O’Donnell 1

James O’Donnell

Heather Vazquez

Composition 1

21 october 2023

Interests, Internet, Instructors: What Shaped Me

When I was young I enjoyed learning new words, in part to fuel some form of superiority

complex, but also because I just felt invigorated when I used words you would seldom hear. As a

result, my language became jumbled and I constantly had to explain what I was saying leading to

where I am now. My current language -both written and spoken- is an odd jumble of references

and phrases from media with slight traces of when I was a walking thesaurus. My jumbled Commented [JO1]: Removed unnecessary words to
make more clear.
writing isn’t the result of the culture around me but instead of my experiences and interests in

this world. Examining my life I think I can trace the biggest changes in my literacy to my 5th

grade teacher Mr. Ogle and the internet.

I, like virtually every human to ever live, did not enjoy school very much, not because the

work was difficult -in fact, I enjoy challenges- but because I felt bored and as a result would

never put in effort for classes I didn’t care about. 5th grade would be one of the only years of my

life where I honestly tried in an English class. To understand why the class had such a profound

effect on me I feel that I need to explain a few things about how my elementary school

functioned. Starting the year I entered 5th grade the school instituted a new policy where each

student would have 2 main teachers one to teach math and science and the other to teach English

and history. Mr. Ogle was my English/History teacher and was known even outside of the school

for his unique way of teaching I'm confident that there has been at least one news article about Commented [JO2]: Removed unnecessary words to
make more clear.
him. I won't pretend to know exactly what a standard 5th-grade class was like. Still, I doubt that

they involved reading a classical novel like “Huckleberry Finn" every week to write a 5
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paragraph essay about or a year-long role-play session of American history. The books did

succeed in expanding my vocabulary and with the sheer magnitude of essays I wrote and/or

graded that year I think that my style of writing is still heavily based on that class. However, the

reason why these classes had such a lasting impact was not because of how it was taught but

instead who taught it. Mr. Ogle is one of the only teachers I've ever had to call me out when I

didn’t put in the effort. He would pull me aside when he noticed I only skimmed a book or if my

writing was worse than it normally was. Literary sponsors are defined as “ Any agents, local or Commented [JO3]: Removed unnecessary words to
make more clear.
distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate,

suppress, or withhold literacy”(Brandt 247). then I would say Mr. Ogle was the sponsor that

enabled the expansion of my literacy the most.

Then came middle school where I found the second major literary sponsor in my life The

internet. Since I am an introverted person by nature and none of my classes had any memorable

effect on me at this point the biggest sponsor in my life was the internet. During this time I got Commented [JO4]: Removed unnecessary words to
make more clear.
into a webcomic called “Homestuck” which is not only one of the longest English works ever

made -when measured by word count- but also what pulled me into the rabbit hole of the

internet. From this point on I began to consume memes and comics at a rapid rate adding

references to them in my sentences at random. While everyone else around me was gaining an

understanding of other dialects and languages, I was attempting to consume every meme that

existed and include it in my speech. And although this is by no means conventional I feel it is an

example of Code Meshing which Young defines as when we "blend dialects, international

languages, local idioms, chat-room lingo, and the rhetorical styles of various ethnic and

cultural groups in both formal and informal speech acts." (331). Young states that “The Commented [JO5]: I removed the redundant usage of
the article's title and moved the quote from later in the
essay to here in order to explain code meshing as this
Internet, among other mass media, as well as the language habits of America’s ever-growing is the first time it is mentioned.
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diverse ethnic populations be affecting how everybody talk and write now, too.”(333) Like

Young said the Internet has been teaching people new ways to write and speak as a result

causing a mass shift in human literacy. I would argue that including words and phrases

from internet culture daily such as acronyms and memes is an example of code meshing.

Each of the references and memes holds their meaning as a result of the context the

internet provides (i.e., pog means something great) so I feel as if the internet has a common

language based on references and memes that can be code-meshed into mundane speech.

Since the internet has caused such a major change in how I and many others speak and

write it seems fit to be deemed one of my major literary sponsors. Commented [JO6]: I revised the section to properly
discuss the quote as I had initially misread the quote. In
addition, I expanded the argument and tied the quote
Soon after middle school ended I began to try and learn Japanese over the summer which back into my main discussion for the paragraph.

led to an example of code meshing more reminiscent of what is commonly thought of. With the

rise of Japanese media in the West and my endeavors to consume all forms of media, it was

inevitable that the 2 would collide. As a result, I began to include the more well-known Japanese

words while hanging out with friends i.e.; “nani?” which means “what?” or “baka” meaning

“stupid”. I mostly started including them as a joke but I believe that it is still an example of code

meshing as when talking to certain people I will sometimes include random Japanese phrases

(“owari da” “bakana” etc.) out of habit. I think that this is an example of code meshing in a more

traditional sense since it blends international languages. Young's description of code meshing Commented [JO7]: Moved quote to previous
paragraph
proposes that blending international languages is a form of code meshing and even though I

mostly use the words as jokes if they are used in mundane conversation I believe that this is an

example of code meshing. By meshing Japanese into my sentences I felt proud of myself for

gaining the knowledge and being able to apply it. Using my broken Japanese allowed me to

connect more with others who had tried learning the language and those with similar
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interests who could understand and laugh when the words were used as jokes. In the end,

learning Japanese was the result of my interests but allowed me to connect deeper with

friends or others with similar experiences. Commented [JO8]: I added this to expand on how
learning Japanese affected me and my identity.
Once high school started back up I had stopped trying to learn the language and

completely forgot most of the grammar and how to write. I only retained a pretty strong

vocabulary which is enough to randomly add words to sentences while hanging out or

understand movie scenes when subtitles don't load. My life continued much the same as it did in

middle school until sophomore year when COVID-19 hit. During 2020 I rarely contacted any

of my friends and as a result, I lost all of my interpersonal connections leading to the

majority of my exposure to language being from YouTube instead of other students, while I Commented [JO9]: Restructured to make more
concise
had a pretty good understanding of what people around me were saying before COVID-19 after I

returned to school I barely understood anything people were saying it didn't help that since the

high school was open to a larger area more people spoke with different rhetorics. My junior and

senior years were spent without attempting to rebuild any former connections or build new ones,

so I rarely understood what people around me were saying (unless it was “proper” English) and

would just smile and nod. I had to use Urban Dictionary constantly to understand what people

were saying (it took me 2 weeks to decide to try and figure out what Rizz meant).

