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Literacy

Try and imagine our society without a common language. This could be quite

a hard idea to fathom. Allow me to assist you. If this hypothetical idea were

in fact true, a typical conversation between two individuals would be as

follows: one of the two would begin the conversation by making noises

representing their language, the other person would not understand these noises

and respond with unrecognizable noises to the first individual. As you can well

imagine, this would get quite frustrating. Rita Mae Brown describes literacy as,

"a social contract, an agreed upon representation of certain symbols" (420). If

the symbol's (letters) meanings are not agreed upon by those attempting to

communicate, then interpreting one another becomes difficult. Simply stated,

literacy is very important. Society has proven time and time again, it will

reward those individuals who are competent and impede those who are not, whether

expressed in terms of employment opportunities (job success) or just on a social

One need look no further than their everyday activities in order to

realize how important literary skills are. Without adequate literary skills one

may not be able to identify on a label the correct amount of

. . .

These factors lead to an increase in economic growth

within the nation which in turn, results in a higher standard of living for its

people. It will affect an individual's income, their employment stability and

whether they even receive employment opportunities.

Another thought to ponder is this, we rely on those with high literacy levels to

record and document findings and happenings for future generations to reflect on. Illiteracy is truly a problem within Canada.

Also, when looking at the importance of literacy to our nation, its

value is evident.

Presently, our world revolves around literacy.

Presently, we are being bombarded with information, news, trivia and gossip (not

that this is always a positive feature in our lives). By obtaining this level of literacy they have also gathered a

large vocabulary giving them many words to choose from to express their ideas

and feelings.

When viewed from a social standpoint, literacy remains just as important

as when viewed from the economic standpoint.

As our society moves forward into the future, a higher level of literacy

will become more important to one's level of success. Without basic literary skills in one's possession they

will become lost in our rapidly changing society. 5 million Canadians,

representing 24 percent of the eighteen-and-over group, can be considered

illiterate" ("Adult Illiteracy" 5). Think about your average day, consider how

many times you refer to your literary skills to aid you, could you function

without those skills? Finding an address, reading a map, reading a menu,

performing a bank transaction, these are just a few common tasks that require

your literary skills. This often means gathering new skills

and knowledge from printed material, whether instruction manuals, computer

programs, or classroom training (text books).

These writings would most likely be dull and inaccurate or would not exist at

all without our current levels of literacy.

Approximate Word count = 943
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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