Palermo 1

Gabriel Palermo
UWRT 1103 052
First Draft Due 2/2/2016
Literacy Memoir First Draft
While many people may have written about a growing love of literature through a series
of major literacy events, that is simply not my passion. No matter how hard I tried, literature has
never been one of my big interests, but science is. This requires a whole set of literacies to even
begin to understand, from just getting the jargon to understanding the complex mathematics used
to describe the universe. Most of my literacy experiences, while giving me an appreciation for
literature, has propelled my obsession with anything related to science. From my grandfather, an

Commented [1]:
compelling hook here! love the wording

engineer, to my father, a diehard sci-fi fan, I have been exposed to all the coolest topics in
science for most of my life, and I have decided to devote most of my time to trying to understand
and maybe advance our knowledge of the universe. My literacy experiences have drawn me
towards a love of science and discovery.
(passion for math)
I was homeschooled up until the fifth grade, which means my literacy experiences might
be a little bit unusual compared to most other people. Despite my familys efforts, I always shied
away from reading and writing; Instead, I was drawn towards math. I saw this show called
Numbers when I was a kid, and this genius was solving crimes using his skills as a
mathematician. I would see pictures of scientists and mathematicians frantically writing all these
crazy symbols that I did not understand on whiteboards. It was like a foreign language to me,
like looking at ancient hieroglyphics. I knew they meant something. Throughout my childhood I

Commented [2]:
Good passion - missing a thesis or goal with the text
but a strong first paragraph

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was fascinated with figuring out what these meant. When we finally started working on basic
algebra, I became so excited, because I knew I was so much closer to understanding what they
were doing. While I may have just been dealing with basic letters, I knew there would come a
day when I could make all those lambdas, epsilons, and thetas dance around on paper.
(interest in physics as opposed to literature/reading?)
At the same time, I was developing an interest in both physics and space travel. This is
largely because of my dad and grandfather, who had a strong interest in science, which got
handed down to me. My grandfather was an engineer who worked for IBM and helped design
the navigation computers for the Apollo program. Basically he helped us get to the moon. When
I was growing up, I remember gawking at this poster he had that compared a bunch of different
launch vehicles. I had a toy model of the Saturn V that I used to play with all the time. I basically
gravitated towards his interest in space. And then theres my dad, he inherited my grandfathers
love for space and got his pilots license. He majored in physics, measured the speed of light as
his capstone project, and passed his love of aviation down to me. He would tell me about all
these crazy scientific phenomenon, and I was enthralled. You can pretty much say that a love for
science runs in the family. As you can see, I spent most of my childhood daydreaming about
aviation, space, math, physics, etc. while reading and writing skills were basically put on the
back burner.
This is why after a point, I really wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Really good reading and
writing skills (and literacies such as that) were basically put on the back burner, something to be
learned just because everyone wanted me to learn them. I really acquired my literacies early on
as a means to an end for understanding the technical side of the universe. (this seems to detail my

Commented [3]:
maybe elaborate on social expectations here - but a
very good take on your literacy memoir

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near apathy for reading, maybe tie this in to the next section to explain my first actual major
writing experience?)
(literature and writing is kinda ok??? Literacy event #1)
I started attending a public school in the fifth grade, and naturally I was a bit
apprehensive about my English class, but I specifically remember thinking that it was not as bad
as I had expected. It really started clicking with me when I had to write my first formal paper. I
think we had to write about some sort of prominent even in our lives, or maybe something we
did over the past summer (I do not remember many of the specific details). The summer before, I
took my first flying lesson out of a local municipal airport which basically kick started my love
for aviation, so it seemed to be the most natural thing to write about. I think the point of the
assignment was to introduce us to the official writing process, the one that is divided into
discrete steps. (maybe compare with graff article here). In doing this assignment, I really learned
that English is not really as difficult as I had been making it out to be, and that it is rather easy to
do an essay of the same sort of scale that I had done.
(connection to Graff article)
(hardcore science here)
When I was in middle school, I did the science Olympiad every year. The one event I
remember above all others is the one called reach for the stars - basically an introduction to
astronomy and astrophysics. This event consisted of compiling and memorizing enough
information to fill a one-page study sheet and take a test at the event. I fell in love with it almost
instantaneously. In order to explain this, let me give a more detailed background on my family..
As I scanned through all the online articles, databases, etc. about space, I gained most of my

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knowledge about our current understanding of the universe. I wanted to keep learning as much as
I could, which is why studying for this event made me want to study astrophysics, and while I
have broadened to simply understanding more about the world, I still have the passion for the
cosmos that I attained while in middle school (I think it has actually started growing since I
started playing Kerbal Space Program).

