In this report, the authors discuss the cost and the importance of investing in literacy. They suggest that advanced literacy is the single most important tool that Canadians need to compete in the global economy and present estimates of the total cost of raising the literacy skill of the adult population to Level 3.
Summary of Input on a Literacy Framework for Alberta
This document summarizes comments from over 500 individuals on a literacy framework for Alberta, provided during the Alberta Literacy Forum held in Edmonton in April 2008. The Forum was Alberta's contribution to the Council of Ministers of Education Canada's Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum. This report on the Forum is organized into the following sections:
This is the (MCL) Movement for Canadian Literacy’s submission to the federal Pre-Budget Consultations of April 2006. In their recommendations, they have highlighted areas that they believe the federal government can and should address immediately.
With the growing popularity of readability formulas, it is important to appreciate what they are good for and not good for. Handled properly, they can produce marvellous results. Not handled properly, they can actually reduce comprehension. Like other forms of testing, the formulas find problems. Finding solutions requires a writer's skill.
Michel presented a new tool called “Assessing the Complexity of Literacy Tasks.” It is designed to help document designers understand the ability levels of readers as defined in the International Adult Literacy Survey. This complexity-rating tool, based on the work of Irwin Kirsh and Peter Mosenthal, can help information designers ensure that the level of complexity of public information matches the literacy level of the target readers.
In this paper, six Canadian national literacy organizations urge the federal government to work with stakeholders to develop a national, or pan-Canadian, strategy for adult literacy and essential skills development.
In this brief, MCL calls on the government to ensure that the next federal budget fulfills past promises and paves the way for meaningful advances on literacy and essential skills development
Although we often think of George Orwell's classic essay on the politics of language as the starting place for the plain language movement, we are part of a tradition of advocacy for grace, simplicity, and equity in communication that goes back to Chaucer and beyond him, to the hybrid beginnings of the English language. Sally's short historical tour honoured the work of the plain language pioneers in our midst.
