Starting with this issue, we are introducing an Editorial page where we welcome your commentaries. Feel free to comment on any topic, but since we are a writing ezine, it would be really cool to have a writing-related angle somewhere in your piece.

Please submit your editorials to editor@writeronline.us

We look forward to reading your submissions.

Literacy in the Digital Age

By Mary Anne Donovan

Consider this definition: Literacy -- An individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute, and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society. (Definition from the National Institute for Literacy, Washington, DC, USA)

Seems simple enough. And one day it was, in the days before computers took over our workplaces and factory floors. Let's focus on the phrase: "… at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job…" Once it was enough on the job to be able to do some simple writing, often with the assistance of a secretary to "clean up" the mess. Or for other jobs, it was enough to be able to read directions, memos, and manuals, while being able to manually fill out reports and other paper work. Communication took place in person -- one-to-one, in meetings, or on the telephone when it was impossible to meet face-to-face for one reason or another. It was easy to "read" a person's reaction, and make suitable adjustments in communication style and approach. And despite differences in quality of education, all segments of society had access to the tools of literacy: books, magazines and journals, television, paper, pen, and so on.

Enter the digital age. The computer is everywhere in the working world. Writing is now done on the computer, using word processing programs. In this age of downsizing, secretaries are no longer available to "clean up the mess." Manuals and important work-related documentation are located in databases and repositories, and reports are generated using project management, spreadsheet, and other software. Communication takes place by email, instant messaging, and chat rooms -- all mechanisms where it is impossible to read the recipient's response unless accompanied by emoticons. Again the phrase: "… at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job…" To function on most jobs, you need to be able to use a computer -- to read, to write, to compute, to communicate. A digital divide as emerged between the haves and the have nots. Those of us who have access to computers are on the side of the literacy equation where we have the requisite skills necessary to succeed on the job. But what about those who don't have access, either at all or as readily as we do?

Yes indeed, there is a digital divide, and it is of crisis proportion. Today the primary vehicle for communication is the written word -- in the form of email, which requires skills far more complex than those required when the definition of literacy was originally proffered. No longer are we simply looking at the ability to string together words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs. Today we must also be able to open and use an email tool, and carefully craft our messages using "digital rhetoric," a new way of designing messages so they are effectively received, preserving our intended meaning.

What is the answer to dissolving this digital divide? Right now, there is none. But an awareness is at least a start. As the holidays and new year approach, perhaps a sensitivity to the need to even the playing field is enough with which to begin.

When Mary Anne is not working on being Chief Editor of Writer Online, or correcting the myriad papers from her college writing and literature classes, she is working on a thesis on what has become her professional passion: digital rhetoric and literacy in the educational and business environment. Send your comments and responses to this issue to Mary Anne directly at editor@writeronline.us