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Garrett Simes

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103

September 13, 2010

Self Assessment: I am much more satisfied with this draft than my last. After reading my
talkback, I changed the wording and added here and there. I am very satisfied with this paper.

Guess Who’s Not Illiterate

Being literate is a beautiful thing. Many people take for granted the ability to read and

write. Most people don’t even realize what life would be like without being literate. It is

impossible to go one day without the need for literacy. Words are inescapable and when a

person can’t read or understand them, it’s hard to function. Our literacy is greatly affected by

what are called “Sponsors of Literacy.” Sponsors of literacy are people places or things that

positively or negatively impact a person’s literacy.

I, like most people, started learning my literacy at a very young age. Early on my literacy

was learned mostly from school. My parents never discouraged me from reading, but there

wasn’t a huge push for me to read. Elementary school did a lot for my literacy. My school had

quite a few programs that really encouraged me to read. The single biggest program was DEAR.

DEAR stands for Drop Everything And Read. After I learned how to read we had DEAR once a

day. It really helped me that I had no option but to read. I also greatly benefited from the

reading incentive program my school had. They gave pizza or ice cream parties to the classes

who did the most reading logs. How better could you encourage young kids to read than free

pizza and ice cream? I’ve also had my fair share of human sponsors of my literacy.

My dad was one of my first sponsors of literacy. He never gave me pizza for reading like

my school did, but he did help my literacy. My dad has always been the one who helps me with
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anything relating to English. This is pretty strange considering he is a professional engineer.

Regardless, he always helped me when I needed to spell a word or edit my papers. My dad also

taught me my automotive literacy. I know a fair amount about cars and how they work because

of my dad. He gave me a pack of Hotwheels when I was little and it has snowballed from there.

I am now so literate that I can change my oil and fix everything that goes wrong on my Jeep. He

is not, however; my main sponsor of literacy.

My main sponsor of literacy would have to be my grandmother. She minored in English

in college and it has certainly helped me with my literacy. My grandmother has been handing

me books for as long as my dad has been teaching me about cars. My grandmother always helps

me edit essays and anything relating to grammar. Whenever I use improper grammar in her

presence she corrects me; she even corrects me mid-sentence. She didn’t just encourage my

academic literacy but she has also developed my computer and religious literacy. My

grandmother has used and built computers since the personal computer came out. She has

always given me knowledge and access to computers. She gave me my laptop for school, so she

is still helping me become more computer literate. My grandmother is also an expert when it

comes to religious texts. She was a huge factor in my confirmation into my church. She is

always there for me to ask questions about my faith and to teach me something I didn’t know.

I don’t think I could have had any better sponsors of literacy. The sponsors I have had

have been all I could have ever wanted. If anything, I could have better taken advantage of

them. I never really have been very interested in reading and improving my literacy. All my

literacy other than cars has been somewhat forced upon me. My automotive literacy is the only

one I have really been interested in improving. So much so, that my major is related to cars.
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I am very blessed when it comes to literacy. I have had tons more access to literacy than

the majority of the world. I am literate in academics, computers, religion and cars. Many people

would sacrifice to be literate in one of those areas. My literacy is where it is because of

numerous factors. My schooling, dad and grandmother in particular have been my major

sponsors of literacy. As my literacy and knowledge grow, so does my power and ability to

influence others.