Moss-Literacy in African American Churches

Beverly J. Moss analyzes a conversation between two communities in which she belonged to. The first community is her academic community and the second is her church community. Moss discovers the ways in which these two different communities use literacy and how they relate to each other. In order to guide her analysis, Moss used four basic questions to generate research. These questions consisted of:

1. What constitutes a text, particularly a literate text, in this setting?
2. How are what has been traditionally viewed as the components of the rhetorical situation,-rhetor, audience, message-affected by an alternative view of text that I argue for in this book?
3. How does this "new" concept of literacy and text function in African-American churches?
4. How does this alternative conceptulization of literacy and text impact on traditional notions of literacy and text?

The questions Moss used to generate her research helped me when I was working on my Literacy in Communities project. I really used her essay as a tour guide when trying to create ideas for my paper. Although my topic (Organic Community) is a much different topic than literacy in African-American churches, I was able to look past the academic setting of literacy and text and focus on how people use literacy everyday after reading her essay. In my project I tried to answer at least two of her general questions or address them in one way or another. I also agree with her views on literacy as a social process. My project was very much a social community and the process in which they use literacy really proves that. Moss' piece was an incredible help towards my project. After reading her essay, I felt more comfortable with my paper.