a hard idea to fathom. Allow me to assist you. If this hypothetical idea were

in fact true, a typical conversation between two individuals would be as

follows: one of the two would begin the conversation by making noises

representing their language, the other person would not understand these noises

and respond with unrecognizable noises to the first individual. As you can well

imagine, this would get quite frustrating. Rita Mae Brown describes literacy as,

"a social contract, an agreed upon representation of certain symbols" (420). If

the symbol's (letters) meanings are not agreed upon by those attempting to

communicate, then interpreting one another becomes difficult. Simply stated,

literacy is very important. Society has proven time and time again, it will

reward those individuals who are competent and impede those who are not, whether

expressed in terms of employment opportunities (job success) or just on a social

One need look no further than their everyday activities in order to

realize how important literary skills are. Without adequate literary skills one

may not be able to identify on a label the correct amount of

Presently, we are being bombarded with information, news, trivia and gossip (not

low literacy is part of a constellation of problems that can limit choices in

will become more important to one's level of success. Where would our society

life and thus lead people to criminal activity" (20). Somebody in possession of

accepted that literacy is the key. Society will continue to reward skilled

entering Canadian prisons for the first time have trouble reading and writing,

ability to perform in the increasingly competitive international marketplace"

as when viewed from the economic standpoint. Linda Macleod of the National

record and document findings and happenings for future generations to reflect on.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Criminal Justice, Adult Illiteracy, Mae Brown, , literary skills, level literacy, levels literacy, sufficient literary, sufficient literary skills, society moves, employment opportunities, low literacy, highly skilled, adapt changing, literacy levels,
Approximate Word count = 943
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)