General literacy is usually understood as how fluent a person is in his native language, whether he is able to connect thoughts into logical phrases, whether he writes without errors in terms of spelling and punctuation, and whether he puts the correct emphasis on words.

Today, there is a dangerous tendency to primitivize the Russian language and trample on its grammatical rules. Most people today don't read books at all. People write letters to each other electronically, formulate short messages and send them from mobile phones.

However, literacy is still part of the culture. On the foundation of literacy laid in deep childhood, a harmonious, educated, developing personality is laid.

You can learn literacy from more than just textbooks. Many books are filled with it, containing all the knowledge and all the experience accumulated by humanity over its centuries-old history.

Often in this story, different parties or the ruling elite of our country tried to use literacy for their own selfish purposes. Or they used it to promote their ideology to the masses.

In Rus', literacy began to emerge with the emergence of the first churches. Then people who could read began to be needed to conduct worship services.

Then, for a long time, only nobles and dignitaries were literate. After the revolution of 1917, the country needed literate, educated people to work in factories and factories. A program to increase universal literacy was introduced, that is, all Soviet people were taught to read and write.

Unfortunately, in parallel with this beneficial process, there was a negative process of simplifying the Russian language. Attempts to make the Russian language primitive are still being made today.

Today, this is facilitated by the development of modern means of communication and the almost complete oblivion of the usual methods of written communication. All this is not so harmless. Because the more a people’s language is simplified, the more primitive their thinking becomes.

Today there is global illiteracy. There are fewer and fewer truly literate people left. Everyone, starting with government leaders, allows themselves to speak with grammatical errors.

Any person who identifies himself with his people, his nation, must understand that the unity of a nation begins with the unity of its language. The roots of a nation's self-determination lie in the same linguistic and grammatical rules for all.

Money cannot buy personal culture. A high position of power does not add to her either. The main criterion for a person’s culture and education remains good old literacy. Russians who consider themselves such are faced with the task of “preserving” the Russian language today. It is always easier for people who have competent writing and speech to understand each other. And there is something to respect each other for!

An integral part of a person’s general culture is the ability to read and write, as well as the ability to express himself coherently and clearly. Today, a person who is even very rich and high-ranking, but cannot express his thoughts coherently and makes grammatical errors when writing, cannot in any way be called cultured and educated.

Russian nobles, being the ruling class until the revolution of 1917, were clearly aware of the need for literacy as part of culture. Therefore, they taught their children grammar and rhetoric from an early age.

Strictly speaking, literacy means understanding the differences between pronunciation and writing and knowing the exceptions to the rules. If a person began to study the rules of grammar quite early, then he will always write correctly.

Truly cultured and educated people knew for sure that if you write down words based on how they are heard, this is extremely incorrect, since everyone hears differently, and there are rules for correct spelling.

According to historian Nikolai Karamzin, being illiterate is impolite towards readers. It is difficult to understand text written with errors and presented in an inaccessible form. Sometimes such text takes on the opposite meaning. When the words are written without errors, thoughts are presented clearly and clearly, everyone will understand what the author of the text wanted to convey to him.

A nation is defined, among other things, by its language. The more harmonious and unified the language and its rules, the larger and stronger the nation. Those who try to simplify spelling rules and grammar, in essence, strive to primitiveize the thinking of the people. As a rule, these people themselves are very illiterate and incapable of development. But is it worth listening to such people?

Today, linguistics and its laws are sometimes vulgarly trampled upon. On the pages of even the most leading newspapers you can find gross grammatical errors.

Announcers of central television channels easily make mistakes in words and pronunciation. Graduates of modern schools can hardly be considered educated people due to the insufficient knowledge they receive at school.

Everyone who considers himself a native speaker and strives to be a truly cultured person must continue to develop, enriching his vocabulary, mastering the difficult but very interesting Russian grammar, as well as spelling and punctuation. Such a person will be respected, and the entire nation he represents will also be respected.

Literacy and perfect spelling are of great importance in modern society, no matter how you try to prove otherwise, and there are many reasons for this.

Agree that nowadays people no longer pay much attention to the correct spelling of words, especially when communicating online. The influence of short and quick communications in the form of text messages still brings its negative results, although literacy is not only a matter of following the good old rules of spelling, it is also a matter of image, and education, and the banal ability to convey one’s written thought clearly and correctly.

What are the good reasons why literacy is still important?

1. Good impression of the person

When you write perfectly correctly, you leave only a positive impression about yourself, which is unlikely to be guaranteed if you make a lot of spelling errors. All your written documents, be it official papers, academic papers, personal or work letters, must be impeccable. Keep this in mind!

