Journal Entry #3

A huge surprise has came to Precious! The same principal who suspended her from the local junior high school, recommends her to a school called “Each One Teach One - Higher Learning”. The school is an alternative school and helps teens receive their Pre-GED and GED degrees. Precious, now at the age of sixteen, still cannot read at all and barely recognizes numbers. She is placed in the Pre-GED class with her teacher, “Miz Rain”. I began to recognize the author’s dialect and how it places emphasis on the book. When I read the book aloud, I tried to read in an accent of a “New-Yorker”, since the book is set in Harlem. More specifically, the author uses a lot of slang and improper terms. Instead of saying nothing she may use the word “nuffin’”, or instead of miss, the word “miz” is used. In my opinion this comes from the typical language of modern-day teenagers. Since Precious cannot read or write, she uses a lot of “baby” words and is not expected to talk proper. There is also a lot of repetition used which may have been used to make the reader pay special attention to the point being made.

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