The Struggle with Vocabulary- Personal Narrative

343 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: harmful effects of watching tv essay

The Struggle with Vocabulary- Personal Narrative

Ani DeFranco once screamed in one of her songs, "You're like one of those zombies in Vegas pouring quarters into a slot machine." Even though Ani is an angry musician, there is truth within her lyrics, especially in this one. These lyrics remind me of the youths in our culture (generation X and Y) today. We live in a world where mass media manipulates minds. We are all guilty of turning to MTV for news, Ricki Lake for advice and reading Cosmo instead of challenging ourselves with a classic novel. With all of the mass media feeding into our brains we have turned into zombies.

When I was a little girl I can remember sitting on the couch with my usual position of eyes glued to the TV and hearing my sisters faint voice from miles away trying to talk to me. It was as if the television was my escape from reality. The television literally sucked me in and I had completely no control over it. I think back to those days and can't believe that I allowed myself to be so controlled by something. Yet, I still find myself watching TV, listening to music, and reading magazines all at the same time. With this addiction of watching TV, I have noticed a major decline in my vocabulary, writing, and communication skills. It has become a major struggle finding the right words to express myself without sounding uneducated. Moreover, I have come to realize that I accepted this downfall. I have yet to challenge myself and allow myself to rectify the situation. "…anyone who listens for long will find himself wondering if it doesn't signal a decline in vocabulary, and perhaps even literacy" (555).

In the essay, "It's Like, EXTREME, But Not GROSS," the author, Scott Leigh, says the television erodes vocabulary not only through its own least-common-denominator language, but by supplanting that greater builder of vocabulary and knowledge, reading. Whenever I turn on the television I see and hear nothing but "garbage." Society has become so desensitized this "garbage" that they act and speak according to what they see and hear. I hear it in my vocabulary.

Show More
Related

  • Abuela Invents The Zero And Tuesdays With Morrie

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    A personal narrative is a story of something that happened to you in your life. A personal narrative allows you to share a something like a story that happened to you in your life ,or to teach people about yourself. The strories “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Abuela Invents the Zero,”and Tuesdays With Morrie have in common is the conflict is between a young person and a older person.Man vs self is the main conflict in most stories. Man vs. Self is used most personal narratives because most of

    Read More

  • Using Expository Text in the Secondary Classroom

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    that students ... ... middle of paper ... ... or she will read will be good factual materials. The teachers can incorporate a variety of texts to help students better understand the materials that need to be covered. This will help students who struggle with expository text to be less bored and keep up with the rest of the class. References Expository Text Structures (n.d.). EXPOSITORY TEXT STRUCTURES. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/venekaml/Lewis%20and%20Clark/EXPOSITORY%20T

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass: The Dehumanization Of African American Slaves

    1734 Words  | 4 Pages

    Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.

    Read More

  • The Giver, Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl

    606 Words  | 2 Pages

    Giver explains a world in which humans have little to no choices or personal rights. The world in which the characters live in is depicted as utopian, but turns out to be dystopian when the main character is chosen for a special talent. After being chosen, he can see all the choices the community isn’t allowed to make, and he makes readers clear on how unfair it is. He sees how little equality each community member has and struggles with how to handle the memories and information he receives. This

    Read More

  • Offred's Struggle to Maintain Control Over Her Own Life in The Handmaid's Tale

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    How Effectively Does Atwood Present Offred's Struggle to Establish/Maintain Control Over Her Own Life/Identity The Handmaids Tale is a woman's autobiographical narrative that challenges the absolute authority of Gilead, highlighting the significance of story telling as an act of resistance against oppression, thereby making a particular kind of individual political statement. Such as when Offred steals the butter from the dinner table to use as hand and face cream. " There's a pat of

    Read More

  • The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and

    Read More

  • Best Practices In Vocabulary Analysis

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    teachers to be successful. The first method discussed in the article was explicit instruction in vocabulary development. To learn vocabulary, phonics is a very important tool. The article states word knowledge seems to occupy an important middle ground in learning to read. That simply means students must understand how a word sounds, looks and means to understand the reading. Students’ today struggle with relating what they read to what they see in everyday life. The more words the students know

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Writing Journey

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    increase my knowledge and vocabulary. This was an incredibly wondrous experience for me. I was learning new information while expanding my learning capacity. This was stupendous. It was a life-changing moment for me. Throughout my high school journey,

    Read More

  • Outline On Drafting A Personal Narrative

    1992 Words  | 4 Pages

    Drafting a Personal Narrative Overview: We each have significant events or “chapters” that make up our lives and have helped shape who we are becoming. A personal narrative is an essay in which you tell the story of one of those important memories, lessons or events. Your narrative, will include characters, a series of related events (plot) and a setting. Beyond just explaining what happened, however, an excellent personal narrative also reflects on what the incident meant to you then and what

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Language Arts

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Language Arts may not be my best subject, I really do enjoy writing narratives. Because I am an imaginative and creative individual, creating a plot and characters is something that comes easily to me. With this, usually while writing any type of passage, whether informational or not, I do not need to plan out what I am going

    Read More

  • Improving My Writing Skills

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    fantasy. These are my favorite type of books. So far I've done some writing pieces that required to be written in different modes such as, argumentative me narrative. This is my midyear reflection

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinua Achebe chose to write his novels in English to reveal a deep response of his people to colonisation and to make that response understood to people all over the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people worldwide of the struggles he faced and the people of Nigeria faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ adding their valued opinion on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay I

    Read More

  • Analysis Of ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    person perspective and revolves around her personal struggles at Yale. In Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Packer uses flashbacks and vivid imagery to show how Dina is not in tune with herself physically or emotionally. This results in her inability to cope with her life in the rich white world of Yale as an African American woman or how to cope with life when traumatic events happen. Even in the beginning of the story Packer uses the first person narrative and vivid imagery to show how Dina closers herself

    Read More

  • Writing Skills In Nancy Sommers's I Stand Here Writing

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    It became clear to me that her essay was a narrative; however, Sommers was able to compose it in a way that it remained academic. In general, if I were asked what I consider scholarly writing I would answer research projects as well as informative essays. Sommers says “ I am a writer, not a cook, and

    Read More

  • A Critique of Chapter 11 in Neil Postman's Technopoly

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    A "Technopoly" (a word postman capitalizes throughout the book) is a society that no longer merely uses technology as a support system but instead is shaped by it. Postman proposes that we become "loving resistance fighter(s)" who retain "the narratives and symbols that once made the United States the hope of the world"(p.182). He believes education is to lead the resistance against technology by changing the curriculum to help restore a sense of meaning and purpose lost to the Technopoly. This

    Read More

More about The Struggle with Vocabulary- Personal Narrative

Open Document