The introduction to “Literacies” and Sherman Alexie’s article serve to explain to the typical college student what is meant to be literate and where exactly their own writing and reading skills stem from. This article emphasizes on literacies rather than literacy. Through research, researchers focused on Writing Studies have demonstrated how exactly people communicate with others through reading, writing, and various others means. Focusing on literacies, researchers have found that literacies are a measurement of how skilled and knowledgable someone is in a certain area. These areas range anywhere from writing to even computer gaming. Literacies are shown to vary across different statuses of race, class, education, culture background, motivation, and various others. It has been concluded that the environment in which one is brought up contributes highly to the types of literacies one develops. Our daily lives, although we may not realize it, revolve around such literacies, and they affect one another. This is demonstrated by Alexie Sherman’s story of overcoming poverty and other hardships, and growing to love reading and writing because of his father.
The idea that our experiences and environment shape our literacies and the way we communicate effectively with others really does stand out to me. I can find it easy to agree with such a statement because I see myself motivated by my surroundings to read and write. My teachers and family members serve to push me to do my best and I try my best to succeed in what I do, especially reading and writing to the best of my ability. I see others around me who are not as fortunate to have such motivation, and it shows. Some people do not have the means of educations as others do, and they are not motivated by others to engage in writing for instance. Because of this, these people may not succeed in this area.
The idea that our experiences and environment shape our literacies and the way we communicate effectively with others really does stand out to me. I can find it easy to agree with such a statement because I see myself motivated by my surroundings to read and write. My teachers and family members serve to push me to do my best and I try my best to succeed in what I do, especially reading and writing to the best of my ability. I see others around me who are not as fortunate to have such motivation, and it shows. Some people do not have the means of educations as others do, and they are not motivated by others to engage in writing for instance. Because of this, these people may not succeed in this area.