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Adrian Ancajas
7 October, 2014
Writing 1010-018
Nancy Roche
Literacy Practices
According to Barton and Hamilton, one of the most essential part of our language today
is literacy practices. It is who we are as human beings when it comes to those literacy practices.
They refer to common activities and tasks in which literacy is the main part of it. It involves
attitudes, values and often incorporates into our social relationships which help connect people
one another. All in all, these are some of the activities that literacy has a role. As we can see
here, one can observe that literacy practices set on different discourses that are in our society
today. Historically, literacy has affected us and has truly been part of our daily lives. Therefore,
this means that it can be observed that literacy affects us both in our personal and personal life. It
also sets us up for broader social goals and practices as well.
Today, literacy is best understood truly as a set of social practices. It has been observed
that it can involve reading, writing, and social structures which can constitute as discourses.
There are different domains for the different literacies in life in the social world. Social literacy
is the best form of understood literacy because it is best projected in groups. Many events on our
life come from daily, repeated activities - such as talking with friends or going to a meeting which can be the basis of social literacy. Depending on the occasion, some of them are either
structured or informal. Literacy events are usually activities in which literacy has a role in which
the events get involved into the literacy itself. This concludes that literacy is an important part of
our social and personal life.

Historically, literacy is often shaped by the institutions of the world. Evidently, most
literacy components are actually cultural phenomena that is situated from the past in which it
affects the present today. Most dominant literacies are institutionalized and influential than other
peoples literacies due to their increased importance in the usage. There are other literacies that
exist in peoples everyday lives in which some of them are less valuable and supported.
Therefore, they're quite insignificant per se. Socially powerful institutions such as education are
mostly the building blocks of how literacy came to be. They are often influential in which
institutionalized domains of knowledge and power are embodied in social relationships. With
this evidence, literacy is constantly changing today in the lives and societies were in.
Broader social goals and cultural practices often come in literacy practices. It has been
observed that literacy has become a community resource, realized in social relationships rather
than individuals. It has significant social meanings in which literacy has something to impact the
culture. Literacy can serve multiple functions replacing spoken language. One of the functions is
that it can solve practical problems or act as a memory aide. Also, it can act as evidence and
display of something. Also, there are multiple roles of text in a typical activity in which it can act
in different ways for different participants, in which they dont even have to read or write a
single word. All in all, the cultural development of literacy comes from several different
participants taking on different roles to create something more than just their individual
practices. One of the most important things in literacy is to shift from different accounts that
constitute individualism, into which it can become a social thing.
To conclude, literacy plays a significant part of our lives. It brings a significant impact to
our human nature that is necessary for us today in which practices. There are many activities that
literacy is involved in which they are important. Some of these activities can be synonymous to

different discourses and domains. Evidence has shown that through literacy, these common tasks
actually come together. The literacies in the different parts of our lives help contribute it.
Therefore, literacy is best understood when it refers to connecting people to one another.
Literacy has affected us in the past as much as today and it will certainly affect our future. The
many practices that literacy has are everywhere and can set us up for broader social goals as
well.

Works Cited
Barton, David, and Hamilton, Mary. "Literacy Practices." Situated Literacies: Reading and
Writing in Context. London, England: Routledge, 2000. 7-15. Print.