‘Anthony Stockwell a Jan 14,2015, ‘Throughout this article, Brandt discusses the dfferent factors in life that influence our literacy. These can range from relatives to teachers to television. These factors are known as “sponsors of literacy” (Brandt 167). The examples in the article that | found most helpful were the ‘examples of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez. These examples were the easiest for me to understand because it really showed that where {you end up isn't es important es what got you there. What | mean by this is that Raymond end Dora beth ended up in the same town, but the ways that thoy were raised caused thom to have diffrent lovels of literacy and difforent paths in life. One of Branch’ eponsors was his father, whase caraer as a computer programmer helped Raymand to become @ camputer pragrammer later in his life as well One of the ‘main influences on Dora's literacy was her cultural background. She decided that she wanted to leam Spanish and one way that she practiced was communicating wth her relatives (Granct 170-171), An exemple of this irom my own life is somecne who went to my high ‘school. His father vas a doctor and this person was very interested in medicine as wel. | believe that his father was a major sponsor of his literacy which led to him having an interest in the types of work his father di, much like Raymond. | alse found the section on Dwayne Lowery to be pretty interesting. | think thet one of Lowery’s sponsors would be the post WWII economy. During this time Brandt says that Lowery learned to read and write in ways that he never had before (175). | think that this ie a perfact example of a spensor of literacy because it shows a factor that directly causes someone to learn to read or write in a new way. Finally, the section about Sarah Steele was the most confusing one for me. | realize that some of the things she leamed from her job were new ways of reading or writing, such as how to make a budget, but | dont understand how other things were considered literacy, like which companies to avold hiring for home improvement projects. To me, this seems Ike street smarts, orjust good knowledge to have and I'm nat entirely sure how it fits into the category of literacy. Overall | think that Brands idea of sponsers of literacy makes a lot of sense and I think the exemples provided not ‘nly in her article, but from my own life show that her claims aro supported. Work Cited Brandl, Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." College Composition end Communication 49.2 (1998) : 165-185. Print.