2. DEFINING SPONSORSHIP
Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or
distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as
recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy — and gain advantage by it in some
way. Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs
brought to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who or
what underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use. Although the interests of
the sponsor and the sponsored do not have to converge (and, in fact, may conflict)
sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and wield powerful
incentives for compliance and loyalty. Sponsors are a tangible reminder that
literacy learning throughout history has always required
permission, sanction, assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing
trade routes. Sponsors are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the
means by which these forces present themselves to — and through — individual
learners. They also represent the causes into which people's literacy usually gets
recruited.
Deborah Brandt, ―The Sponsors of Literacy‖ (College Composition and
Communication. 49.2 (1998): 166–167.
SPONSORSHIP

3. DEFINING SPONSORSHIP
Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or
distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as
recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy — and gain advantage by it in
some way. Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having
programs brought to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about
who or what underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use. Although the
interests of the sponsor and the sponsored do not have to converge (and, in
fact, may conflict) sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and
wield powerful incentives for compliance and loyalty. Sponsors are a tangible
reminder that literacy learning throughout history has always required
permission, sanction, assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing
trade routes. Sponsors are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the
means by which these forces present themselves to — and through — individual
learners. They also represent the causes into which people's literacy usually gets
recruited.
Deborah Brandt, ―The Sponsors of Literacy‖ (College Composition and
Communication. 49.2 (1998): 166–167.
SPONSORSHIP

4. DEFINING SPONSORSHIP
Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or
distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as
recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy — and gain advantage by it in some
way. Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs
brought to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who or
what underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use. Although the interests of
the sponsor and the sponsored do not have to converge (and, in fact, may conflict)
sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and wield powerful
incentives for compliance and loyalty. Sponsors are a tangible reminder that
literacy learning throughout history has always required
permission, sanction, assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing
trade routes. Sponsors are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the
means by which these forces present themselves to — and through — individual
learners. They also represent the causes into which people's literacy usually gets
recruited.
Deborah Brandt, ―The Sponsors of Literacy‖ (College Composition and
Communication. 49.2 (1998): 166–167.
SPONSORSHIP

5. DEFINING SPONSORSHIP
Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant,
concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit,
regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy — and gain advantage by it in some way.
Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs brought
to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who or what
underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use. Although the interests of the
sponsor and the sponsored do not have to converge (and, in fact, may conflict)
sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and wield powerful
incentives for compliance and loyalty. Sponsors are a tangible reminder that
literacy learning throughout history has always required permission, sanction,
assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing trade routes. Sponsors
are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the means by which these
forces present themselves to — and through — individual learners. They also
represent the causes into which people's literacy usually gets recruited.
Deborah Brandt, ―The Sponsors of Literacy‖ (College Composition and
Communication. 49.2 (1998): 166–167.
SPONSORSHIP

6. DEFINING SPONSORSHIP
Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or
distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as
recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy — and gain advantage by it in some
way. Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs
brought to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who or
what underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use. Although the interests of
the sponsor and the sponsored do not have to converge (and, in fact, may conflict)
sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and wield powerful
incentives for compliance and loyalty. Sponsors are a tangible reminder that
literacy learning throughout history has always required
permission, sanction, assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing
trade routes. Sponsors are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the
means by which these forces present themselves to — and through — individual
learners. They also represent the causes into which people's literacy usually gets
recruited.
Deborah Brandt, ―The Sponsors of Literacy‖ (College Composition and
Communication. 49.2 (1998): 166–167.
SPONSORSHIP

7. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Tell me about the reading and writing that you do as a college student.
2. Tell me about the process you go through when reading something for class. Are there “steps”? If
so, what are they?
3. Tell me about the process you go through when reading something not for class? Are there
“steps”? If so, what are they?
4. Tell me about the process you go through when writing something for class. Are there “steps”? If
so, what are they?
5. Tell me about the process you go through when writing something not for class? Are there “steps”?
If so, what are they?
6. How would you, personally, define the difference between academic literacy and
other, “extracurricular” forms of literacy? That is, what does that difference mean for you, in your
life?
7. Are there other ways of grouping literacy practices (besides academic/nonacademic) that are
meaningful for you? For example, would you make a distinction between different kinds of
academic literacy? Between different kinds of extracurricular literacy? What other groupings, if
any, are meaningful to you personally? (If the interview subject offers some groupings, ask him/her
to describe what makes them meaningful to him her).
8. Let’s look back over the list of literacy practices you’ve described. Who are some of the sponsors of
each? What advantage do the sponsors stand to gain by your acquisition of literacy? Do your
interests and theirs align, or are they in conflict? How so?

8. DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS
Descriptive questions ask the interview subject to talk about their
experience in their own terms.
For example:
Tell me about the reading and writing that you do as a college student.
Also:
Let’s look back over the list of literacy practices you’ve described. Who
are some of the sponsors of each? What advantage do the sponsors
stand to gain by your acquisition of literacy? Do your interests and
theirs align, or are they in conflict? How so?

9. STRUCTURAL QUESTIONS
Structural questions ask the interview subject to break their experience
down and draw connections.
For example:
Tell me about the process you go through when reading something for
class. Are there “steps”? If so, what are they?

10. CONTRAST QUESTIONS
Contrast questions aim to bring out the meaning of the interview
subject’s experience by asking them to compare and contrast the
different aspects of it.
For example:
How would you, personally, define the difference between academic
literacy and other, “extracurricular” forms of literacy? That is, what
does that difference mean for you, in your life?
Are there other ways of grouping literacy practices (besides
academic/nonacademic) that are meaningful for you? For
example, would you make a distinction between different kinds of
academic literacy? Between different kinds of extracurricular literacy?
What other groupings, if any, are meaningful to you personally? (If the
interview subject offers some groupings, ask him/her to flesh out the
differences between them.)

11. HOMEWORK
Read Lewis Mumford’s “What Is a City?”
Pick out a place of a space in our city that you believe would be
interesting to analyze ethnographically.
Imagine that you were going to interview some people who live in, work
in, play in, or otherwise use that space, and write at least FIVE interview
questions. Your question list should include at least one descriptive
question, one structural question, and one contrast question.