The Give and Take of Writing: Scribes, Literacy and Everyday Life.

The author uses the diverse role of scribes in different periods of time and different places as a lens through which to understand both literacy and illiteracy. Examples from fiction, film, social history, and interviews with various individuals, including adult literacy teachers, are used to support the following arguments: (1) moments of illiteracy are a common experience; (2) in many spheres of everyday life, all kinds of people turn to others to act as scribes; and (3) scribing is a part of the give-and-take pattern of social behavior. The following are among the specific topics examined as the arguments were developed: (1) ways the representation of illiterates in fiction and film may filter into policy writing and government thinking; (2) the different roles and status of scribes in different societies; (3) the operation of scribes and scribing in clerical work, religious life, and the legal system; (4) scribes' experience of scribing as they put their own literacy at the service of others; (5) writers as muses and secretaries; (6) the perspectives of four adult literacy teachers on using scribing to enable student of literacy to find written expression and to become their own scribes; and (7) the transition from thought to utterance. (Contains 229 references and an index.)(MN)