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Melissa Wolfe
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-013
October 23, 2014
Redefining Practice
Literacy is, a community resource, realized in social relationships rather than the
property of individuals (13). In relation to literacy the term practice is neither,(remove
comma) learning to do something by repetition nor ( you dont need the commas)common or
typical activities or tasks. The word practice means, (take out this comma) cultural ways of
utilizing literacy that cannot wholly be contained in observable activities and tasks (8). One can
see in chapter one, Literacy Practices from the book Situated Literacies: Reading and
Writing in Context written by Barton and Hamilton, that texts, functions, and events are the
most essential parts to understanding the reconceptualization of literacy in relation to practice.
Understanding how texts fit into the activities or events of peoples lives as shown
through the cookery text, is an important aspect of literacy. Barton and Hamilton say that the
study of literacy is partly a study of texts and how they are produced and used (9) and that,
people can be incorporated into the literacy practices of others without reading or writings
single word (13). Figure 1.2, the cookery text and its semiotic aspects, shows that a recipe/text
is included in a lifestyle and culture and is not simply a piece of paper with words and numbers.
In their work, Barton and Hamilton keep practices central and study the way that texts fit into
and represent the practices of peoples lives whereas other works keep texts central and study the
way that people fit into texts. The way that activities involve texts, which can have multiple

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functions, is a key part to understanding the way Barton and Hamilton use practices to represent
lifestyles, relationships, and cultures.
The many functions in which texts may serve are important to understanding the term
practice in a literacy event because those functions give life to the text. Barton and Hamilton
explain in their local literacies study that, a particular type of text, such as a diary or letter,
cannot be used as a basis for assigning functions, as reading or writing any vernacular text can
serve many functions (12), disputing earlier works like Heath and Taylor and Dorsey-Gains.
These previous works have tried to assign functions and uses of literacy for individual texts.
Barton and Hamilton are trying to say that one text can have many functions and one function
can be assigned to many texts. They have come to the conclusion that the classifications for
functions are inconsistent and cannot so easily be assigned to one meaning. For example, one
text can act as evidence, as display, as threat, and as ritual (13). In this way, functions give texts
used in events social meaning and thus aid to the redefinition of practice in relation to literacy.
Events involving texts are also essential to understanding literacy in relation to practices
because they show that literacy is not the same in all contexts. Barton and Hamilton explain that
within a culture, there are different literacies associated with different domains of life (11) and
that each domain such as the home, workplace, or school has events that are unique to them.
Comparing the event of cooking, at home and for work, shows how Barton and Hamilton point
out that there can still be different practices in varying domains even though the event remains
the same. Using this example, this difference can be seen through distinguishing actions like
talking, acting, and interpreting the written language. The comparison of the practices in the
event of two domains clearly shows that when relating the word practice to literacy it is much
less superficial than its original definition.

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Literacy functions as more than just what is read and what is written. It includes social
aspects, which Barton and Hamilton call practices, that are interpretive acts applied culturally.
Practices exist in relationships between people and within groups and communities. They are not
a set of properties residing in an individual (8). Understanding the ways in which texts, events,
and functions apply to practices, explained in chapter one, Literacy Practices from the book
Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context written by Barton and
Hamilton, is essential to comprehending literacy as social practice.

Works Cited
Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton. "Literacy Practices." Situated Literacies: Reading
and Writing in Context. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.

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