This is certainly accurate, but defining literacy as interpreting and making marks on a sheet of paper is grossly inadequate. Reading and writing are the physical actions we use to employ something far more important: external, distributable storage for the mind. Being literate isn’t simply a matter of being able to put words on the page, it’s solidifying our thoughts such that they can be written. Interpreting and applying someone else’s thoughts is the equivalent for reading. We call these composition and comprehension. And they are what literacy really is.