Reading Response Seven
Dan Feuerbach
English 354
Reading Response Seven
2-19-2006
Once again the study of literacy is made boring by the use of academic language. With reading number seven of the semester being recently completed, I find myself yet again turned off to interesting ideas by the academic nature of the article.
“The New Literacy Studies” by Brian Street is an interesting idea for an essay, but goes no further than that. In this piece Street discusses trends and schools of thought in modern studies on literacy. Addressing familiar concerns of definitions of literacy and why it is seen that way. He gives a history of the field and gives some models about how literacy is viewed.
What works: The ideas. The thoughts presented in this piece are remarkable, in their own right. He included many different fields of study into this essay and the shifts in thoughts about literacy in anthropology, linguistics and psychology. I had no idea this stuff was going on, and it was cool to learn about.
What didn’t work? Everything else. The ideas presented were so hard to mine out of the text that reading it wasn’t worth the hassle. He used terms and language that an academic community would understand, but didn’t even bother to define said terms so the average reader could. This piece was a struggle for me, and I would go as far as saying not worth the effort I put into it.
To say the least, there is room for improvement. This piece is written without enough basic contexts to appreciate. I’m not asking to have the information broken down into its most basic elements, but I do like a certain degree of information to clarify the points being made. I don’t know what Street means by “Ideal Autonomous Model” and without any explanation, I don’t care.
In conclusion, although an interesting snapshot of the current world of Literacy Studies, the general populace is alienated by the presentation of ideas. Perhaps if Street were to write a second, more down-to-earth version of the paper, I could appreciate what he had to say more, but as it stands I really don’t care too much.
English 354
Reading Response Seven
2-19-2006
Once again the study of literacy is made boring by the use of academic language. With reading number seven of the semester being recently completed, I find myself yet again turned off to interesting ideas by the academic nature of the article.
“The New Literacy Studies” by Brian Street is an interesting idea for an essay, but goes no further than that. In this piece Street discusses trends and schools of thought in modern studies on literacy. Addressing familiar concerns of definitions of literacy and why it is seen that way. He gives a history of the field and gives some models about how literacy is viewed.
What works: The ideas. The thoughts presented in this piece are remarkable, in their own right. He included many different fields of study into this essay and the shifts in thoughts about literacy in anthropology, linguistics and psychology. I had no idea this stuff was going on, and it was cool to learn about.
What didn’t work? Everything else. The ideas presented were so hard to mine out of the text that reading it wasn’t worth the hassle. He used terms and language that an academic community would understand, but didn’t even bother to define said terms so the average reader could. This piece was a struggle for me, and I would go as far as saying not worth the effort I put into it.
To say the least, there is room for improvement. This piece is written without enough basic contexts to appreciate. I’m not asking to have the information broken down into its most basic elements, but I do like a certain degree of information to clarify the points being made. I don’t know what Street means by “Ideal Autonomous Model” and without any explanation, I don’t care.
In conclusion, although an interesting snapshot of the current world of Literacy Studies, the general populace is alienated by the presentation of ideas. Perhaps if Street were to write a second, more down-to-earth version of the paper, I could appreciate what he had to say more, but as it stands I really don’t care too much.
posted by Dan at 12:52 AM
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