Assignment 4

What is literacy?

Literacy can have a traditional definition of "the quality or state of being literate" (Webster's Dictionary.) It can simply mean that you know how to read and write  in any language. However, I think that being fully literate requires a little bit more. To be literate, I believe you need to do something with your skills. You have to desire to learn more and understand more. You can't be simply content with writing simple sentences and reading  "The Cat in the Hat." For example, once Frederick Douglass could read and write the basics, he pursued this further. He read more and more books and wrote every chance he got. He desired to be able to read complicated books and write intelligent papers. Also, being fully literate requires you to understand what you are reading and writing. A caveman could write the alphabet on a wall and not be fully literate. He does not know what he is writing, nor does he know what the symbols even mean. To be fully literate, I think you need to be able to comprehend what you are doing. You can't just read a psychology textbook; you have to be able to understand and interpret the information and form opinions based on it.

So appropriate for our last assignment ^