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Jarvik Joshi

English

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Mrs. Keaton
Septernber 19,2012

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If somebody were to
vague answer would be,

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come up to me four weeks ago and asked me what literacy is, my an ability to read and write". As cliche as

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it

is, the reason why

would have given that answer is because that is what the iechnical definition in the dictionary is
and that is what I was told.

After spending four weeks reading other people's definition of

literacy, having variety of group discussions, and doing a lot pondering I have come up with my

definition of what literacy is to me. I am not yet going to say it but

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One thing I was really astounded by was hearing pthefi$.{."f"_r_1iq} q{!!lqfpfy-.

I tg4-qg-I heard

clue that one can consider having literacy in one specific subject like math. From what

and agree to is you could be literate in let's say math but not be as literate in chemisky. For me, can say that

am literate in math because

I scored higher in that section compared to other

sections. So part of my dehnition relates to different types of literacies one can have and

it
reading,

doesn't have to do anything with being focused on one specific subject. From one

ofow

Danielle DeVoss can be considered literate in computer science because she wrote codes for video games (DeVoss, 397). At the same time, she wasn't as literate in social skills because the way she communicated with other people was through chat rooms which made her lack those social skills.

Another piece of my definition of literacy has to do with an ability to comprehend. Being

able to figure out or understand what a certain object is trying to say or aonvey. In one

ofour

discussions, some of us talked about a picture being worth a thousand words. A picture can portray many types offieefing or thoughts or ideas or emotion!. y;o.,.gdp.B,i[i4ggES-ffi[igg#;.ip
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That is why, despite having more than 6000 languages in the whole

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world, people across the world can relate to emotions. If you are smiling, you are happy. If you
have a frown on your face, obviously you are sad. That is why you don't have to know words

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order to understand everything. A great example would be dogs. How do dogs know when you
are sad or happy? $,you.are1,ha$pf;r.do$l.also..rEulll,.be:jgyfuli.qfld.wi1l.p.1i*]l!:with.]ri]ui.:,ff.yotrg!d.:$q4; thor.

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human emotions so according to my definition of literacy, he would be literate in reading emotions.

The hnal part of my defrnition has to do with communicating. $.thiS:Small,*orltt we,are

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order for a human being to thrive, it is necessary.tU:eommunicate

and getyour message acrossilEqf

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not saying that technical definition of literacy is wrong. As I said earlier, there are more than 6000 languages around the world. It becomes hard for everyone to communicate since we all
understand and speak different languages.

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.and explanatiptts,,.rf you aie discusins ydu

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If we were naive

enough to think that everyone

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understands English, we would be wrong. These days you need to know at languages to

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arowrd the world. One can argue that we can use

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sign language which is universal but not everyone knows sign language.

Summing it all up, my definition of literacy is being able to comprehend

and
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communicate information or a message, may it be in one specific area or wide variety of

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Questions

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use them and not only

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tha! their audience start believing in their words? Is it because that their it because they mejust ignorant enough to only care for the

audience is not literate or is

money
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and not how they are impacting the community? I understand the words that they come up go with whatever they are saying but

with
,

if a young child listens to the rapper

and grows up

listening

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to wrong words, wouldn't it affect its ability to read and

write, ,tha

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Is technology really effecting how we write and read? [1memG*rur,4aa.,4#rnitdy,:a-fi.4l..tg

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we really don't pay atffion.,&l wdting the word right assuming the computer or phone
change, Is technology being a negative factor in being

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literate?
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Why is it that now a days you need to have a decent education (at least
degree) to get a decent living? Is

bachelor's or
a

master's

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it forcing people to be smartefl Obviously there is

lot

of
thet

.....

competition these days and everybody is trying to get an education so that they can better

lives. What happens to people who are academically challenged but have some sort other talent that can't be expressed by a

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