Writing on the Plaza: Mediated Literacy Practice Among Scribes and Clients in Mexico City

This book approaches writing as a social practice and shows how people participate in literacy events with scribes. A central premise to the description and analysis of the scribes and clients at work is that literacy is a culturally situated social practice that can be organized and accomplished in several ways. The purpose in looking at scribe-client interaction was to examine how knowledge about written language, its role in establishing and maintaining social relationships, and its use in complex contexts and specific situations was displayed in an authentic social context in which writing is used for composing texts, filling out forms, and revising documents. Because of the amount of talk that occurs among participants during scribing, the technology, skill, and social knowledge orchestrated in the process of producing a text became visible revealing some of the contextual constraints and influences on how written language is produced, interpreted, and used.