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Delaney Brigman
Connie Rothwell
UWRT 1103
March 14, 2016
Sponsors of LiteracyMy Version Reflection
During my time writing this paper, I found that this paper was harder for me to write than
our last narrative. Not that this paper was hard to write, but I feel like my narrative flowed better
and came to me easier. Although some of things about writing this paper were difficult, I found
some to be easier than my narrative.
One thing that did not work well for me in this paper was that I was still trying to grasp
parts of Deborah Brandts article while simultaneously trying to write a paper about Brandts
article. It was a difficult article to read because of its length and the language used in the article,
therefore, it made it more difficult to write a paper about it. One thing that worked well during
my process of writing this article was having my narrative and my group members narratives to
use as examples in my paper.
The people in my group that reviewed my drafts were Mia Haddock, William Bekolo,
and Xzhevion Myers. Unlike during my narrative reviews, my reviews for my Sponsors of
Literacy paper were helpful. The reviews were helpful because my group members let me know
when something in my paper did not make sense and when I should change the way I said
something in my paper to improve it. They, also, would not only give me negative feedback but
would give me positive feedback as well. The review process could have been more helpful,
however, if we had had our group members read more than just one of our drafts.

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One of my favorite parts of my essay is when I was able to talk about how important
sponsorship is and how it played a part in my passion for music. Without my sponsors I would
not be the same person I am today.

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How Access and Sponsorship Affect Individual Experiences
Have you ever wondered what makes two people have different experiences with the
same event? Or why does one person experience something that another person does not? These
are some questions that Deborah Brandt helps answer through her article, Sponsors of
Literacy. Brandt discusses various ideas throughout her article, such as sponsorship and access
that help us answer these questions.
In her article, Deborah Brandt describes sponsorship and sponsors to be, the figures who
[turn] up most typically in peoples memories of literacy learning: older relatives, teachers,
priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, influential authors, (Brandt 3). Brandt stresses
how important sponsorship is when it comes to learning how to do new tasks or gaining new
knowledge. In whatever form, sponsors deliver the ideological freight that must be borne for
access to what they have, (Brandt 4). Before reading Brandts article, I thought of sponsorship
as something that was only involved in entertainment or media, such as when you are watching a
television show and they may have a commercial or product that sponsors the show, just like
Aleve sponsors the show Jeopardy. Even though that is one kind of sponsorship, Brandt is
talking about people who sponsor or help you learn something new in your everyday life. You
might even think of it as having your own little fan club for everything you do. When I, for
example, was learning how to play the viola, my grandmother, my mother, and my orchestra
teacher, Mr. Miller, were my sponsors. They all supported me and helped me gain the knowledge
I needed in order to learn how to play the viola. My grandmother has been a sponsor in many
parts of my life. She and my mother were both sponsors for learning to play the viola because
my grandmother had been a middle school choir director and a private piano instructor while my
mother had taken piano lessons and was a drum major in school. They both told me when I was

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going into middle school that I had to choose an instrument to play so that I would keep the
music going in the family and it would give me an extracurricular activity. Both my mother and
my grandmother were supportive of my choosing to play the viola and have been my sponsors
from the day I began playing the instrument to this day where I still currently play in college. My
middle school orchestra teacher, Mr. Miller, was also one of my sponsors for learning to play the
viola. He was enthusiastic and encouraging the entire year that I had him as my teacher. He
would always tell his students to keep practicing and never give up. In order to gain new
knowledge and learn how to do new things, you need to have a sponsor.
Another topic that Brandt discusses in her article is the idea of access. She describes that
not only is sponsorship important when it comes to learning new things, but so is access. Access
is being able to obtain and utilize certain objects and information in order to gain knowledge or
have an experience. Various types of access allow for people to experience and learn about
different things. Many people have different access than others depending on where they live,
their demographics, their ethnicity, their culture, and many other factors. Brandt says, A
statistical correlation between high literacy achievement and high socioeconomic, majority-race
status routinely shows up in results of national tests of reading and writing performance,
(Brandt 6). For example, Mia Haddock talked about learning how to produce and mix music with
her brother, who was her sponsor. If Mias brother did not have the money from his job and did
not live in an area where he could purchase all of the equipment needed to produce and create
music then Mia may not have ever learned or had the opportunity to learn how to produce music.
If she lived in the 60s she would also not have had access to all of the equipment she does today.
Because her brother had all of the production equipment, it was easy for her to have access and
get to her brother to help her when she was learning this new skill. Although Mia and I both had

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access to music, we had access to different types of music. Mia had access to music production
equipment and I had access to a viola and baby grand piano. We both gained knowledge of music
but they were two different experiences and different types of music.
Sponsorship and access both play a bigger part in life than you may think. Learning
would be a lot more difficult without someone being there to help you or encourage you to learn
something new or without being able to access other information or objects that you need in
order to learn something new. There will always be at least one sponsor for everything you do,
whether it be yourself or always changing from one person to the next. Access will constantly be
changing as well as the years go by and technology advances to new heights. Everyday tasks and
newly learned information require some type of sponsor and access.

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Bibliography
Brandt, Deborah. Sponsors of Literacy. College Composition and Communication.
49.2 (1998): 165. Print.
Haddock, Mia. Sponsors of LiteracyMy Version. 2016.