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Chasing Literacy
Chasing Literacy
Reading and Writing in an Age of Acceleration
Employing case-study research of student reading practices, Keller explores reading-writing connections in new media contexts. He identifies a culture of acceleration—a gathering of social, educational, economic, and technological forces that reinforce the values of speed, efficiency, and change—and challenges educators to balance new “faster” literacies with traditional “slower” literacies. In addition, Keller details four significant features of contemporary literacy that emerged from his research: accumulation and curricular choices; literacy perceptions; speeds of rhetoric; and speeds of reading.
Chasing Literacy outlines a new reading pedagogy that will help students gain versatile, dexterous approaches to both reading and writing and makes a significant contribution to this emerging area of interest in composition theory and practice.
‘Daniel Keller’s Chasing Literacy provides a useful and necessary study on the habits and minds of those just now entering college. He addresses the mysteries of multitasking, browsing, and especially acceleration—which he argues is the defining characteristic of literacy at the present time. Many of us have felt that this is so with the advancement of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and iTunes; SMART and touch devices; texting, Skype, and Pinterest. But Keller shows us why changes are unfolding and, as Walter Ong would say, how our students think differently as a result.’
—Kip Strasma, Methodist College of UnityPoint Health
'Chasing Literacy generates important knowledge about how high school and college students are making purposeful, strategic decisions about how to read that is not currently a robust part of composition teacher training nor carefully theorized within writing studies.'
—College English
