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Chelsea Sather
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
9 October 2014
Argument Summary 2
The mischievous role that literacy plays in an individuals life is brilliantly put into light
through Barton and Hamiltons Literacy Practices where each aspect that literacy has in ones
life is eloquently demonstrated. To understand how much of an impact that literacy has on an
individual you must follow the complex ways of how literacy shapes each individuals life.
Each individual belongs to a community that uses a domain, which is a social group,
characterized by a written language, this community becomes shaped by the discourse; or in
other words how they use the language in their domain. Social institutions such as schools for
example belong to a domain and often have an influential discourse in the way the group of
individuals uses the language inside and outside of this particular domain. Domains, and the
discourse communities associated with them, are not clear-cut, however: there are questions of
the permeability of boundaries, or leakages and movement between boundaries, and of overlap
between domains (Barton Hamilton 11). This social theory of literacy reads to be completely
accurate, each domain has an influential part in our lives. Through the use of texts and contexts
you can see the specific situations that use literacy, showing that texts can have multiple roles
and can be very broad.

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The social aspect of literacy can impact the way in which you improve literacy, use it,
and communicate through literacy. Changes in society are the direct relation to changes in
literacy. With social domains literacy can vary in how it is used and in how you communicate in
different domains. Society can have a huge impact on the way literacy is used, varying on the
situation in which you are using it. Learning is founded by your exposure to certain domains in
which there taught or demonstrated. The domain/domains in which you belong to are taught
through exposure, this being how you learn to belong in a domain. Literacy becomes a
community resource, realized in social relationships rather than a property of individuals
(Barton Hamilton 13). An important factor to remember is that often in literacy communities it is
not just yourself, but your relations with others that are more important. This aspect of the article
shows how directly the society correlates to the literacy used in domains and also how there can
be an overlap in domains.
Possibly the most important part of literacy is events and practices, these both equally
play a part in everyday life of an individual within their domains. Events and practices are the
foundation of literacy practices. Literacy events are defined by the practices in which you are
taught through your life and history. Literacy practices are culturally constructed, and, like all
cultural phenomena, they have their roots in the past. To understand contemporary literacy it is
necessary to document the ways in which literacy is historically situated: literacy practices are as
fluid, dynamic, and changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part (Barton
Hamilton 13). Literacy practices are what shape literacy events. Literacy events are activities in
which literacy plays a role; events are observable episodes that arise from practices. Literacy
events are regular and repeated activities that often shape your daily life. Events are shown to

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have a huge impact on ones life and shown to be regular and repetitive through history and
contemporary life.
Literacy plays a role in everyones life, possibly even many different roles. The literacys
in which you acquire all are categorized into domains and often many domains although some
many be more influential than others. The domains then become the stage for the events and
practice of literacy using the context and texts to sort out the situation at hand.

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Works Cited
Barton, David. Hamilton, Mary. Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community.
Routledge, 1998. Print.