Offering a variety of perspectives, the articles in this book are intended for those who teach reading and writing; those who make policy influencing what is taught, how, and to whom; and those individuals who would influence the influential. The 18 articles are grouped into four sections: "Literacy, Politics, and Policies"; "Forms of Literacy"; "Literacy in the Marketplace"; and "Literacy and Education." Specific articles deal with the following topics: (1) the politics of literacy; (2) literacy and cultural change; (3) television literacy and television versus literacy; (4) oral and literate strategies in spoken and written discourse; (5) literacy and cognition; (6) information systems and literacy; (7) the invisible discourse of the law; (8) writing outside the English composition class; (9) testing writing; (10) functional literacy for community college students; (11) literacy, the law, and the reluctant learner; (12) literacy and family; (13) literacy for the eighties; (14) English and science; (15) the language of the bureaucracy; (16) literacy in English from an international perspective; (17) illiterates in a literate society; and (18) the role of the media in literacy education. An appendix contains a discussion of the English Composition Board at the University of Michigan, which was formed to extend the teaching of writing throughout the curriculum. (FL)