(more on facination with space)

Near that same time, a certain book helped to expand my interest (and eventual growing
literacy) in space travel. This book was the story of a few kids my age who managed to build a
space craft and fly it to mars, with the help of a retired astronaut, his nephew, and a means of
propulsion that is impossible by todays understanding of the universe. This book was Red
Thunder by John Varley, and while it did not have any immediate effect on me when I first read

Commented [4]:
italicize i think

it, I somehow kept thinking about the premise for years.

(connection to Graff article here should I put in by the red thunder paragraph or my first
major essay???)
My experience with literacy is somewhat similar to Gerald Graffs. In his article,
disliking books, Graff explains how he grew up with an aversion to books. He decided to

Commented [5]:
italicize and capitalize

major in English in college (something that does not quite make sense to me considering he isnt
into the whole reading business). While there, his experiences with literary criticism changed his

Commented [6]:
I felt the same way

mind, and discussions about literature became his passion. As opposed to Graff, I did not
actually have an active aversion to literature; rather, I was simply interested in other things and
I never really bothered to find the time to devote to general reading. I did have a bit of a

Commented [7]:
Why do you think you werent interested

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turnaround much like he did when exposed to literary criticism. Over the course of my senior
year in high school, I became interested in becoming more knowledgeable in general, leading to
a greater interest in books.

(research paper)
Last semester was probably one of the most prominent literacy events of my life. I had a
seminar class specifically for new physics students, and I had to write a research paper based on
new research. Frankly, there was always some doubt in my mind whether or not going into the
research business was right for me. This started changing when I had to research a topic in
physics and write a paper on what I found, modeling it after an actual research paper. In my
search for a topic, I found that I could get interested in just about any kind of research I could
find, even though I could barely understand a majority of what they were saying. This solidified
my interest in going into research for a living. I found that I could get interested in just about any
scientific paper no matter how boring it may seem on the surface (I did my paper on freeform
lenses in street lights). I have come to the realization that this will come in handy when I end up
as an engineer for NASA trying to pour over the technical details of some obscure part on the
engine trying to make it more efficient.
(connection to discourse communities and Swales article this should definately go here)
I guess you could say that this paper was like my introduction to the discourse
community formed by physics researchers all over the world. By making me pour through a
bunch of research papers looking for material to write about, my professor got me exposed to the

Commented [8]:
Strong voice in this whole paragraph - I can sense your
passion!

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activities of the scientific community, and in a sense, had me jump in for a bit to see what it was
all about. This became my entrance into the discourse community as defined by John Swales.
(connection to Sherman Alexi article learning to read using a superman comic book should I
lump it in here with reading scientific research, or connect it with my mathy talk?)
I think my introduction to the scientific discourse community provided by that paper
helped me to learn to read science in the same way that Sherman Alexi learned to read with a
superman comic book. I used this research paper as an opportunity to learn about and research
some jargon commonly used in the physics community as well as a specific subfield. Similarly,
Alexi used a superman comic book to become acquainted with some basic words and
grammatical structure (such as the usage of paragraphs).
To finish off, I still have a very long way to go with my literacy development. While I
have not developed any sort of burning passion for literature like many of the authors we studied
described, I have developed an interest in literacy to be explored during my free time. My
familys background in the sciences have sponsored a strong interest in science myself,
particularly in physics. A few science fiction books recommended by my dad coupled with my
learning about current space exploration efforts are inspiring me to develop my literacy in rocket
science. As a result of this push, I have become obsessed with learning as much as I can about
the universe, which includes general information in addition to the math behind it.

Commented [9]:
strong finish for your paper- maybe talk about how you
plan to use this literacy in your future - Im very excited
to read your drafts

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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." Writing about
Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A
College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014.
N. pag. Print.
Graff, Gerald. "Disliking Books." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By
Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. N. pag. Print.