Literacy

Purpose Academic writing generally attempts to think through a very specific problem, phenomenon, or question. This essay will help to shed light on the nature of literacy. It will use the following prompt to create its focus and framework. The prompt asks you to focus on a combination of the assigned readings as its raw material. There is no need for any outside research, so please do not reference outside sources. There is room for some brief and limited reflection based on personal experience, but this should be quite secondary to using the course readings. Engaging the class readings will account for the substance of the essay. Again, the substance of the essay is literacy in all its cultural and material complications. Our focus remains earlier historical periods, periods defined by change and upheavals, times when new literate practices brought complicating effects to established forms of textual communication. For this essay you will use the prompt from below. The Essay I. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates argues for the limited use-value of writing. Why does he find writing incompatible with the development of knowledge? What is writing good for? What are we to make of Plato’s writing down this argument against writing? Drawing on Plato’s text, Puchner, and Thomas, explain how Socrates’ argument against literacy—within Plato’s writing—helps us better understand literacy as a process of formation and change. Essay Style • Write as if your audience has not read the works you are presenting. Introduce the works with authors’ full names and the titles of what they’ve written. Add short descriptions of style and tone and historical place. It’s important to note that, say, Thomas and Blair’s approach as historians are different than, say, Plato’s dramatic form or Piper’s more stream-of-consciousness approach, not to mention Trubek’s article in the New York Times, or a podcast, etc.). Use paraphrase and direct quotation. Block quotations from your more important sources are crucial. • Don’t simply summarize the various readings one after another. Use ideas/insights/examples from the readings to build an essay that has a focus and works its way toward a larger insight about literacy’s complexity. Focuses on making your transitions connect (even through contrast) its different elements. • Utilize the language of the readings while defining key terms and references. Be sure to explain the examples you present, and give the reader context for important passages you quote, etc. Please cite all paraphrases or direct quotations and include a “References” or “Works Cited” list at the end; please use Chicago Style (author/date) or MLA style for citations: • This essay must be a minimum of 5 complete pages (the entire fifth page filled with text, not including references or a “works cited” list). It may be longer. It must be typed and double-spaced. Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font and 1” margins.