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Let’s look at another example of a literacy community, this section from the popular sports blog Grantland.

In this standard high pick-and-roll, you have Bargnani setting up at the top of the key by the 3-point line, setting a ball screen for Jose Calderon. Calderon does a good job of setting up the screen, coming off Bargnani, and using it effectively.

In terms of setting ball screens, versatility means the ability to do different things when the point guard comes off your screen. As a shooting 7-footer, Bargnani can either pop out or roll to the rim, and while he favors popping out, doing so close to 79 percent of the time, his size makes him a threat when rolling to the rim as well. So in this case, when JaVale McGee leaves him to hedge on this ball screen, Bargnani dives into the paint.

Now, unless you play or watch basketball regularly, there are a number of words and phrases that you probably recognize, but not in the way they are used here: guard, paint, screen, hedge, key, pop, roll, dives, and so on. These are terms that are familiar to those within this literacy community, but might confuse others outside of it. Someone with limited basketball knowledge might reasonably ask why a basketball player would suddenly dive into paint in the middle of a game.

It is also important to understand that literacy includes more than just being able to read and use words because many literacy communities utilize both verbal and nonverbal means to communicate information. Consider the following mathematical formula, which you are likely familiar with:

a² + b² = c²

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Those who are math-literate know that this formula is the Pythagorean theorem, and that it states — in nonverbal terms — that the square of the hypotenuse of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The theorem can also be represented in this other nonverbal way:

There are other types of nonverbal texts that we encounter and are expected to be able to understand, such as this pie chart: