fifth, which is more good to the community
that possess them. It also provides hierarchy in the society, this
is to mean that there will be high above certain members of the
community and eventually having the ability to move higher to
a standing point.
Methods
I have settled for the Humane society to observe and record if it
will meet the six characteristics highlighted. The wellbeing of
animals and how they are being treated will be important to be
because my entire life I have had the privilege of having all
kinds of pet. It is not only compassion able to have around all
new additions to the family. Being a veterinarian was one of the
things I desired to become aside of becoming a pediatrician. I
admire this community because the welfare of pets is provided a
significant priority and this really amazes me. I was able to
interview two people particularly Coulehan Ryan who offers
volunteer services and Wong Jennifer who is in charge of the
bringing the pets into the shelter.
I was privileged to get a tour of the facility and being able to
observe the normal or rather the daily life at the humane
society. The interview that I conducted was carried out during

15. the day and I first interviewed Wong to be able to get her views
and later on interviewed Ryan to find out what they look in
before taking in animals. Their answers were almost similar and
I will keep on referring to them. They were able to provide me
of their job details and their daily routine.
Discussion
The ultimate goals of the humane society were to ensure that
euthanasia comes to an end, reduce the number of homeless
pets, create awareness of spay access, rescue groups and
adoption of pets. This are the common set of public goals that
this discourse community seeks to fulfill. This is with regards
to the works of swales that a discourse community needs to
have a common goal (Swales, 1990). To be able to ensure that
this public goals has been achieved the local facilities are not
supposed to turn away any pet but rather adopt them. I was able
to interview Jenifer Wong who handles the welfare of the
animals. She was able to tell me some of her goals and what she
emphasized on the most was to be a no kills shelter and
cultivating a no kill community. To be able to ensure that her
goals was on course the humane society was able to partner with
corporations like summit urgent care, pets smart, pets barn
among others (W. Jenifer, March 12th, 2018, personal
communication). I inquired from her what are some of the ways
the humane society tried to fulfill the goals that they had as an
organization. She said as an organization they were trying to
encourage people to volunteer and that’s why they had people
like Ryan who volunteered. She further added was that they
fostered pets to caring parties so as to be able to create room for
new pets.
A discourse community seeks to have a mechanism of
intercommunication among its members. This communication
can be though social media, email, telephone and of course in
person. The Humane society has made it a priority to be able to
reach out to the members of the community as much as possible
they have also exercised this emphasis on their members to be

16. able to keep up and always dedicate themselves to the goals that
they have. Jenifer was able to state that the Humane society was
a non-governmental organization and therefore it was a non-
profit organization and the only way they could raise money to
fund their operation was to be of service to its members. They
could also raise funds though social gatherings and promote and
advertise shelters.
Conclusion.
Generally, I was able to come to a conclusion that the Humane
society is able to fulfill all the six characteristic that were
mentioned by swales. The Goals of Humane society are all
similar across the country and it uses its own specific lexis and
it has different forms of genres and it has a mode of
communication to all its members. It also has professionals and
well trained members that come from different hierarchies.
Reference
Porter, J. (1986). Intertextuality and the discourse community.
Ethnography Journal.
Steve, J. (2006). Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Wiley.
Swales, J. (1990). Writing about writing. NJ: McGraw-Hill.
Running head: MODERN PROBLEMS ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1
MODERN PROBLEMS ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
5
Modern Problems Annotated Bibliography
Student’s Name
Institute Affiliation
Modern Problems Annotated Bibliography

17. Vedal,S., Han,B.,Xu,J.,Szpiro,A., & Bai,Z.(2017). Design of an
Air Pollution Monitoring Campaign in Bejing for Application to
Cohort Health Studies .Initernational journal of environmental
research and public health,14(12),1580
Air pollution has been a modern problem affecting various
countries around the world. This problem is majorly caused by
burning of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, coal and gasoline
which in other ways helps to provide us power with helps to
move machines for example vehicles. Air pollution has various
effects which can be categorized in short term and long term
effects. The short term effects include headache, nausea and
allergic reactions while the long term effects include chronic
respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, heart diseases and also
damages related to nerves, kidney and liver.
According to Vedal et al. , the estimation of air pollution
exposure is technical and logistically challenging because those
who are investigating on air pollution are experiencing
uncertainties regarding the effects of exposure measurement
error on study of health. There has also been tools which are
used to estimate the air pollution exposure.
There are various air monitoring considerations which must
always be put into practice before any decision is made in
respect to their relative effects. These considerations include
the following; geographic scale which determines the level at
which exposure should to be measured and estimated. The
measurement error is also a monitoring consideration that
should be put into account before any decision is made in
respect to the relative effects. The measurement errors on health
effects is one of the major issue since errors tend to cause
negative estimates which can further lead to incorrect entries.
Measurements error can be classified into classical
measurement errors and Berkson error. Classical measurements

