Klemser 1

Thomas Klemser
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
8 October 2014
The True Meaning Of Literacy
According to Barton and Hamilton, literacy is a form of spreading ideas throughout
history as well as being practiced daily in everybody's dynamic lives. Constantly recurring and
always leaving marks in the past, literacy practices are unique to each individual and are a part of
your everyday background and culture. Literacy according to the authors, is dictated by social
place and any changes in your society will cause a change in literacy. This is shown in the main
point of the article by David Barton and Mary Hamilton when it says, Literacy practices are
culturally constructed, and like all cultural phenomena, they have their roots in the past. Literacy
practices are as fluid, dynamic, and changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part
of (Barton and Hamilton 13). What the authors are saying here is that literacy practices are
based of off your culture and are always changing, but ingrain certain principles into your head.
Its not just reading and writing but more importantly context, text, domains, practices,
discourses, social society, and events.
As Barton and Hamilton explain in their article, one of the key elements of literacy
practices is text and context. Texts that are part of your everyday life and that are personal to
you as an individual include various forms of literacy practices. This is explained in the article
when it says, The study of everyday literacy practices points attention to the texts of everyday
life, the texts of personal life; these are distinct from other texts (Barton and Hamilton 9). In
other words of the author, the texts have multiple roles and can be very broad, but because they

Klemser 2
are broad, the texts can fit into specific roles that are personal. Literacy changes in context, and
this is shown in the article when it states, Looking at different literacy events it is clear that
literacy is not the same in all contexts; rather, there are different literacies (Barton and Hamilton
10). This quote means that context is based off of events that happen daily in your life which
result in different forms of literacy. To simplify Barton and Hamiltons ideas, these different
forms of literacy differ depending on your lifestyle and the choices that you make, which results
in people experiencing different events causing different forms of literacy.
Events are clearly defined in the article by Barton and Hamilton, who both imply that it is
important when literacy practices are studied because they give it a function. Text and context
according to Barton and Hamilton are what the major stake is in an event. In Bartons and
Hamiltons words, Literacy events are activities where literacy has a role. Usually there is a
written text, or texts, central to the activity and there may be talk around the text (Barton and
Hamilton 8). This means that literacy activities or events are embedded in social practices and
that text and context are the major stakes that events are created by. The authors prove that what
literacy practices do is shape the event that is occurring. Events can be in written or non-written
form, but are primarily based off of text and context of literacy practices. These events and
activities are a form of literacy practices that are observable all according back to the information
that is provided from the authors of the article.
Barton and Hamilton state that another major part of literacy practices are the domains
and discourses that are associated with them. According to Barton and Hamilton, A domain is a
group or community that is defined by their written language and a discourse is how the group
uses it (Barton and Hamilton 8). Examples can vary from family to religion, and many more.
Barton and Hamilton explain how domains play a huge role in literacy practices when they say,

Klemser 3
Domains, and the discourse communities associated with them, are not clear-cut, however:
there are questions of the permeability of boundaries, of leakages and movement between
boundaries, and of overlap between domains (Barton and Hamilton 11). What is being said is
that domains serve as a function in the way that they form context for literacy that can be
understood from studying them. What Barton and Hamilton explain is, there are different
literacies associated with different domains of life (Barton and Hamilton 11). To put this into
other words, this simply means that your community and your culture influence your domain
significantly, which is why there are so many different domains throughout the world. They go
on by saying different domains include topics such as family, religion, organizations, workplace,
education, and many more which cause discourses that are unique to each individual.
Barton and Hamilton prove that literacy practices are kinetic in the way that they are
constantly changing and new ones are being devised all the time. Referencing the text, literacy
practices do indeed leave a trail through history that people can study to learn more about
specific topics. An example of a literacy practice stake that leaves its mark in history, as Barton
and Hamilton explain, is text that is very broad, can be specific and play a role for ones self, and
provide context that is based off of the events of your life. Barton and Hamilton state that
domains are the community or group that you belong to based off your written language and how
discourses are used. An example from the article, being a religious group or family member.
Although it may seem less important to some, domains and discourses are what define you as a
human being and what make you unique. Later, they talk about events and how they are
important because they involve written and/or spoken activities that shape literacy practices in
general. The authors emphasize that literacy practices are ingrained in social practices, and any
changes in social practices result in changes in literacy. That is why as Barton and Hamilton

Klemser 4
ultimately explain it is crucial to your learning to be exposed to literacy practices and learn new
ones that come about, which is all learned through education and schooling.

Works Cited
Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton. Situated Literacies Reading and Writing in
Context. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.