Forums » RP Discussion » An Argument Against "Literate"

It may just be the communities I came from (or the people I hung about with) but I've not seen too many people using literate for that purpose. A few here and there, to be sure, and I don't agree with the changing of its' meaning either. It's been years and I still get mad thinking about what they did the word 'literally'.

I've mostly just used/seen people use terms like 'para' or 'multi-para' for the most part, and that seems plenty fine to me. Even one or two liners are still a paragraph, by all meanings of the word.

EXTREMELY VALID!

Down with snobbery and up with clear expectations!

Literate:

From the Oxford dictionary online: (of a person) able to read and write.

Fluency:
From the International International Center for Language Studies: a speaker achieves language fluency once they can confidently, competently, and easily express themselves in a language other than their own.

Being fluent in another language doesn’t demand complete mastery of vocabulary.
If that was the case, nobody would be fluent in their own language, let alone a second one! Let’s take a case in point. The Oxford English dictionary contains 273,000 words. About 171,000 are in current use. However, the average educated English speaker will know and speak somewhere between 20-30,000 words. Knowing just 1,000 to 3,000 words in English is sufficient to carry on everyday conversations.


Levels of Language Proficiency:
Linked: Levels of Language Proficiency

Perhaps people should refer to level of language proficiency they would like partners to have. 1 lowest, 5 highest

If you ask about my Level of Spanish, I would tell you: 1

If you ask me about English, I would tell you 5, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. I make errors, typos, etc.

Anyway RP/writing is about having fun. I already have a full-time job, don't need and not looking for a second or third one.

I think this is all we should consider while writing… I admit having been wrong about the use of the word literacy, I hereby apologize for that.

Are we just able to only have fun ?
Are we capable of feeling proud about what we write, not how ?

I do learn quite a lot, having taken the courage to step into the world of role playing, as it is written here on RPR. Isn’t that the aim of this forum : write, have fun and by the way learn ?

So thanks for re-remembering this to everyone (this silly doe included!!!)

I never liked the term 'literate' as it is used for roleplay. I do like things to be 'readable' as far as their presentation. I think (could be wrong) the term comes up when referring to using actual words in posts instead of netsp33k.

I had not considered that. That’s fair and less problematic.

That is one of the common inclusions in how I see folks use it, and I think some do focus mostly just on that, but it's certainly not the only thing meant by everyone who uses the term.

based. i like long responses (like 3+ paragraphs with a lot of flowery words n metaphors) and "literate" has always felt icky. i dislike how people tie literacy to intelligence generally, and bringing that word with all that baggage into roleplay sucks. I've heard people describe roleplays using "literate" for years- about 6 iirc. So it's been around for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't leave anytime soon.

Let’s complicate things, only to give an example of how (this includes me unfortunately) the word ‘literate’ can be misinterpreted:

Supposed I do know reading a specific language (no matter which), this means :

Literary, I’m a literal literate.

In terms of reading I’m absolutely able to read…
There isn’t even writing mentioned.

Ok I’m out 😊

Not sure if I'm late or what, but here to chip in 2 cents regardless

Now, concise is that I assume it means a few lines at best, and to be honest, I actually prefer it that way. I see where you come from. The term "literate" seems to be thrown around a lot. I could say more, but you came up with really good points as is. Me? I've NEVER been a fan of having to write entire whole lines like +10. What you can convey in +15 lines is what I can convey in at least 2-3.

Honestly, reading this laid everything flat on the table for me. Honestly now it just seems like using this term openly is a little insulting to some people, which I didn’t really see before. I thought using these terms was just standardized roleplaying terms and phrases.

I’m going to go ahead and push myself out of this habit and remove any sense of the terms “literate” from any roleplay posts that I’ve posted recently and go more in depth on what I’m searching in a roleplayer in my advertisements ^^.