In the article Szwed attempts to define reading and writing.  He talks about the importance of reading and writing as well as the many different forms that it can take. According to Szwed there are many purposes for reading and writing.  Szwed even says that illiteracy has a direct correlation to poverty.  

            Reading and writing do many things for me.  Without them I would only be able to get so far in school.  Also they help me in my day to day life such as reading a traffic sign.  Without reading and writing it would be hard to get by in this world.  

What I took away from reading Szwed is that reading and writing have many factors that affect them which is what makes them so complicated to study.  In the article is was said that “Reading and writing are affected by family life, work pattern, economic patterns, patterns of leisure, and a complex of other factors.”  This is so many factors that affect reading and writing.   Some students may be better at reading different things because of all of these factors.   Another thing I took from Szweds article is that there are 5 elements of literacy.  These 5 elements are text, context, function, participants and motivation.

             What I found interesting was when Szwed asked in his article if there is a proper way to test reading and writing.    I didn't know the answer to this question and would like to know more.  I would imagine it would be hard to test them accurately since there are so many factors that affect them.