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Marissa Gutierrez
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
11 December 2014

Revision Plan for Summary 2

In receiving Barton and Hamilton Summary grade back I was able to see that I needed to
improve certain aspects of my final draft. The paper lacks a fully cohesive structure. There are
some portions that need to be taken out or reworded. Other ideas need further explanation and
clarification in order for them to be useful. There are also format issues that need to be
addressed, such as the quotations and bibliography.

The first thing I will do to revise my summary will be to read my assignment and point
out obvious mistakes I notice. Simple grammar changes can be made to make it flow better.
The wording at the moment is slightly inconsistent and misleading. Clarify such areas would
make the paper come together more and be more coherent. There also may have been
information I forgot to add and will put it in the proper place, further adding to the paper clarity
and cohesiveness.

I will improve my summary conclusion by tying all aspects of the paper together. By
improving the conclusion I can use ideas in that to outline the paper and form a thesis statement.
From that information a backbone of the paper will be formed and I can use that as a basis for all
arguments and conclusions. It will add to the overall impact of the paper while also making it
easier to comprehend.

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I need to also remember that any information that I obtain from reading Literacy practices is
quoted correctly. The MLA format of quoting is a new tool to me but it makes sense now and is
a useful tool when citing material. In the original draft there were some things I forgot to quote
or quoted improperly so those should be easy to fix. If I can stick to this revision plan I think my
paper will have developed nicely and will be a much more effective assignment.

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Marissa Gutierrez
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
11 December 2014
Generations of Literacy
In this excerpt from David Barton and Mary Hamiltons book, Reading and Writing in
Context, they explain the importance of literacy practices and how they pertain to our daily lives.
They also discuss the varying kinds of literacy found in all aspects of ones life. Literacy
practices are the common way in which people represent their own lives including their values,
attitudes, feelings and social relationships. Literacy practices are socially constructed and have
been transcending and transforming generations for thousands of years. Barton and Hamilton
discuss the basic fundamentals of the social theory of literacy. They break it down into three
main parts; practices, events and texts, which are all mediated in a way by written texts.
A literate social practice is a process in which people with similar cultural backgrounds
interact in social settings and connects with each other through the use of literacy. Barton and
Hamilton expand on that thought by explaining the relationship that writing and language have.
This quote epitomizes that summarization. The notion of literacy practices offers a powerful
way of conceptualizing the link between the activities of reading and writing and the social
structure in which they are embedded and which they help shape. (pg7) The connection literacy
and culture seem to have is a main theme for Barton and Hamilton through the chapter. They
feel that once cultures are literate they actions and behavior advance and a educated and
successful environment is created.

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Literacy events are social gatherings that include verbal interactions, in these events
people can apply knowledge from their daily routines, actions that take place at their work place
or schools, they are mostly the frequent activities they do from day to day. Many of these
activities are surrounded by issues they are used to handling or accustomed too. The way Barton
and Hamilton describe social events impact on our lives is very interesting. They break down our
social system in a logical way that describes how we interact and affect one another with our
actions. Another key facet of literacy practices is the social aspect since that is unwritten but is
the medium in which many opinions and thoughts are shared.
In social practices Barton and Hamilton describe people discussing knowledge from
written texts. This may set boundaries between groups of people since there are educational and
socioeconomic boundaries that can divide populations. They discuss the more prominent areas of
literacy practices as being in a place of business or educational institution. Since practices
involve spoken or written literacy, it sets a starting point of shaping social customs. We can see
in social practices that there are some people that are far more educated in the way they talk or
interact with one another. But that does not necessarily render them worse off but just on a
different plain of interactions and literacy.
We understand that written texts have a very important role in how people handle social
events. Barton and Hamilton see written texts as highly important in preserving what has been
done. They see it as a building block of social interaction and culture. But not all literate
knowledge comes from written texts. There are people that are literate in music notation or
mathematics and this form of books provides most of the information in some kind of drawings.
Literacy varies in contexts. There is a wide variety of literacys. For example, people from

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different countries or communities have different literacys and it makes them able to
communicate within a certain community or border.
With every different aspect in life there are different domains of literacy. When we talk
about practices it does not necessarily mean we are talking about doing something over and over
to become better. It simply means that it is a task that we have grown with, and comes naturally
to our lives. Barton and Hamilton mention how ones personal history and roots affect their
current literacy practices. A persons practices can also be located in their own history of
literacy (pg13). Although, we can learn from text and become more literate most of our
learning comes from social practices from interacting with other people and applying our
knowledge to any given situation.
Barton and Hamilton succeed in analyzing and describing the way in which literacy
practices shape the way we live. Although it is difficult to categorize what may seem intangible
to most, is very important because it exposes the way we learn and communicate. Literacy
practices are as fluid, dynamic and changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part.
(pg13). That quote seems to sum up their discussion on how different domains and cultures vary
throughout the world. Even with all that variation every culture has its own literacy practices
and all of them are very important and are highly influential throughout society.

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Barton, David, Hamilton, Mary and Roz Ivanic, eds. Reading and writing in context.
New York: Routledge, 2000. Print