I would be amiss to ignore the fact that I am indeed at the mercy of society and am subject to believing the various affects and stages of literacy that Scribner posits, particularly in the aspect of ‘State of Grace.’ Pretending that I do not place an immense value on someone’s writing would be incorrect, a lie, and would be making myself out to be more neutral that I am. This fault of highly valuing how someone writes and equating it to somehow being ‘better’ is something which I have noticed and am slowly working to fixed. Too often have I found myself editing papers and surprised at a mistake someone makes, only to edit my own work and see the same issue. Yet, when it comes time to evaluate someone’s work, I think myself better.
Many of the people in WRD classes suffer from this phenomenon as well, as we all seem to secretly hold this judgement about others until we shake it off and work on the next project. For this reason, sharing papers and editing one another’s papers becomes a job, but not one that is wholly unbearable. Throughout my time here at DePaul I have done a bit of reflecting in attempt to combat the ridiculous value which I have been taught to place on literacy, particularly in terms of the skill of writing. I would recommend that anyone who finds themselves judging others by how they write to think back on how much society has influenced them. You might think that your thoughts are your own in regards to others’ literacy, but as Scribner points out, there are more parts at play.
