Mika Tabanera

Literacy Narrative

I can’t slack and be left behind on my academics in this odd and different school
year as I can’t afford to let my parents down. But as I fought to keep my grades above
the water, I had to get through my major assignments in my writing for the Sciences
class.
My literacy narrative was the first writing piece in this class, introducing me
to everyone and the professor. In this writing, I had to gauge my writing capacity, as it
was supposed to be a professional piece of writing. In hindsight, I didn’t heed that
requirement, and it became casual writing. Considering that I still stand with the
narrative, writing is still on and off for me. But I do like to read when I’m not doing
much, mostly since I’m indoors 24/7. My queens’ library is still closed sadly, so I
haven’t been able to return or get new books anymore. I’m afraid it might be closed for
good or at least until the pandemic quarantine is lifted. In this narrative, I had
mentioned that one of my pet peeves was when I was forced to read and write about a
book in class. I understand that it makes life easier for the teacher as they all have to
read and grade a multitude of papers every year.
In our first group assignment, we had to break down a forum concerning
global warming. In this instance, the increased global temperatures threatened the
quality and stockpile of wine in California due to the shortage of water available to the
crop wine. In the United States, wine is produced in mass by California more than
every state combined. This requires a huge amount of water to keep this amount of
alcoholic juice going. With freshwater becoming ever more scarce, we are running out
of options. If the loss of wine were a reality, California would lose a generator of money
in its economy, as wine is its #3 cash crops. My group was able to convey this
message efficiently, and we could get a good grading from our professor.
Before our first major assignment, we were given how coronavirus is
ravaging through the middle east. Due to the impoverished people and war riddled
infrastructure, social distancing was impossible to follow, and face masks were scarce
and expensive in this saddening text. In my rhetorical analysis, I went in-depth about
how, in Syria, a Middle Eastern country, its government failed its people to ensure their
safety. They basically abandoned everyone that was exposed to coronavirus because
they had a lack of ventilators and PPE. Stating that “The country is spiraling out of
control, and its government is doing next to nothing to curb coronavirus. You feel the
frustration and pain these people face every day in reality, and it’s sad this continues to
this day.”
In my first essay, the rhetorical analysis essay, I made a colossal mistake
in not including a rhetorical analysis into the essay, resulting in me not receiving a grade
for that assignment. In this writing, I tried to explain the MTA measures to curb the
spread of coronavirus in their public transport services. From sanitizing to tirelessly
advertising social distancing protocol, I feel I could push the facts out but not turn it into
a rhetorical analysis essay. I didn’t introduce the rhetorical question in the introduction,
which might have saved me. All-in-all, it was more of a source-based essay, proving a
point with evidence. I feel I had the right idea, I just hadn’t capitalized on it, and I
missed out on the opportunity to make it an actual rhetorical analysis essay. Sadly, I
don’t think I can take back that essay so late, so I’d have to live with it.
My second major assignment was where I finally found myself, but it
wasn’t the best writing piece in my resume. Focusing on misinformation, I tried my best
to explain why baseless claims were killing the American population. I wanted to focus
on the American government’s coronavirus response and how President Trump’s
handling was lackluster when he claimed his actions on the pandemic was the best
around the world. This paper was personal to me because when my uncle nearly died,
Trump and his followers thought that the coronavirus was a hoax. I didn’t necessarily
wish them to get coronavirus, as we were all in this together, but it seemed they reaped
what they sewed.
During this time, I was more or less exposed to more left-wing media more than
ever in my life, since they usually sided for social distancing and was critical of Trump
for the reasons stated before. One of these platforms, Vox, made a video on how we
should handle pandemics. In press conferences such as those that took part at the
White House, a professional or scientist should be spearheading the meeting. The
politician should be on the sidelines mainly because those who don’t politically support
him think he is incapable of leading. But in this case, Trump was leading the
conferences and contradicting the lead scientist of the pandemic, Doctor Anthony Fauci.
As one that doesn’t follow conspiracy theories, it was frustrating to see the United
States president lead our country into the ground. It was probably one of the more
politically charged essays I have ever written in my life. But that’s part of growing up,
and adulthood as this was my first year of voting for the President of the United States.
In my major assignment #3, it was a group project with my peers. In our case,
we chose to stay close to our current situation, and we wanted to show the significance
of vaccines. We used the Simpsons to illustrate how viruses are spread and how we
use vaccines to counteract sickness to convey our message. In our story, Bart’s
character contracts a virus from Ralph’s character, getting him an automatic visit to the
doctor’s. We could convey how vaccines work, how by exposing the body to weakened
virus cells, the body can learn how to fight off the real deal without putting the person at
real risk. I was put in charge of the illustration and editing any errors, and it was a fun
project to partake in. So that was a wrap for my major assignments.
There was an obvious theme that all my works had, all of them having to do one
way or another with this current pandemic of coronavirus. It had affected us all harshly
during this hard and trying year. Looking back, life changes in different ways, and we all
need to adapt to survive, especially since we all are still breathing.

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