Miguel Montano Professor Wolcott ENC 1102 Reading Journal #2: Deborah Brandt, Sponsors of Literacy Summary Brandt,

Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." College Composition and Communication. 49.2 (1998): 165-185. Web. 27 Aug. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010096X(199805)49:2<165:SOL>2.0.CO;-2D&>. Analysis 08/26/2012

Literacy sponsorship doesnt mean just a person teaching another how to read or write, it can be the situation youre in as a result of overriding trends or institutional demands. This view of literacy, as developed by Brandt, This article begins with an example of how treats those who have yet attained it as raw changes in sponsorship can result in changes in materials in the mass production of literacy, in this case printing press workers information, turning it into not just an losing their literate status. This example individuals ability or capacity, but as a transitions into her definition of literacy quantified good which can be exploited by sponsors as mediums in-between powerful others. A key component of sponsors within interests, and the raw materials that are the this context is that they seek to gain some sort illiterate. She then goes on to describe her or benefit or profit from helping another work, a study of how the 20th century changed achieve literacy. In this way sponsors hold the the nature of sponsorship due to genesis of new power of literacy above others, which exploits technology and mass media; as well as the rise the fact that it is virtually impossible to learn it of commercial sponsorship to the forefront of without any access to the necessary materiality. literacy development, instilling values and Sponsors thus use these resources as tools to morals on a massive scale. The rest of the garner compliance and loyalty from the article articulates upon her three points of how illiterate masses; and even though the sponsor access to literacy is still very socially stratified, appears as more knowledgeable and how sponsors react to the perceived gap entrenched economically or culturally than the between rising standards of literacy and sponsored, their relationship is essentially peoples ability to meet them, and how reciprocal, and without being able to control he encounters with sponsorship can be terms of their clients literacy development, innovatively misinterpreted and altered to they can often end up losing whatever they become tools for an individual development sought to gain. In this method literacy ties and social change. together all social classes, since no one is born with that ability; but it also creates an inherent inequality among the various levels of literacy, as well as the obvious influence of the sponsors over the sponsored. Thus the societal and economic changes have made it so despite increasingly widespread educational opportunities, a sponsors benefits from

Montano 2 creating literacy, as pertaining to social class and who obtains it, still control the access and materiality available to the illiterate. Also, despite increased literacy rates, the minimum requirement for what can be considered literate has risen considerably, making literacy not just about reading and writing, but about various other abilities such as computer skills or public communication. This transformation of the definition of literacy has created more room for those on the receiving end of the sponsors to interpret their interests however they want, since it is much harder to regulate the internet than the single printing press in town. Literacy is thus essentially paradoxical in nature, since it is promoted as a tool for change and progress, and yet created within an inherently oppressive context.