Nearing the end of high school another major literary sponsor that I had was the

requirements for the Bright Futures scholarship more specifically the required SAT score and

my desire to achieve it. The score itself did not do much as a sponsor rather it was my

desire to succeed on the test and achieve the scholarship that pushed me as a literary

sponsor, and as Brandt stated, “literacy takes its shape from the interests of its sponsors.”

(Brandt 251) so as a result of my desire to understand the grammar used on the SAT my
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literacy changed to accommodate the new writing style. showing that even just the desire for Commented [JO10]: The original version of this
portion had an improper literary sponsor and an
unrelated quote so I changed both what I referred to as
a scholarship can function as a literary sponsor. My desire to guarantee 1330 or higher on the my sponsor as well as the quote to support it.

SAT did encourage me to do several online exercises and quizzes to relearn “proper” English Commented [JO11]: Added clarification on how I
relearned "proper" grammar.
and grammar which then in turn mixed with my style of writing causing me to add large amounts

of punctuation and appositives as is no doubt visible in the above paragraphs. As I stated at the

beginning my current literacy is a jumbled mess of references and tidbits that I have gained

throughout my life not tied to a particular culture but to my experiences and interests. All the

things that have shaped my literacy have also shaped me as a person and allowed for

connections to others. in the end, the small references and random words make my literacy

feel like my own and make me feel like my own person. Commented [JO12]: Attempted to strengthen
conclusion. As there was no explanation for why any of
this mattered.
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Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing. 4th ed., edited by Elizabeth

Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford/St Martin’s, 2020, pp. 245-265.

Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “Should Writers Use They Own English?” Writing about Writing.

5th ed., edited by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2022, pp.

324-333.
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Writing contract questions:

1. What is important to you in your writing?

Ensuring that my thoughts and emotions get across.

2. What are your writing strengths?

I would like to think that I have a pretty extensive vocabulary and a decent knowledge of

literary devices.

3. What writing strategies, skills, and techniques do you hope to learn?

Figuring out proper word choice and punctuation.

4. What kinds of writing strategies do you expect to do in your major/minor degree and

future profession?

Mostly simple and direct writing with basic proofreading. Computer science is

not necessarily known for extensive or creative writing. Writing in my future profession

will likely be made up of emails to coworkers and comments in code.

5. What would you like me to focus on as I comment on your writing?

I think what I could benefit from most is comments on word choice since I often

accidentally shift the tone of my writing multiple times throughout.

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6. Can you think of any additional question(s) that you would like me to ask you or

information that would be useful for me to know as I respond to your writing?

I can't think of anything important.

7. Is this your own writing and have you cited any sources that you quoted or paraphrased?

yes.

8. Is there anything that you struggled with in particular with this assignment?

I struggled to come up with how to respond as I felt I did not have a very good story

about my literacy.

9. Is there anything you'd like me to know as I read your project?

I didn't get my hands on a physical copy of writing about writing before this so 2 of the 4

cited page numbers are not accurate however they should be roughly correct.
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Reflection

While working on this essay I struggled to find a clear focus and ended up just

deciding to write about my life in chronological order trying to hit all the major literary

sponsors. Once I had completed the literary sponsors, I then chose to focus on somehow

tying them into a cohesive point. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was writing when I

first started but after getting all the major events down on paper ideas began to form. The

essay required me to understand both what literary sponsors and code meshing are to

properly construct a point, luckily, I had no issue with this. Although I didn’t struggle

with understanding the concepts, I also initially forgot to properly introduce them

something I rectified in this draft by moving a quote to an earlier point. Of the decisions I

made for the general audience was providing base-level information so that the reader

might be able to understand. As far as stylistic choices go the most prominent decision

was that I chose not to focus too much on an overly formal style of writing as it fit with

the message of Young’s work.

My essay had several issues that I learned of through feedback. Most of the

feedback was on run-on sentences and improper wording with comparatively fewer

points being made about the actual argument. After receiving feedback on my wording

and sentence structure I ran the essay through Grammarly and then read through it myself

fixing anything I wasn’t satisfied with. The feedback on the content itself although much

lesser in number cleared up several points where I only lightly touched on ideas or used a

quote incorrectly. I used the feedback on the content to try and create a stronger point and

refine the parts where I had improper quotes. In truth, I wish I could improve the overall
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point into something more cohesive and also the general structure as both are relatively

weak and would take a long time to change.

The essay was relatively easy compared to other writing assignments I have had

in the past as the essay was based on personal experiences which made coming up with

what to write simpler since I could just list chronological events and then tie them to the

point. Ironically enough this is also what I struggled with the most as I had trouble

defining a narrative about my literacy at first, but I feel I was able to overcome this

simply by writing ideas that come to mind repeatedly until something stuck. This essay

opened my eyes to how much I need to improve my structure as well as the concept of

code meshing as that was completely new to me in this course. If I had more time for this

essay I would love to try and rewrite the whole thing from scratch in order to try and fix

the issues with structure as well as try and search harder for a more defined main point

that I could write about.