Aidan Fisher

In the first section of the Ong's reading, his main argument is that that literacy is mandatory and essential for expression, our basic thoughts and especially human connection and communication. Ong argues that without literacy, people lack the skills to understand the most basic of things anywhere from how writing is being expressed to something as simple as what it means. One of Ong's quotes is, "Such views of writing as simply a mechanical skill obligatory for all human beings distort our understanding of what is human if only because they block understanding of what natural human mental processes are before writing takes possession of consciousness". In this quote Ong is saying that one needs to understand literacy in order to proceed and advance in life otherwise without it you can become illiterate. After continuing to read along another quote that Ong uses is, "Functionally literate persons, those who regularly assimilate dis-course such as this, are not simply thinking and speaking human beings but chirographically thinking and speaking human beings." What Ong is trying to say here is that yes it is important to understand literacy but more importantly is being able to use it and transfer your thoughts and ideas about it into a speech or writing them down on a piece of paper, whatever way it is as long as you are able to do rather than just think it.