During my 18 years on earth I have found reading to be very helpful. When I was younger my mother use to always read to me at bedtime as a child. My mother use to make me write words and spell them out. If I ever had children, I would definitely read to them because they may comprehend it more quickly when he/she starts school. During my time in elementary school my comprehension was behind and I was slower than the other kids at sounding out words. I took classes over the summer and even during school all through elementary to help with it. I am not a reader so I have not read many books but the one book that I have read and liked would have to be “of mice and men” because it was very interesting to me because I have

brothers and they have problems too so I could relate. Reading articles about interesting topics like my home town and slavery are good articles I like to read. I do listen to audiobooks and follow along because I suffer from migraines and so I can only read about 5 pages before I start to get a migraine and that’s all I will be able to do. Listening to audiobooks helps me because I can read along and follow and not have to get a migraine and stop. With audiobooks I still get headaches but I will be able to get through 2 or 3 chapters before I have to stop.

        Growing up I was not taught SQ4R and I do not know what that is so I would not know others that are like that. In my past reading experiences going back to elementary and middle school I did skim through books to find answers because I had to read the book but I could never

finish it but during high school the books that I read or listened to, I read word for word without skimming because most of the books I read caught my interest. When I was in middle and high school reading was not important to me but I do think that reading books improves your comprehension and the ability to exercise your vocabulary and helps with grammar. As much as I hate reading and English and feel we don’t need to be taught it I think it is very important to any level of education from before starting school all the way until you get out of college.

        Knowing my past experiences and coming into college I feel that the role of reading will help me improve on my comprehension and grammar as well as other aspects of the English process. I hope to of have a better control of my grammar because I don’t feel that it is where it needs to be as a college student. I do not have any reading difficulties, the only thing I have is when I read I get migraines. Now, I am a first generation college student and I am proud because my two older brothers dropped out of high school to get their GED and I finished high school and graduated and now I am in college and I hope to travel down the opposite road than them and show my little brother that anything is possible and it shouldn’t be okay to quit school just because it is hard. My little brother who is 6 and about to turn 7 and he looks up to me and I want him to have something to look up to and say that if my brother can do it then I can do it.

            This semester I have learned many valuable strategies as to my reading and writing. In class, we have learned many summarizing strategies and studying tips. “SQ4R” is a wonderful reading process in which we can accurately summarize an article or website for a resource. Engaging in the texts and finding out what is important in the article and looking at everything such a pictures and subtitles helped me in my writing process. Summarizing articles and paraphrasing are also excellent ways to avoid plagiarism when writing my essays. Having these valuable reading and writing strategies helped me improve in my writing this semester.

             The most important step in writing is research. Research has a lot of steps as shown by Landsburger, author of “Study Guides and Strategies”, and the authors of “Little Seagull Handbook”, Bullock, Brody, and Weinberg. Landsburger gives very in depth examples of how to research and what to look for when researching. Little Seagull Handbook has similar suggestions to Landsburger website when looking for research on the internet. Both sites show how not to plagiarize; Although, the handbook goes more in depth to talk about what you can do to avoid it. Evaluating the content and making sure the site is credible is also talked about in both websites. Asking questions is important in research and you can find what kind of questions need to be asked in both websites. In the handbook you may find better explanations and understanding for your thesis and other research guides and strategies you may have questions on. Both of these websites can help you ensure that you don’t plagiarize as well as help you get a better understanding of how to critique your well researched paper.

            This English class has taught me so much about reading and writing, more than all of my 12 years of schooling combined. The most successful thing that I have learned and will take will me is critical thinking and engaging in the text and breaking down the article. There is much more information being conveyed if we dive deeper into the text and take the time to research the information. Class projects and documents we have read throughout the semester has taught me to think more about what is in between the lines than the words itself. Now, although I have learned many valuable things, I do need to improve on my revising process as well as my writing and using correct grammar. Every area in the reading and writing process can be improved no matter how well educated you are. I do feel that what I have learned in this class will help me further my way into college as well as my profession and helping others with their writing as well.

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Work Cited

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Landsburger, Joe. "Study Guides and Strategies." Research and Reading Menus. Web. 08 Nov. 2016. <http://www.studygs.net/shared/reading.htm>.

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Bullock, Richard, Michal Brody, and Francine Weinberg. "Digital Resources." W. W. Norton & Co. Web. 10 Nov. 2016. <https://digital.wwnorton.com/littleseagull2>.