2. Literacy makes communication easier

Another benefit of literacy is that it greatly contributes to more effective communication. After all, reading and understanding well-written texts is much easier than straining over written opuses that are replete with errors.

3. Literacy affects your prospects and career.

If you think that proper spelling isn't that important, think again! For example, even the slightest hint of poor literacy can seriously impact your future job prospects. Let's say an employer has two candidates for a good position. The first applicant's resume is full of errors, but the second applicant's resume is flawless. Even if these two applicants have the same skill levels, the employer will certainly choose the second one.

4. Literacy helps avoid confusion and ambiguity.

Literacy can help avoid any confusion and especially ambiguity in understanding. You yourself probably know how difficult it is to wade through the jungle of text written with errors. Just imagine what serious consequences a lack of literacy, for example, among doctors, journalists or politicians, can have!

5. Compliance with standards

Spelling is the basis or foundation of a language. If you care about how you will be understood and perceived, then you should maintain all established standards of language, which, in fact, is the main tool of your communication.

6. Don't rely on spell checkers

Never rely on spell checkers, typo checkers, or error detection programs. These programs have a fairly limited vocabulary, so many new words are marked as incorrect because they are not stored in their memory. In addition, automatic spell checking will not recognize an error if the misspelled word sounds quite correct in another context. For example, an error in the sentence “we are going home” (instead of “we are going home”) will not be detected by the program.

7. Well-written text is clear

Will it be easy to understand a text if it is full of errors? Comprehension is quite important in many situations because we must be able to read and comprehend what is written. Let's say you are reading the instructions for any technical device: this means that they must be understood, interpreted and carried out correctly.

8. Illiteracy distracts and dissipates attention

An illiterately written text scatters and distracts the reader’s attention. Try to carefully read such a sample with a bunch of errors yourself, and you will understand how annoying it is. Therefore, express your thoughts in writing correctly, and be sure to watch how you present them.

“Total dictation” supposedly creates a fashion for literacy. Why does a person need literacy at all? During the dictation, the Unified State Examination, we try to comply with all the norms, which are often redundant and sometimes meaningless from a practical point of view...

Literacy is neither a coming nor going phenomenon, like fashion, it is something that is always valued. “Total Dictation” is intended to remind people, especially young people, that writing correctly is the norm of life.

If previously, being well-read and having literate writing skills were associated with the concept of “high,” “elite,” “respected,” now consumer culture has changed the guidelines: “culture,” and including literacy, have become part of the image of a “loser,” “nerd,” and are associated in the minds of young people with boredom and school “obligations”, in particular with the notorious form of dictation.

Designed to break this stereotype and spread literacy fashion. We want to show that writing correctly is better than writing illiterately. That the ability to place commas correctly is a mandatory sign of a truly successful, self-confident person.

In fact, writing correctly is necessary for better mutual understanding. Try to distort the text and let it be read. I am sure that the text will not be understood or will be understood in its own way. Moreover, it will take more time to recognize this text than a well-designed one.

I do not entirely agree with the opinion that the rules of the Russian language are redundant and, from a practical point of view, meaningless.

Moreover, spelling reforms, of which there have been many, are designed to get rid of them. The rules of the Russian language are similar to other directive rules, such as traffic rules, which simply must be followed.

You cannot be educated, cultured, intelligent and illiterate at the same time; literacy is a kind of indicator of such people. In addition, illiteracy irritates many people. You can often hear that this or that author of an SMS message is discussed out loud. It’s unlikely that anyone wants to be considered illiterate or semi-literate, or ignorant.

Anastasia Alekseeva – senior lecturer at the Department of Methods of Teaching Russian Language and Literature, Faculty of Philology, North-Eastern Federal University

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But why actually learn to write correctly? Letters written according to a template, statements compiled according to samples, and articles based on examples... A kind text editor will highlight spelling and punctuation errors in red or green, and even suggest the correct spelling options. And stylistics is a third matter. Has anyone lost their health due to some inaccuracies in the text? This is not a scientific report being written. Does the common man need literacy?

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Conversation at a parent meeting.

“Does the common man need literacy?”

There is constant talk about the fact that the overall literacy of the population is falling sharply. Truly literate people, who are an overwhelming minority, are rebelling and protesting against ignorance and tongue-tiedness more and more loudly. No, of course, there have always been illiterate people, and this did not prevent some from being successful politicians, scientists and even writers. Nevertheless, in the past there was at least a clear boundary between the literate and semi-literate population. The stratum of society, called the intelligentsia, was clearly defined and stood apart. Today, you can often find mixed families, where spouses may have different levels of literacy. And what can I say, even the presence of a higher education today is not always an indicator of literacy. Let's talk about what literacy is for a modern person.

