...ILLITERACY A CHALLENGING PROBLEM IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY. CHE DIVINE AFOH STRAYER UNIVERSITY PROFFESSOR; AUDREY. L. VAUGHAN AUGUST 16TH 2015. Even though we search how to solve the problems of illiteracy, illiteracy is a serious problem in pour society today because illiteracy causes high rate of unemployment, high crime rates, health issues and loss of talents inbuilt in our youths leading to low self-esteem. Illiteracy is a pressing concern especially for poor countries, it affects all other aspects of life and personal behavior of the uneducated one. There are several causes which may lead someone to be uneducated or to escape from school. In this essay I will discuss some causes of illiteracy and its effects on our society, and how we can treat it. Illiteracy is a global problem we are facing in our society today of which it greatly affects all our day to day life activities. I will first start with the problem unemployment in which one of the reasons for this is the high illiteracy level in our society. Unemployment is a situation where youths and the general population are unable to get jobs to meet up with their day to day responsibilities and bills. When people are not able to read and write...
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...Cause Paper Illiteracy The society, the American economy, many people’s health, and even the justice system are all affected by illiteracy. The lack of the ability to read and write has a huge impact, one way or another, on the everyday life of every person. Twenty percent of the American population is functionally illiterate, which means they cannot read at all or they read below the fourth grade reading level. It is important to make sure as many people as possible are able to read and write to be able to complete all necessary daily activities, both at home and at the work place. A person needs to be able to read and write to fill out job applications, follow rules and directions, and maintain financial records. Some of the common causes of illiteracy are poverty, the lack of literacy within the family, and learning disabilities. Due to poverty some children are needed to work outside of the home, to help compensate the family’s income, instead of being able to go to school to receive the education that is needed. Therefore, poverty leads to the lack of literacy within the family. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly twenty-two percent of all of the adults living in the United States scored below basic skills during an assessment in 2003 (“Illiteracy: The Downfall”). “Sixty years ago, most illiterate adults were people who were uneducated” (Kunerth). Today, learning disabilities are often the cause of illiteracy in adults. The Florida...
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...2. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to highlight the economic and social cost of illiteracy to the global economy. It will discuss the causes and issues surrounding illiteracy, the direct link between poverty and illiteracy and how tackling literacy has a very real and measurable impact on the growth of an economy. 3. DISCUSSION 3.1 DEFINITION OF ILLITERACY Complete illiteracy means a person cannot read or write at all. Of equal relevance is the concept of functional illiteracy, which means an individual may have basic reading, writing and numerical skills but cannot apply them to accomplish tasks that are necessary to make informed choices and participate fully in everyday life. Such tasks may include: Reading a medicine label Reading a nutritional label on a food product Balancing a chequebook Filling out a job application Reading and responding to correspondence in the workplace Filling out a home loan application Reading a bank statement Comparing the cost of two items to work out which one offers the best value Working out the correct change at a supermarket. Poor literacy also limits a person’s ability to engage in activities that require either critical thinking or a solid base of literacy and numeracy skills. Such activities may include: Understanding government policies and voting in elections Using a computer to do banking or interact with government agencies Calculating the cost and potential return of a financial...
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...Human Computer Interaction Contents 1:Human Computer Interaction .....................................................................................................1 2:User's Classification Based on Literacy .....................................................................................1 2.1:Functional Illiterate .....................................................................................................1 2.2:Absolute Illiterate .........................................................................................................1 3:Interfaces for Absolute Illiterate...................................................................................................2 3.1:Visual Aids..............................................................................................................2 3.2:Audible instructions. ...............................................................................................2 3.3:Easy Navigations.....................................................................................................2 3.4: Text Free User Interfaces. ......................................................................................2 3.5:Combination of Visual and Audible instruction......................................................3 4:Recent Works for Illiterate ..........................................................................................................3 4.1:SmartPhone Application for Farmers ....
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...The Night Before An Examination It was the night before my examinations. I was appearing for my matriculation examination, for the third time. Come on, even intelligent people fail their exams too!! It was that “butterflies in stomach” Part-3 once again. Not for me, hah.. am talking about my parents. God knows why they took so much of tension about my exams. I had warned my parents of Diabetes and Ulcers way back, but they would never listen. I even asked them to emulate my carefree attitude when it came to exams, but they were one ignorant lot who would not heed good advice. Anyways, I was cool as a cucumber, because this time I had decided that it would not be the Season Three of some failed daily soap. I had made all fool-proof arrangements to pass this time. My dedication, patience, perseverance and persistence would definitely see me through my exams this time around. Day in and day out, I had sacrificed all my useless activities that kept me unduly busy; computer games, movies, parties, discos.. everything! I gave up everything as soon as the exam time table was announced. All my energy and efforts were now aimed at one single objective: getting the question paper somehow!! Patience is always rewarded, so are genuine efforts and dedication. I was lucky enough to discover a gem of a person in one of my class-mates, whom I revered as my senior, coz he had failed thrice in the same exam. He would have made one hell of a statesman...
