Original Paragraph:
According to Gee, it is difficult to achieve full literacy of a new Discourse. Literacy can be defined in numerous different ways of context, but has a specific meaning when it comes to Discourse. Gee explains, “Thus, I define “literacy” as the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary Discourse” (Gee 9). Using Gee’s logic, full literacy of a Discourse means a person has mastered the specific Discourse in which they are attempting to acquire. This mastery allows the person to be an active member of the Discourse and they can implement this Discourse into their values, beliefs, and actions. In the work of Christina Haas, there is a study she presented that takes place over the four year college career of a student named Eliza. Haas kept track of Eliza’s literacy and understanding of college level text and how she interacted with the text. In her first two years of school, she simply read text to retain information but she was able to teach herself new reading techniques and strategies as the years went on. Haas states, “By her senior year she often viewed texts as multiply connected-to authors and scientists, to other readers, and to historical circumstances-and even demonstrated some understanding of her own connections both to scientific texts (and, by implication, to their authors) and to the objects of her own research” (Haas 69). Eliza was able to achieve full literacy in the Discourse of college level understanding of text after four years in school. It was a gradual progression to reach this level in her academic career, but through perseverance and hard work, she was able to achieve it. She proves Gee’s idea of the difficulty of achieving literacy in a Discourse wrong as she prospered her senior year.
Revised Paragraph:
Every person conforms to Discourses which define how he or she acts in certain social institutions. According to Gee, it is difficult to achieve full literacy of a new Discourse. Literacy can be defined in numerous different ways of context, but has a specific meaning when it comes to Discourse. Gee explains, “Thus, I define “literacy” as the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary Discourse” (9). Using Gee’s logic, full literacy of a Discourse means a person has mastered the specific Discourse in which they are attempting to acquire. This mastery allows the person to be an active member of the Discourse and they can implement this Discourse into their values, beliefs, and actions. In the work of Christina Haas, there is a study she presented that takes place over the four year college career of a student named Eliza. Haas kept track of Eliza’s literacy and understanding of college level text using the method of observation and how she interacted with the text. In her first two years of school, she simply read text to retain information but she was able to teach herself new reading techniques and strategies as the years went on as stated by Haas, “By her senior year she often viewed texts as multiply connected-to authors and scientists, to other readers, and to historical circumstances-and even demonstrated some understanding of her own connections both to scientific texts (and, by implication, to their authors) and to the objects of her own research” (69). Eliza was able to achieve full literacy in the Discourse of college level understanding of text after four years in school. It was a gradual progression to reach this level in her academic career, but through perseverance and hard work, she was able to achieve it. She proves Gee’s idea of the difficulty of achieving literacy in a Discourse wrong as she prospered her senior year.
ENG 110I
