Scientific literacy: reading and writing of scientific texts

Following a discussion of the literacy word and concept, of its history and sociocultural context, we refer the conditions of learning how to read and write in the alphabetic system and we distinguish kinds of "literates". We examine the sub-concept of scientific literacy, considering its history and discussing its ambiguity, concluding that it ought to include both the written production of science and the knowledge and understanding people have of it. We analyze and comment the textual reading and writing components of scientific activity, as well as their intimate relationship, and we consider some aspects of the publications' rules and demands. We illustrate the low levels of the "scientific awareness" of the population, even among students, and of science teaching in schools, recommending the early reading of scientific papers, and considering as positive the trend for an approximation, in some cases integration, of scientific and literary literacies. We argue that the state of literacy (more precisely of reading capacity) in the global neoliberal capitalist society, in particular in Brazil, counters the generalization of scientific literacy. Finally, we propose to support the development of experimental research on cognition and language, and to look for how school teaching can better foster "fluid intelligence" capacities.