By: Alana Chapman
Dylan Dryer wrote an article called, “Writing is Not Natural.” In Dryer’s article, he talks about the significance of practicing writing as a technology. Writing is a complex system of inscriptions and symbols used to translate speech into a thought. However, speech is something that we pick up as we are trying to make sense of the world around us at a young age.
Writing and reading are not natural tasks; yet, speaking and body language movements are natural for both humans and animals. Unlike speaking or body language, writing is a learned skill and is culturally influenced. While speaking is also culturally influenced, it is something that we learn on our own, instead of being taught.
As people learn and develop other fine motor skills, we start learning how to spell, read, and write. We start with words like “cat” or “bat” then we learn bigger words, and eventually we create phrases that turn into sentences. This is a similar process to learning how to speak, yet most people are not taught how to speak, it comes naturally around 12-18 months old.
Because writing and reading do not come naturally, we have to practice often. Growing up in school, most people would practice writing five days a week, so the skill starts to feel more natural as we grow older. As Dryer was trying to explain how unnatural writing is, he wrote, “denaturalizing writing is not difficult: the startling experience of attempting to sign a document with one’s nondominant hand, for example, can be a disconcerting reminder of the time.” Dryer’s quote about writing with the nondominant hand reminds us that writing does not come naturally, as it takes lots of muscle memory, motor skills, and practice to write efficiently.
With both writing and speaking comes challenges:
Writing challenges
- spelling
- creativity
- tone
- audience
- reading disorders (dyslexia, dysgraphia)
Understanding these limitations can help writers to be more forgiving of the complications that come with the idea of writing as a technology.
Speaking challenges
- pronunciation
- vocabulary
- speech disorders (disfluency, articulation disorder)
Nick, a main character in the T.V. show New Girl, is trying to write a new book. However, Nick is not able to come up with new creative ideas. This is commonly called a writer’s block, a writer is not able to come up with new ideas. With writer’s block it can make writing difficult for anybody, not only professional writers.
