Nunez 1

Ayra Nunez
English 5M
Professor Doutherd
20 September, 2017
Slickery
Throughout the early years of my education, I was required to participate in the
unpleasant Competitions of Oral Language the school held annually. Since my literacy skills
were insufficient, my reading pace fell under the category of being labeled as an average
reader. Meanwhile the rest of the other children were skidding across words making it sound as
if it were fluent gibberish. Inside, I felt humiliated because my classmates made it appear as
though their monologues were imprinted on the palm of their hands. Then there was me,
spending five whole crucial minutes enunciating the word slickery. It was until my third grade
year where my distaste for poetry and memorization shifted gears and I became very fond of it. I
remember my best friend and I were grouped together to perform a duo monologue. We had
rehearsed the lines over and over until it was securely embedded into our minds, so that we could
win the grand prize the school had promised to the top three performers. Sure enough, all the
dedicated time spent in practicing our monologue had paid off when our names were announced
through the intercom as the first place winners. When I received my reward I was
discombobulated at the fact that it was a yellow blocky 4,000 page dictionary. What was even
more strange was when I found myself bored I would read, highlight, and look up unfamiliar
words for entertainment. After this moment on, my strength in reading and writing increased;
thereafter, I no longer struggled to read simple three letter syllable words. Throughout my
journey, I had acquired my knowledgeable writing skills from my sponsors of literacy,
surroundings, and rigorous class courses in which sculpted my strengths as a multilingual writer.
Hence, I was the first sibling out of three who took off to attend a University away from home.
Growing up, I would surround myself with people who were raised with spanish as their
first language. In fact, about 80 percent of my towns population was hispanic. This is where my
influence of spanglish converged into my everyday dialect. Author Gloria illuminates how, our
tongues have become dry the wilderness has dried out our tongues and we have forgotten
speech (2). I could relate to her logical statement because I came across a difficult situation
where I had to select only one language to live by. I later established a malformed dialect that
had been an influence from my friends in elementary. This adjustment challenged me
academically throughout the field of english because instructors did not accept a paper with
colloquial diction. However, I may have not been advanced as all the other kids, I was fortunate
enough to have two sponsors of literacy heavily involved throughout my youth. Those sponsors
were my older brother and sister who taught me english as my first language. Whereas, they
were raised under a spanish speaking household when they were my age. They had faced a
tougher route when it came to reading and writing years before I was even born.
Another contributing factor which led me to face scholastic challenges, throughout my
youth, was making the decision of picking illustration books over educational novels. If my
 Nunez 3

parents were like those who were mentioned in Deborah Brandts article where the 20th century
protestant families claimed that writing was viewed as a vital necessary standard for their child
to have an upward mobility in society (Brandt 47). If there was a flaw in the educational
system they would fight the system. The difference between my parents and the 20th century
guardians was, under my household any kind of book was O.K. for my parents, including
coloring books. Whereas, protestant families would have rioted if their child was coloring in
school. Despite my parents not knowing what would have benefitted me, I do not blame them.
A young hispanic woman, presented in Deborah Brandts article, displays a similar connection
with my situation because she did not have strong progressive resources. This lifestyle had set
her to take a little longer to adapt correct reading and writing skills, but it did not impede her
from going to a university.
During high school, I had performed less common mistakes when a reading was assigned
or a write a college level paper. The reason why my academic skills had increased significantly
was due to the maturity, and growth I had accessed as a Multilingual Writer. Since I attended a
public school, they did not offer students the best advanced english course. Still, I had taken
advantage of enrolling myself into advanced placement courses. Yet, I began to get an actual
glimpse of what the college expectations of a reader and writer were until I took Advanced
Placement Literature class, my senior year. It took me multiple redos as a bilingual student, and
no other better way to explain than Anne Lamott did, Even after Id been doing this for years,
panic would set in. Id try to write a lead, but instead Id write a couple of dreadful sentences, xx
them out, try again... (529). This quote signifies how it took me many tries to be able to write
effectively and fluently to an audience. Even my first encounter with Shakespeare terrified me. It
took me back to my nightmare memories as little girl not being able to read fast like the other
kids. Luckily, I did not back out because I came across magnificent literate books. Such as,
Frankenstein, Brave New World, The Namesake, etc. Overall, I began to think complex
and understanding the various formats of writing an author would utilize.
On a final note, being a Multilingual writer is difficult to adjust to, specifically in a
demanding educational system. Since I grew up with two unalike languages, enrolled in a public
school with a limit in providing students beneficial resources, and friends who spoke more than
one language became an academic obstacle growing up. Having said that, I was fortunate enough
to have sponsors of literacy who prepared me as much as they could, so that I could be able to
comprehend a fragment of the American teachings. It was the little opportunities I came across
which helped me sharpen skills in reading and writing. When I was first introduced to reading
and writing I would describe it in the words of Lamott, the first draft is a childs draft(528).
Coincidentally, she was right. I have been through so many shitty drafts throughout the
duration of my life, but because of my ability of knowing two languages, I know that I will
always have trials in reading and writing. Yet, I have accomplished so much since winning the
Oral Language victory. My journey had taken off after that moment as a Multilingual writer. My
ambition to endeavor academic achievements as slickery as possible.
 Nunez 3

Revision Summary
The most corrections I had made was to the intro paragraph. The very first edit I had
made to my paper was the first sentence of my intro paragraph. I felt like I should've worded it
 Nunez 3

differently and I came up with, throughout the early years of my education instead of what I
had previously, growing up I had a minor hatred. Other edits revolved around fixing
grammar mistakes, adding descriptive words, incorporated adverbial conjunctions, and italicized
the word slikery to create a dramatic mood or make an obvious connection to my title. My peers
did not suggest many ideas throughout my essay. I only received feedback on paragraph two
about, explaining what sponsors of literacy and how they have helped me before. So, I took the
advice and touched the topic about how my brother and sister had it tougher than I did, but they
were kind enough to guide me a route they were lost when they were my age. Another major
modification I did to my second paragraph was completely changed the direction of two
sentences before introducing the resource I had used and explained the quote in other words. I
did not include the information which was in parenthesis (my first sponsors of literacy) because I
felt like it was not professional, and I could just simply add it as a separate sentence to able to
elaborate more about who my sponsors of literacy were. As I kept reading my essay, I had made
small revisions because I felt like the rest flowed. For paragraph three I completely got rid of the
sentence, ... but my situation is similar to of Doras in Brandts article, it was too choppy and
awkward. I remodeled my diction I had mentioned in the very first sentence of my fourth
paragraph. I typed about how my mistakes were decreasing instead of talking about maturity
which was a disconnect to the point I wanted to make. Another piece of information I excluded
was listing all of the books. I felt like it was not impactful enough for my reader, therefore it was
unnecessary to mention all of them. I also noticed that the last sentence for my fourth paragraph
was unimportant and just extra verbiage I did not need. As for my conclusion, I had received a
comment from my peer that there was some confusion, and suggested that I could expand on the
idea of my final point. Also, to tie it all together because it seemed a bit cut off. To specify and
fix my conclusion I had taken out the part where she was confused about being too old for Oral
Language, and I just thought that maybe not everyone is required to do oral language
competitions. Lastly, my final edits were making a connection from the previous paragraphs and
how it has benefitted me as a multilingual reader and writer, today.