English 2150 Blog

Adult Illiteracy in the United States

In the United States, today nearly 32 million or 1 in 7 adults are considered functionally illiterate. According to UNESCO, “A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development.” Many adults in the United States who live a middle class life aren’t functionally literate. That is to say, that they have have good jobs and a home, but they don’t have the right reading or writing skills to help he/she function in the community or elsewhere beyond his/her job. Their skills are basic and it does not help them flourish with society. Another study has shown that many college athletes are functionally illiterate, in fact 19% of high school graduates are not functionally literate. Literacy can be achieved by doing more reading and writing, so basic skills can be enhanced. Going to an educational institution or doing literate work as a hobby can be a great way to improve these skills. Some workplaces, like Ford and Motorola, are even sponsoring remedial reading programs so that their employees can benefit with an enhanced functional literacy. The target audience for my advertisement is adults in the United States. The target audience is adults because this is an advertisement that is directed towards them, and hopefully this ad can target those 32 million adults that are functionally illiterate. My advertisement is trying to solve this crisis that is ongoing in America, that is effecting millions of adults in the United States. My advertisement is trying to get adults that are not fully literate to gain some confidence and get some help, so that they too can be functionally literate. My ad gives those adults that are too ashamed or scared some cushion, because it states that there are 32 million adults in the same situation. My ad will be effective because it informs the audience of the problem that is ongoing and that there are solutions to fix this problem. I think my ad can go as a post on social media like Facebook, because social media is the second highest news platform that adults read news on. I also think social media is mixed when it comes to its user’s literacy rates for example, an illiterate person would be more likely to use Facebook, than buy a newspaper or magazine to read.

Link to ad —–>  Attention_ All Adults

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