Jannelle Curtiss

Dr. Griffin

UWRT1101

The Evolution of Pictures and ABCs

As if it was a ritual my mother and I would sit down at least once a week and read one of
the many books that were stacked on the shelf. I would always have the pleasure of eagerly
scanning through all the books to find the perfect one to read that day. Even though the pictures
were my main focus I listened merely to my mother reading in the background. The many
pictures of people, places and animals always kept me interested in finding out more. With
enough repetition, these pictures simultaneously matched to the words that my mother spoke.
The first animal that I learned was a mouse from my favourite book Hickory Dickory Dock.
This was a very significant moment in my life because I began to relate words to pictures which
allowed me to understand the stories more. Essentially my first experience of writing was in
kindergarten. I remember the dotted alphabets which I had to trace until I could independently
write the alphabet by myself. My kindergarten teacher made this experience very exciting for me
by always doing fun games and activities that included writing. To this day, my mother still has
the papers were I barely managed to keep my yellow Crayola in line while tracing the alphabets.
Despite the fact that I didnt understand the importance of learning the alphabet, this would be
the foundation for my future writing and reading experience. As time went on both my reading
and writing evolved from pictures and ABCs. They now became a foundation for expressing my
thoughts in essays and being able to express myself by reading. Moreover, it also allowed me to
excel in both primary and high school.
My most memorable literacy experience, however, was in high school. Regardless of my
spectacular work in primary school on essay which include winning an essay competition in the

Jannelle Curtiss
Dr. Griffin

UWRT1101

5th grade, I had an extremely difficult time in high school mastering essays. I have always been a
fair essay writer, nevertheless, being a fair essay writer did not result in positive the grades.
Midway in my senior year I was determined to stop receiving those mediocre grades that I
consistently got on my English essays. However this task took a long time before I saw any
progress. This was mainly because of our Bahamian culture which spoke broken English. This
caused many grammatical errors in my essays. Earlier in the semester, every English essay I had
was flooded with red ink which pointed out my errors of verb pronoun agreements. Like most
students, the first time this happened I immediately went to the teacher to get help. Initially she
just read over what she wrote on the paper which didnt help at all. She told me that it was
something I should already know. This was very aggravating because I was trying to
understand how to make my essays better yet she was assuming that I should already know the
concepts despite the fact that it was evident I struggled in this area. Eventually, I started to ignore
the usual red markings on my essays and decided to do it on my own. First I decided to do
something I never usually did. A week before an essay was due I would make sure that it was
proof read at least twice before I handed them in. Unfortunately, I still ended up with a score of
14 out of 20. Determined, I went to plan B which was to let a teacher proof read. The next essay
that was assigned I had an English teacher proof read it. He pointed out my errors and went over
it with me. This helped me slightly to understand some of the things I was doing wrong. With
this out of the way, I was positive that with all my grammatical errors now corrected I would get
a higher number. Surely enough, I eagerly got my paper back and with great disappointment I
saw the score of 14 out of 20. This was a very frustrating time and I was devastated. If an
English teacher couldnt help me then I was surely doomed! About three weeks had passed by
and my plan to get higher grades on my English essays slowly diminished.

Jannelle Curtiss
Dr. Griffin

UWRT1101

Coincidentally, my close friend was going through the same dilemma. One day after
getting back her essay and seeing this same repetitive bad grade, she came up with an idea. Her
idea was to ask one of our schoolmate for help. At first I was very sceptical about the idea but I
was out of options. I knew that she was an excellent essay writer but did she have the ability to
find grammatical errors and explain them? She proofread our essays and to my surprise she
spotted errors and talked about ways in which we can improve our essays. She broke down the
essay word by word and ask numerous questions while doing this. She thoroughly explained why
I should have wrote, they were rather than they was. The way she explained my errors made
me aware of the minor details that I always have to pay attention to while writing an essay. When
I got my essay back the next week, I was completely astonished. My score was 16 out of 20.
Evidently it wasnt an A but it was an improvement! There was less red ink on my paper and I
could see that this was something that I constantly have to work on in order to become better.
The feeling that I indeed brought up my essay score was a great accomplishment and I will never
forget that day.
As we can see reading and writing are two critical things that are essential for everyday
living. It allow individuals to express themselves and obtain knowledge. The thought of not
being able to read or write is appalling. Most individuals take these simple, everyday abilities for
granted. Just imagine not being able to explore the wonders of a beautiful novel or not being able
to expand your knowledge because you cannot read? This means that an individuals ability to
receive an education would be very hard or impossible to obtain. If you cannot read, applying for
a job would be absurd. Thus you can see the domino effect of not having a job. This would mean
that individuals would not be able to have an income which leads to being homeless. Reading
allows the expansion of my vocabulary and can also be very informative. When coming across a

Jannelle Curtiss
Dr. Griffin

UWRT1101

new word while reading, it can be very difficult trying to pronounce it and understand what it
means in that content. The feelings that are felt during this experience are those that are felt by
those individuals who cannot read on a daily basis. We can revert to the dictionary to understand
what the word mean. Those who cannot read are left in a sea of confusion. Additionally reading
allows me to escape the world when I need too. It places my thoughts in a different place and it
can be very relaxing. Similarly, writing is just as important. The art of writing allow individuals
to express their thoughts and spread their knowledge as well. If I wasnt able to write, the
everyday passing notes in class wouldnt have been possible. Those letters from secret
admires wouldnt be the same if an individual cannot read or write.
The ability to read and write are very essential part of life. These skills should never be
taking for granted. The saying, You dont know what you have until its taken away states it
clearly. Can you imagine life without reading or writing? I know that I could not.