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...In the essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” written by Jonathan Kozol, published in Reading for Writers, New York 2013, the author discusses the arduous plight of the illiterate American. Mr. Kozol shines a spotlight on the extreme hardships faced by people who lack the ability to read or write. He uses emotionally compelling examples to signify the fear and embarrassment one would face without the basic literacy skills that have become the accepted norms in today’s society. The author argues that illiteracy is a problem affecting one-third of U.S. citizens and that the actual human cost is a terrible price to pay. Mr. Kozol points out that it is time we as a society address and correct this problem. Response: This essay by Mr....
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...Monroe's Motivated Sequence Monroe’s Motivated Sequence takes the listener through five logical steps: 1. Gain attention. 2. Establish a need/introduce a problem. 3. Satisfy the need/present a solution. 4. Visualize the plan in action/intensify reader's desire. 5. Call reader to action. WORKING OUTLINE I. Gain attention a. Use an attention-getting device b. Call attention to the speaker or the occasion II. Establish a Need/Present a Problem a. State the problem, importance of the issue, etc. b. Illustrate that the need does exist. c. Convince the audience using examples, testimony, statistics, definitions, comparisons, etc. d. Connect the problem to the audience. III. Satisfy the Need/Present a Solution a. State possible solutions and refute those that won’t work. b. Define your terms (how long will it take, how much will it cost, etc.) IV. Visualize the solution or plan a. Picture the results of your solution b. Contrast your solution with the unfavorable consequences of not taking action V. Call the reader to action a. Urge the audience to take action b. List the specific steps to take c. Make it easy for the audience to do what you are asking (provide a stamped, self-addressed envelope, for example) Sample Persuasive Presentation Purpose: To convince the company to help fund the City’s literacy program...
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...functionally literate. This is worse than our principal comparator nations. Improving our schools will not solve these problems. Today over 70 per cent of our 2020 workforce has already completed their compulsory education. Our intermediate and technical skills lag countries such as Germany and France. • UK has made progress expanding Higher Education – and this is critical to becoming a high-skill economy. Over one quarter of adults hold a degree, but this is less than many other countries who also invest more. UK skills base compares poorly and, critically, other countries are improving. Why it was commissioned and the main outcomes The global economy is changing rapidly, with emerging economies such as India and China growing dramatically, altering UK competitiveness. The population is ageing, technological change and global migration flows are increasing. There is a direct correlation between skills, productivity and employment. Unless the UK can build on reforms to...
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...Zahra Arraya Professor George Lambert English 201: Writing in the Disciplines 17 April 2016 Dysfunctional Definition of Literacy The ex-Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan once said in one of his speeches during his term that, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope” (Unesco). Thus, being illiterate is not the way to get out of that dark hole especially when you have the access to learn it. However, one might think of being literate as a way to simply get jobs or to survive, and I would not disagree with that, but I think that literacy cannot just be defined as the one only might think of it as. Furthermore, the connection between literacy and the form of literacy itself, which people use as a necessity, was also mentioned in Literacy and the Politics of Education by C.H Knoblauch as a functional literacy, and he basically explains that this kind of literacy used when people process the information, such as “reading sets of instructions” (Knoblauch 76). Even though Knoblauch agrees that this type of literacy is the most familiar one, I believe that there are still ups and downs of defining literacy in a functional way. Ultimately, defining literacy as a functional literacy does not really enclose the process of being literate completely, and there is also a limitation with seeing literacy this way because it simply ignores other purposes of being literate such as helping people who are in need. There are numerous of people that I personally...
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...Questions for Review Elysia Stephens Week 11 and 12 Chapter 10 1. What is an orientation designed to do? What are the characteristics of an effective orientation? * The training model identifies the design inputs as the training needs from the TNA, the organizational constraints, and the training methods based on learning theory. For the hypothetical example, we have identified the training needs. Before determining what training methods to use, we need to consider the constraints. 2. How are organizations dealing with diversity? Are the methods effective? Why or why not? * The Bank of Montreal won the prestigious Catalyst Award for its effective diversity programs, promoted vigorously by its senior management. Then there is IBM; it developed a diversity program that resulted in an increase in black executives and female minority executives in about two years. Carrier Corp formed diversity councils in all business units. It develops diversity business cases to assist in training and has successfully increased the percentage of black people in executive positions. 3. What are the important components of an effective sexual harassment strategy? * Defining sexual harassment when it relates to a hostile environment is difficult, and care in determining what is enforceable is important. Those who develop and conduct training must not bring their own values into the training. Rather, they must present situations that are irrelevant and could quite likely...