18. produces a downward bias in the estimates while the Berkson
error which reduces the precision of estimates in an error.
Spatial Misalignment and Incompatibility is also another
consideration. Spatial misalignment refers to air pollutant
concentrations being observed at monitor locations that are
different from locations of the population in particular. Spatial
incompatibility can result in biased health effect estimates
caused by air pollution. Existing vs. Study-Specific Monitoring;
this is seen where there are existing and specific monitoring
considerations in air pollution.
According to this article, the concentration and exposure also
affects the decision since the various concentration of air
pollutants should be known. The extent of exposure of the air
pollutant helps in the decision making since the higher the
exposure the higher the effects of the pollution. Finally, other
considerations include among the following; source and
pollutants, exposure time window, evaluation of prediction and
cohort related considerations which involve Geographic Scale
of Cohort Data, Health Endpoints in Cohort Studies, and Beijing
Cohorts.
Neas,L.M.(2000). Fine particulate matter and cardiovascular
disease .Fuel Processing
Technology ,65, 55-67
The article outlines various exposure that are used in estimating
exposures, which include the following ; fixed and existing
administrative which readily available and inexpensive. It may
exhibit spatial misalignment/ and incompatibility with study
cohort. Fixed and study specific which has the potential to be
well-aligned with cohort and is expensive in nature. Others are
mobile, satellite, chemical transport models, dispersion models,
saturation micro-sensor which also have various advantages and
disadvantages.

19. Neas (2000)also state that air quality can improve exposure
measures used in various studies such as epidemiological
studies. We investigated this practice of modelling the air
quality by estimating the location of specific areas and
aggregation of country level. These exposure estimates can be
addressed using data from quality monitors. It is also stated
that many areas such as the urban areas have developed
monitoring networks with historical and available data.
References
Vedal,S., Han,B.,Xu,J.,Szpiro,A., & Bai,Z.(2017). Design of an
Air Pollution Monitoring Campaign in Bejing for Application to
Cohort Health Studies .Initernational journal of environmental
research and public health,14(12),1580
Neas,L.M.(2000). Fine particulate matter and cardiovascular
disease .Fuel Processing
Technology ,65, 55-67
Running Head: LITERACY HISTORY AND AUTO
ETHNOGRAPHY
1
LITERACY HISTORY AND AUTO ETHNOGRAPHY
6
Institution Affiliation
Student Name
Literacy History And Auto ethnography
Course Number: Course Name
Professor’s Name

20. Date
While I was a young Kid I always wanted to go to college, my
dream was to have a career that would give me a certain locus
in the society. As a child this was a dream that seemed to be
fare fetched and I needed people to assist me with my dream. I
needed to be taught how to read, write and talk fluently. This
started at home with the help of my two older siblings, my elder
brother used to love reading and so as a form of distraction he
had to ensure that I get busy so that I wouldn’t disturb him. He
had a book that had animals drawn on it and thus he used to
provide me with the book and tell me to draw animals in an
exercise book that he had bought for me. This was how I learnt
how write since I was able to get a good grip of my pencil. In
due course after learning how to write he was able to teach me
how to read. This begun my teaching me the pronunciations of
the vowels. We had a song that he created to assist me in
remembering the vowels. My mum later on realized the efforts
of my elder brother on how he was teaching me and he bought
us a book known as sound and read which came in very handy
in my reading lessons with my brother.
The positive memories about this experience was that I was able
to learn how to draw and it was really fascinating when I was
able to draw an apple. I had concurred the world, plus the
efforts my brother had given the lessons were very great and I
remember in one occasion he kissed me and carried me up for
being able to read the word America. The negative moments
came when I was sick and unable to continue with our learning
lessons with my brother and this made everyone in my family
sad because if I learn anything new I would sing it the whole
day so that I couldn’t forget.
Most of my curiosity were piqued with my mom, when I wanted
to inquire more I consulted her because I knew she knew
everything and she would tell me satisfactorily on what I
wanted to know. My mum was working with the office of the
department of justice and she knew so many people within the

