This I Question Essay Kasey Kleu My definition of literacy is the ability to understand and comprehend how to read and

write effectively with meaning. If you have a meaning or purpose and understand the concept of those, then it counts as literacy. Skills and Discourse also fit in with literacy because in order to be yourself and express your feelings, you have to have a set of skills. With those skills, you develop different discourses, which expands our literacy profile. A Discourse is how people identify themselves and act in the world (Gee 481). Also, everyone has functional and digital literacies. Our every day events are our functional literacies and our digital literacies are social media websites, for example Twitter or using the computer for work. I use both functional and digital literacies. I believe there are certain levels of knowledge needed for each type of literacy. It requires an excellent amount of knowledge about literacy to publish a book but to throw paint on a paper takes a small amount of literate knowledge. A well-known book writer has better quality literacy than a painter does. If you are a famous book writer, then you are defined as a high level of literacy. As if someone splattered paint on a picture, then that would be considered a lower level of literacy. For example, the Mona Lisa is a higher literacy than splattered paint on a canvas. A famous painting will never be ranked higher than an award winning book publisher in literacy because it does not take as much knowledge to throw paint or draw a picture. However, I do not think that the reader/viewer has to get the same meaning

out of it that the author/painter has presented because as I learned in class everyone is going to have a slightly different view on literacy. Reading about Douglass really inspired me as to how much literacy can impact someones life. It made me understand literacy and how important it is. Literacy freed Douglass from the stereotypes. It also helped expand his thoughts, and free himself from poverty. Lastly, literacy brought him away from his life that he wasnt satisfied and happy with. Douglass learned about running away from his slave master by reading. He was the only educated slave and this encouraged him to have the nerve to run away and save his life from being stuck as an uneducated slave. This author helped me learn that learning how to be literate can be life changing. Douglass turned his whole life around by being determined to read and write and making a difference in the world. It makes me realize how fortunate I am to have always had access to teachers, books and other resources. Douglasss decisions have paid off because now he has freedom and an education (Douglass 100). A sponsor is someone who teaches you a type of literacy. A sponsor can be looked at as your main mentor in life. For me, I thought of someone who taught and supported me throughout obstacles in my life. One of the sponsors that has influenced me the most is my swim Coach that has taught me for 6 years. He has shaped me into the person I am today because he taught me dedication and determination, which are traits I did not have before him. He did not tolerate skipping or being late to practice so these made me develop good time management. He taught me how to be a swimmer and act like a swimmer. Swimming is a totally

separate life from my regular life when it comes to literacy. I have gained a set of swimming skills from which my coach taught me and I took those skills and learned how to be literate in a different category. My coach gave me the gift of a swimming literacy. I can also say that I have a swimming Discourse because I can identify myself as a swimmer. I feel like my most important sponsors of literacy are my parents. They are my main mentors and I have learned the most from them. I believe it is essential for your parents to do a good job of teaching their kids because this sets the course for the rest of the childs life. All parents should understand fully how much literacy impacts your life and how far it can take you in life. If we werent literate we couldnt function in the world today, it makes us understand our daily lives. There are no downfalls in learning literacy. Literacy can only make life easier and help you through the many obstacles and paths life will take you. I would not be in college pursuing my dream if my parents had not prepared me and exposed literacy to me at a young age. Why does literacy have so many different meanings? At first I thought literacy was the act of reading and writing. After I spent the last couple of weeks in class hearing everyones opinion, my outlook on literacy changed. I never knew literacy was such a broad topic and could explain and mean so much. How can one word mean so many different words at once? It seems to me that literacy has no wrong definition as long as you give a reason explaining your definition. How do people shape their own literacy? Everyone has his or her own literacy background. I sometimes find myself asking my peers around me what

makes their literacy different. Everyone has different environments and learns in different ways so no one has the same literacy. It interests me to find out how someone elses literacy is different from mine. Are discourses the main component that makes someones literacy different from others? Do rappers have the ability to use proper English or do they chose to use improper English? Rappers use slang in almost all of their songs. Its the new trend for young people and this is what we are known to buy and are interested in. Some listeners think rap music has more rhythm and has deeper meaning when slang is used rather than the correct form of English. People argue that rappers are able to make their song more original and unique by using slang because it uses creativity. I think this is hurting society because kids are inspired by these rappers and want to be like them. Eventually kids will talk and write in slang because they have got used to listening to improper English. This is a bad influence on teens and it will only get worse as time goes on.

Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Print.

Gee, James Paul. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 481-497. Print.