Could you please check my sentence structure and grammar? They are two questions about Malcolm X:
1. How did the process by which Malcolm learned to read differ from the typical way people learn to read?
2. Malcolm tells us that he learned to read by teaching himself. What else did he teach himself while he taught himself to read?
1. In general, common people start reading from the comic books, in which they learn the meaning of sentences from pictures and acquire vocabulary. When they go to school, they learn how to read from teachers while they also learn vocabulary from the readings. Unlike common people, Malcolm X learned how to read in prison without any previous knowledge of reading and vocabulary as in the essay, "But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn't contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese." Struggling on the vocabulary, "[Malcolm] saw that the best thing [he] could do was get hold of a dictionary- to study, to learn some words." After the collection of a great number of words, he had no problem understanding books, and thus he began to devour books as possible as he could. In addition to the desire of knowledge, he was also motivated by many erudite people, such as Bimbi and articulate debaters. Perhaps the biggest difference between how Malcolm and common people read is that Malcolm enjoyed reading and he could spend all his time for books, as he said,"Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk."
2. In order to be able to read, Malcolm taught himself through the dictionary. He copied all the content from the dictionary, and reviewed them everyday. By doing that, not only had he taught himself the vocabulary, he had also learned how to write fast and accurately. Also, from the readings, he learned the ideas of other people, history, archeology, religion, genetics, and other kinds of knowledge that he couldn't learn from school. From all the knowledge he had taught himself, he was influenced by the history of Africa, the black people in America, and how white people "whiten" the history, which eventually made him a great public speaker as well as a human rights fighter.
"In general, common people start reading from the comic books" I don't know that this is necessarily true. Also, don't confuse "common people" with "typical people" -- the two adjectives have very different connotations.
If you are going to quote Malcolm X, you should cite your source(s).
"By doing this, he not only had he taught himself the vocabulary, he had also learned how to write fast and accurately"
"Also, from the readings, he learned aboutthe ideas of other people, history, archeology, religion, genetics, and other kinds of knowledge that he couldn't learn from school." In what way can people not typically learn about history, archeology, etc. from school?
After the collection of a great number of words, he had no problem understanding books, and thus he began to devour books as fast as he possibly could.
In addition to the desire for knowledge, he was also motivated by many erudite people, such as Bimbi and articulate debaters.
Perhaps the biggest difference between how Malcolm and common people read is that Malcolm enjoyed reading and he could spend all his time with books, as he said,"Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk."
He copied all the content from the dictionary, and reviewed itevery day .
From all the knowledge he had taught himself, he was influenced by the history of Africa, the black people in America, and how white people "whiten" the history, which eventually made him a great public speaker as well as a fighter for human rights.
The other way, it sounded as if he was fighting human rights!
:)
