First presented as papers in a symposium on literacy conducted at the University of Alabama, essays in this volume explore three areas of human literacy--law, linguistics, and the English language; testing; and literacy's relation with culture and human consciousness. Following an introduction examining literacy as a human problem, the following nine papers are presented: "Don't Grammar Count?" (Thomas H. Middleton); "Literacy: A Human and a Legal Problem" (Vivian I. Davis); "Why Good English Is Good for You" (John Simon); "Language: Unites or Divides? The Students' Right in Retrospect" (Elisabeth McPherson); "How Competent Are the Writing Competency Tests? (Thomas Newkirk); "Who Am I Unless I Know You? Another View of Competence" (Richard Lloyd-Jones); "A Literal View of Literacy" (Edward P. J. Corbett); "Luria on Literacy: The Cognitive Consequences of Reading and Writing" (Frank J. D'Angelo); and "Reading, Technology, and Human Consciousness" (Walter J. Ong). (HTH)