My Theory of Literacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My Theory of Literacy - Essay Example Computer skills are needed in education as well as in the job. What good an individual that can just read and write do in the contemporary organization in which manual work has been replaced with mechanical work? In the past, individuals with an ability to write and read were considered literate because these two skills sufficed to be employed in any organization, but contemporary organizations are way more demanding. The contemporary definition of literacy is incomplete unless the significance of computer skills is acknowledged and set as one of the criteria for judgment of an individual literacy. Charles Bazerman defined literacy in these words, â€Å"Literacy does not require or inexorably lead to any particular development, but it is a powerful tool available for organizing, extending, providing resources for, and transforming all of our social endeavors† (Bazerman cited in Goggin). Writing is conventionally associated with creativity. Every piece of writing has to be orig inal or it would be considered as plagiarized. Thus, writing is essentially a creation and the writer is an inventor, but Bazerman does not consider such a person necessarily literate. His definition of literacy requires a literate person to be able to organize, promote, support and transform his/her social efforts using his/her literary skills. All of these functions are achieved with a computer these days. Computer helps organize the data. Programs like Microsoft Excel help not only organize the data, but also perform different kinds of functions upon it. Programs like Corel Draw transform imagination into reality. An in-depth analysis of the computer skills suggests that use of computer does a lot to improve a person’s social and critical analysis skills. â€Å"Many contemporary perspectives on literacy view scripted text as one component of complex acts and practices of written communication that occur in social contexts† (Goggin). Modern age is characterized by so cial media. Today, writing has evolved so much that it encapsulates a lot of linguistic styles that were unknown to the writers of the past. Old literature is characterized by formality. Modern literature is informal to the maximum limits. In the past, there used to be abbreviations for long words. Nowadays, there are abbreviations for phrases. For example, â€Å"also known as† is written as â€Å"aka†, â€Å"laughing out loud† is written as â€Å"lol†. These are only two of the hundreds of abbreviations that chatting on social media websites has given birth to. Today, an individual who is able to write but does not understand or use these abbreviations in the scripts is as illiterate as anyone in the past who could not write. These abbreviations and such other modifications of literature are a result of the time-based modification in the assumptions and values of people. Robert Scholes had realized the importance of modern and emerging linguistic pattern s in the writing back in 1985. He expressed his realization in these words: What students need from us . . . now is the kind of knowledge and skill that will enable them to make sense of their worlds, to determine their own interests, both individual and collective, to see through the manipulations of all sorts of texts in all sorts of media, and to express their own views in some appropriate manner. (Scholes cited in Schwartz). Of the two texts, Schwartz has presented a more rational analysis of the concept of literacy by emphasizing upon the need to

Explain a possible message that the author suggests through his story Essay

Explain a possible message that the author suggests through his story - Essay Example or denotes that, â€Å"Bill and himself had a capital of six hundred dollars, and they needed another two thousand dollars to initiate a fraudulent scheme in the town of Western Illinois† (Henry, 9). However, this plan was foiled before it becomes a reality. This story has a hidden message that there is no need of fearing criminals, but we should face them in boldness. Courageously facing criminals is a sure way of preventing the emergence of a crime. This is depicted when the red chief, did not fear the criminals, hence, making desire to abandon their mission of collecting ransom from the father. Sam and Bill initiate a plan of kidnapping Johnny, the red haired son of a prominent citizen by the name of Ebenezer Dorset. The intention of kidnapping this child was to claim for ransom, in order to finance their illegal activities. Initially, it was a good idea for these criminals to kidnap a wealthy child, as it would be a sure way of raising the ransom money. This is depicted when the narrator denotes that, â€Å"It looked like a good idea, but wait until I tell you. We were in Alabama, down South, when this kidnapping idea came up. It was an idea of Bill† (Henry, 11). Through this passage, we are able to find out that the two criminals liked this kidnapping idea. This is because they thought it was the easy way of raising money to engage in their criminal activities. However, as the story unfolds, they find out that they were wrong to target the red haired child of Ebenezer Dorset. This is because they were unable to contain the characters of Johnny, the Red Chief. Johnny, the Red Chief did not fear the criminals who kidnapped him. This is because when they arrived at their cave hideout, Johnny began playing with them. On a normal situation, a child who is kidnapped will begin crying, seeking for his or her parents. This was not the case with Johnny. Johnny begins to drive his captors to distraction with his malicious pranks, unrelenting chatter, and he demands that