Yancey Discussion

2. Who is the audience for this report? Are you part of that audience? If not, why might I be assigning it?

The audience for this report is anyone who has had to pick up a pen and put it to paper or type on a computer, whether it is for personal enjoyment, academia, work, etc. Having grown up in a school where we had a computer lab and were made to type everything, I believe that I can relate to it. Although the article does not focus strictly on modern day writing via computers, it does talk about how we are enabled to write wherever we please and about whatever we please. The audience he is aiming for is someone who feels like they have a voice; one who has used any means of writing to be heard and I feel like I meet that requirement.

3. Review Yancey’s “five themes of writing” in the 20th century. Respond to one with which you agree or disagree.

Reading—in part because of its central location in family and church life—tended to produce feelings of intimacy and warmth, while writing, by way of contrast, was associated with unpleasantness—with unsatisfying work and episodes of despair—and thus evoked a good deal of ambivalence.

I agree with this theme of writing Yancey talks about the most. Growing up, we link reading to our favorite childhood stories and poems that our parents would read to us before bed which gave us a sense of security. Writing has always been associated with an unpleasantness because it was always structured. When I say it was structured, I simply mean a topic was given and your writing was supposed to be a certain way. Reading always had a good feeling because it includes our childhood stories, our favorite books as adolescents, and so on.

5. What is your definition of a “literate” person? How does your definition relate to Yancey’s?

A literate person is someone who has the ability to understand and comprehend given text, as well as communicate effectively. Literacy is being able to take in more meaning to the...