But why actually learn to write correctly? Letters written according to a template, statements compiled according to samples, and articles based on examples... A kind text editor will highlight spelling and punctuation errors in red or green, and even suggest the correct spelling options. And stylistics is a third matter. Has anyone lost their health due to some inaccuracies in the text? This is not a scientific report being written.

It's always a pleasure to communicate with a competent person. Correct speech pleases the ear and evokes a feeling of affection for a literate person. Therefore, we make the choice with whom to communicate, be friends and work, paying great attention to the level of literacy of the people around us. But, if earlier, a couple of hundred years ago, communication between the upper strata of the population took place in French, which defined a clear boundary between the intelligentsia and illiterate people, today everything is mixed up. In addition, communication that takes place in all kinds of social networks, forums, chat rooms and blogs, where illiterate comments are considered the norm, is becoming a natural environment even for the literate population.

Literacy as an art formIt should be noted that literacy is a kind of art. And it, like many other types of art, has its virtuosos, admirers and high-class professionals. The art of literacy is necessary for many people, like, for example, the theater. To enjoy the professionalism and skill of those who can represent literacy in all its glory.

Where does literacy hide?
There is literacy among philologists, teachers, writers, lawyers, and journalists. I would like to talk about business correspondence, but, alas, literacy no longer lives here. If we talk about the Internet, then there are literate people here, but you can only find them on rare smart portals. They are the ones who still retain control over the creation of content for sites and their moderation, but only for now.

In Russian language lessons, we spend a lot of time on literate writing, do various exercises, use didactic games, and learn vocabulary words and rules. But this is not enough. At home, caring parents who want to help their child grow up as a literate, educated, intelligent person can use the teaching technique that I will now introduce you to.

If the child writes with errors.

Often children, even those who know the rules well, make mistakes in dictations and essays. They grow up to be illiterate adults, and this, unfortunately, cannot be corrected by subsequent education. Try to help your children yourself without relying on school

The most important rule, according to psychologists, is: “an error should not be recorded in the mind.” If a child asks how to spell a word, immediately say it correctly. Phrases like: “not written here” are not acceptable."a" and "o" .
Try to regularly conduct dictations at home, at least from the exercises in the textbook. If the child is having difficulty or is already writing the wrong letter while standing behind him, quietly prompt him: here is “o” or here is “e”. Do not focus on incorrect spelling, record only the correct one.

There is a very simple and effective way to teach a child to write correctly. And first of all, parents can help him with this, if, of course, they have the time and desire.

Modern innovative teachers have developed an effective method that helps fight illiteracy at absolutely any age. Naturally, the sooner you start classes with your child, the faster and easier you will achieve the desired result. Let's talk in a few words about this method.
It is based on the theory of the famous researcher Dmitry Ivanovich Tikhomirov in the 19th century, who was awarded the Great Gold Medal in 1888 by the St. Petersburg Literacy Committee. He owns the following lines:“If you want your child to write correctly, force him to read as it is written, and do not be afraid that he will speak the same way, because children understand that we do not speak the way we write.”
Invite him to read aloud, loudly and clearly, some text not the way we usually speak, but the way we write. In this case, the child must break the word into syllables and pronounce it, emphasizing and highlighting them, but quickly enough. And if the word is simple, it can be read quickly, without breaking it into syllables.
In this case, visual, auditory and motor (tongue, larynx) memory works simultaneously. Then, when the child encounters these words in writing, he mentally pronounces them correctly, and therefore writes correctly. For reading, it is better to use the classics: I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, I. Bunin, etc.
“Reading literacy” should be regular, and during classes, the presence of an adult must be present to monitor how the child read this or that word. For example, he pronounced the word “which” the way we usually say it, i.e. “which”. The adult needs to gently correct the child and ask him to read the word again.
With children under the age of ten, you can do this for a very short time, about 5 to 10 minutes. Then motor skills no longer work, and reading does not bring the desired result. With children over ten years old, you can study a little more - about 15 minutes.
Regular activities in which the child repeatedly pronounces various words that are difficult to remember out loud exactly as they are written, develop a sense of natural literacy. Over time, he will accurately write any words, even the most complex ones. Because a trained consciousness automatically picks up all the features of their sound.