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...acquainted with the word illiteracy; it is considered the inability to use language, to read, to write, to listen and to speak. Today, it is considered as being unable to read and write at a level suitable for written communication or at a level that will allow an individual to function at certain levels of society. In the simplest of terms, illiteracy is the opposite of literacy. We all recognize that illiteracy is bed, that it prevents the cultural growth of a people. Illiteracy in all countries continues to exist on an appalling scale, it can be vanquished and that quickly, if actions are taken and efforts are made by private organizations or the government. Illiteracy is not just a matter of not being able to read books, as was indicated above. It affects many of the activities of adult daily living and it presents a major obstacle to effectiveness in their jobs and home life. Illiteracy comes from lots of reasons, but mostly it comes from the country’s weak situation economically and culturally, educationally, and from its people choices and decision. Ignoring it just causes more problems. First, one of the problems is that illiteracy plays a role in threating the culture and the economy in any country especially Egypt. Culture plays an important role to determine the rights and responsibilities and what the appropriate behavior is for the people. As Lyndon, Selvadurai, Er, Moorthy state that people should recognize that the problem of illiteracy before it destroys the culture...
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...Larry Howard Donna Ginn Eng-112 25 January 2014 Critically Literacy I believe anyone can be literate, but being critically literally brings your ability to another level. It defines your comprehension to fully understand what you read and being able to interpret the point the author is intending to make. A good critical response relies on how well the reader is able to analyze the text presented to them. A well rounded critically literate being questions or challenges material instead of simply accepting it is true. The hermeneutics of suspicion says “Suspend belief/judgment until we prove whether or not something is true or false” (Marxist Theory). It comes from various influences in seeing things beyond the surface and not being easily fooled by everything you see. Our response to media and how we handle we handle it plays a role in critical literacy in a two main ways, which are commercials and cyber security. Critically literacy helps us question advertising such as sports drinks commercials on television .Gatorade uses celebrity athletes to promote their products as if using their product will make you as “Great” as the celebrity. An illiterate being would easily believe the story the company is trying to tell and hard work and dedication wouldn’t simply be enough to produce the same results without their brand, or with the competitors. Companies spend much time and money finding to ways to make their advertisements seem as if using their product is common sense...
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... Poor health literacy is a “silent epidemic” that challenges the functioning of the healthcare system. Low health literacy levels are associated with higher risks of hospitalization, inability to manage health conditions, poor health outcomes, and inability to seek proper treatment and understand options available (Palumbo, 2015). Those with inadequate health literacy are more likely to be poor and uninsured (Levy & Janke, 2016). According to a study done by Pati et al. (2010) concerning maternal health literacy, children whose mothers had poor health literacy were much less likely to participate in welfare programs they were eligible for. 12.7% of people in the United States are living in poverty (Semega, Fontenot, & Kollar, 2017), yet those in poverty make up nearly half of the people who are considered to have low health literacy (Bastable, 2007). Therefore, addressing the issue of poor health literacy among low income populations is the first step in improving healthcare among the poor. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010), health professionals should incorporate more picture-based instructions, tailor their words to be understood by those with low health literacy levels, and self-assess their healthcare facility to determine how well they respond to the health literacy needs of their patients. If poor health literacy is a barrier to a patient even entering a clinic, how can communities make efforts to improve health literacy among poor populations...
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...Illiterate are constantly struggling to function well in the society. Their lack of basic essentials can be disastrous in terms of losing their human potential and productivity and a general failure to access many of life's opportunities. How can anyone with low literacy rate complete daily tasks such as writing a letter, filling out forms, helping their child with homework and so on? Illiterate adults face problems not only in the workforce but right in their very own homes. Almost everything would be a disadvantage if a person is illiterate. A person who is illiterate can't read, write, of course hasn't been to a school, hasn't received education, can't learn the mannerism an educational institute provides, can't have the ability to think like cultured people, can't have effective decision making ability where he/she can weigh the pros and cons of a situation etc. In today's world, its very important to receive education and be able to handle your life properly through your knowledge and understanding. There are people who have a certain sort of skill but due to the lack of any education, they don't get a chance to improve upon it or enhance it. Take the example of a person who loves to draw but hasn't been to a professional art institute.He would still be drawing but would never be aware of the possibilities that he could have explores only if he was literate. He would never know how an artist can publicize his work, what other mediums he can use besides oil, paint...
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...Stanley A. Kearney Professor Meister ENG 151-12 4 April 2014 Human Cost of an Illiterate Society: Critique 1. The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society was a well written article that expose several concerns and reasons why literacy is of great importance. Illiterates being unable to read such things taken for granted as warning labels, food labels, street signs, basic instructions, etc; show the importance of literacy The fact that some leaders are willing to sustain by malign neglect, shows that at any cost of illiteracy may be accepted by some people who look to hold themselves superior to others with lack of education Kozol expressed some of the more obvious devastations of an illiterate society that are overlooked daily, I found it easy to relate to article because Kozol listed concerns in a manner that is easy to understand because most of us relate to someone who fits at least one of the scenario. Human Cost of an Illiterate Society was an enjoyable read because it was easy for me to relate to some of the examples that were given. When reading this publication, I am able to easily follow and understand the content and compare it to incidents or observations that I have encountered in my own life experiences. Illiterate citizens seldom vote touches a nerve in me because I know the importance of voting in order to have a voice in society. Health issues that can become life or death situations if a person is unable to read...
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