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Sabrina Ferguson
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
23 October 2014
Literacy in Everyday Social Settings
In Barton & Hamiltons essay entitled, Literacy Practices, they discuss literacy and
how it is plays a big role in our social interactions. These social interactions are defined as
requiring more from a person than just talking; including deep thoughts from all areas of
thinking. They also discuss the difference between the social literacies in everyday settings.
These settings include all kinds of different behaviors which are both spoken and unspoken.
They talk about how different forms of communication are used more in certain literacies than
others. Literacy is a concept that includes many different components of communication and is a
setting dependent task that one must assess and comply with.
In this essay, literacy is explained as being a social practice or a way that people use
literacy to interact with others. However practices are not observable units of behavior since
they also involve values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. (Barton & Hamilton 7)
With this being said, literacy is a lot more personal than just the basic reading, writing, talking; it
is a way for you communicate with a person and really create a bond or deep conversation. These
bonds do not have to be long term or even friendly, just as long as you are both critically
thinking about the topics you are discussing. Critically thinking about a conversation doesnt
imply that it is serious or heated, but just that you are truly listening, interpreting and responding
to the other persons involved. Sometimes part of that critical thinking involves interpreting your

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audience and evaluating how you should respond. Your surroundings may cause you to rethink
you answer because it may not be appropriate for the social literacy you are conversing in.
Social literacies are similar to discourses in the sense that different environments lead to
different literacy. You would not talk to your coworkers about the same things that you do your
siblings and vice-versa. Literacy isnt referring to just the conversational aspect of these
environments but also the unspoken literacies. An example given on page 11 is that cooks in a
business are held up to much different standards than a cook at home; such standards are in
regards to food safety, employee dress codes etc. These rules are sometimes not always so clear
and outlined for everyone; some have to be observed or learned. Every social setting has
differences in its literacy, making observation your best friend. Barton & Hamilton also refer to
something that is called a domain; which is like a discourse but with stricter rules and standards.
The domains that they list include families, religious groups and school settings. Anyone who
has ever been in one or more of these domains can tell you that they tend to have a lot more rules
and restrictions set in place than a social discourse would.
In our everyday lives we encounter literacy in many different forms. Discourses and
domains are ruled by mostly observed and unspoken regulations. These are much harder to learn
or adapt to than literacy events are. Literacy events are best defined by the author in the
following quote, literacy events are activities where literacy has a role. Usually there is a
written text, or texts, central to the activity (Barton & Hamilton 8) These literacy events are
much easier to participate in because they are outlined by a source. These sources can have exact
instructions or rules to follow, or even an expected outcome. Some examples of literacy events
could be; following the directions on your homework, a daily list of duties at your job, or
following a recipe in a cook book. The written text involved in literacy events is a guide and a lot

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of the time it is learned, memorized and becomes routine; which is demonstrated in Figure 1.2Cooking literacy on page 10. These literacies take a lot more effort to learn and master, but are
some of the most prominent literacies used today.
Literacy is a term that groups all of communication together and has a much more
complex meaning than most would think. It is a tool that if used correctly, can enhance your
abilities to communicate more clear and complex thoughts with other people. This practice is
both learned and adapted by every person through-out their lives. Correctly practicing these
literacies can teach a person a lot of things relative to both communication and life. Mastering
literacy is one of the best ways to improve your interaction with others, in every different social
setting. More careful thought should be put in when we are talking to people as it shows that you
are both interested and truly thinking about the conversation. This process is a way to show that
you are more than just listening, but hearing what others have to say.

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