Blog 1: Emma

Hi my name is Emma McLeod. I’m 22 years old, a senior at Chico, and I will be graduating at the end of this semester with an English Studies degree. I’m from Davis, CA a small town about 2 hours away. I grew up loving to read and write which is why I decided to choose this major, but I still always get asked, and never know the answer to what I’m going to do with it.

After reading Szwed’s article on literacy my thoughts on the purpose and scope of literacy changed dramatically. I used to think of reading and writing as a skill that was necessary to make good grades in school. We needed to learn to read and write in order to respond to the questions our instructors asked us. But in reality, literacy is about much more. I use literacy in more ways that I consciously recognized: reading traffic signs, identifying brands, interpreting numbers and their meaning, basically we read hundreds of things everyday without realizing it. Literacy is a huge part of life and I believe it is a basic survival need. You must have some sort of understanding of the symbols and environment around you in order to do everyday things. Although, what it means to be literate in society is different for every person due to their background and upbringing. My idea of literacy along with many other college students is the ability to read college level texts, analyze them, and then respond to them in an academic style. For someone else however, their literacy doesn’t need to reach that standard. For example: it is necessary to fill out an application when you apply for any job (or create a resume), which requires knowledge of the English alphabet and simple spelling and sentence structure. So, in order to be a functioning member of society, basic literacy skills are needed.  Therefore someone may seem “illiterate” in the sense that they can’t spell or use correct grammar up to their age standard, but if they are able to keep up with society’s pace they may be literate according to their personal needs, which is a different type of literacy than the one that we are taught is acceptable in school. It was strange to think about the scope of literacy in that sense, and realize that our personal social construct of reading and writing standards may not be the most accurate one.