21. state. She interacted with mighty people and she always
encouraged us to read so that we could be able to have influence
in the society. This was one of the factors that made my elder
brother study really hard. The opinion that I have towards
reading and writing was greatly generated from my brother with
the influence of my mother.
The opinion is very positive because my brother usually told us
that he will read so many books and in future he will write his
own books so that people can get knowledge and we will get
money. My mother usually told us it was through much reading
that one could be able to write things that had a lot of meaning
and sense. Therefore, the opinion about reading was positive
and it gave us the challenge to read so that we could become
productive in the society.
Literacy has its own negativity and one of them is going
through a system where you do almost similar things and you
are left wondered why couldn’t they just harmonize it. One of
the challenges is that the materials that aid in literacy may
become either too expensive or unavailable. This will therefore
frustrate the quest of higher learning because one may not be
able to get the right materials due to various challenges. As
much as the challenges are there the only way to overcome them
will be through knowing what you want at the end of the day.
This is because if we fail to make all the necessary sacrifices
then literacy will be a dream and ignorance is not something
that everyone will desire to have.
My literacy journey has not yet seen any moment that I would
call special but I am optimistic and really anticipating for that
moment. I stand out due to my oratory skills, I am able to
connect various themes from various books so as to help me in
communicating or making a point across. The first book I
remember reading is gift hands by Ben Carson. There is this
paper that I did back in school about leadership, it had an
impact on me in the sense that I was able to learn the various
leadership style and how to become a great and visionary
leader. This has always guided me in almost everything I do.

22. Currently I do not have a favorite piece of writing that I have
created.
The privilege that I have now is that I have freedom and a free
man. The freedom I have allows me to read and interact with
other people this is because in the times of Douglas mingling
with other races was outlawed. Reading was something that he
was not entitled to like I man today and this gives me the ability
to learn more. Douglas had to learn alone and the privilege that
I have now has provided me with the ability of learning in
various places within the country without facing any obstacle.
The only obstacle that I have to overcome is financial obstacle,
this is in the sense that financial resources were somehow
limited and thus I had to make sure that the little I had I used it
to survive. The environment has a bigger role to play, this is
because it is from the environment that the mind is shaped and
one will be able to know his abilities and strength. The
environment also provides people with challenge of discovering
their potential. Social-economic status plays a big role when it
comes to literacy for instance if one lives in a power
neighborhood and want to know the secret of amassing wealth
then the literature that the person will read will tend to focus on
motivational books. If one lives in an area or country that
democracy remains to be a fallacy, then the person will focus on
reading books that have to deal with democracy.
The SES of Appalachians does not differ from that of the people
where I come from that much bit the slight difference is that the
levels of poverty is not that high. Although we are poor war has
not been around us for quite some time and the levels of poverty
has been gradually decreasing. My culture has shaped my
literacy habits in the sense in that people always think that
people from my culture are dumb, I had to and always have to
read to show that we can also be smart and have command of
the language and proficiency to. Liu had to overcome
discrimination and injustices so as to be able to be where he
was.
I have been able to overcome black discrimination in school

23. and prejudice. This is in the sense that blacks were not seen as
being intelligent enough and would always find ourselves in one
mess or another that we had no form of connection with. I was
able to preserver and ensure that I find solace in my books just
not to find myself in any form of trouble.
There are many privileges that I have over Malcom X, but one
of the outstanding one is that education is a right which I am
guaranteed of and cannot be denied under any circumstance. I
can therefore be able to continue studying even if I find myself
in prison.
My experience with good and bad teacher was not bad because
at the end of the day my dreams were bigger than that good or
bad teacher and I had to work extra hard so as to be where I am
today. My attitude mattered and it was only up to me to
determine where I wanted to go and to what extent was I going
to achieve my dreams and desires.
Part II: Auto-ethnography
I usually pick a book for a week and make sure that I finish the
book within a week, then the week after finishing the book I try
and write some few things learned and what can be added to the
book. This is always my form of trying to gauge myself if I
have understood what I was reading. I feel proud of myself
because I have been able to develop analytical skills. I do not
have a special place to read or write but I prefer where there is
silence and some good wind. I usually draft my works first.
Revision is part of the process because it is through revision
you’ll be able to notice certain mistakes. When writing I would
prefer writing on my balcony on my office in my house where I
can have a feel of nature since I will be able to see the sky, the
ocean and the trees. This provides my mind with some sense of
relaxation where I am able to imagine uninterrupted and also be
creative as much as possible. The value I create in my writing is
taking as much as possible time in one piece so as to be able to
deliver something that is valuable to me and my intended
readers. There are no habits to improve since I think I am on the
write path.