Writing: The Most Advance Technology Known to Man
Summary of Writing is Not Natural by Dylan B. Dryer:
Writing Is Not Natural, by Dylan B. Dryer is an article that talks about how writing is technology. It starts off by talking about how many people talk about writing as if it is speech. Yet, speech is something that comes much more natural to human nature, humans have been talking for about two hundred thousand years. Even children pick up on their native language fairly quickly. Whereas writing is more something that needs to be taught because writing is a translation of speech through arrays and inscription. Only people that know the arrays and their meanings will be able to read with the inscription means. Writing has only been around since about 300B.C, yet only few of the people within those systems were able to understand the inscription. Writing however is not something that everyone is familiar with, some languages don’t have writing or a certain system of symbols. The technology shown in writing can be seen through inscription, symbols, code, and arrays. Writing is classified as technology because writing is something that proves that there was activity. People can find themselves writing in their everyday life without even thinking much about it. Typing on keyboards, writing a list, drawing in the sand, or dry erase markers. Most people find themselves struggling with writing because it is compared to speech to much. With writing, the author loses a whole lot of communication because the author is unable to show their real emotions and they are unable to clarify where they may be misunderstood. Writers should also not blame themselves for the way the English language, homonyms, and homographs because people may misinterpret the meaning behind the word. The writers of today are trying their hardest to set high limitations on writing. Finding ways around the barrier that is created. People start to develop muscle memory for some of the symbols that they are always writing. As children grow up they start to understand the sounds that connect to the symbols and arrays that they have been drawing for so long. Writers are continuously working to make their writings easy to interpret as speech is easy to understand.
Response to the Article:
While reading this article it was eye opening, it is weird to classify writing as a technology. We use writing everyday, some more than others. “The persistent gulf between writers’ intentions and readers’ interpretations-are simply inherent to a piecemeal technology encumbered with centuries of patchwork solutions to antiqued designs” (Dryer). The problem behind writing is the author knows exactly what he or she wants to say, but it is up to the reader to interpret the message themselves. The message can be deeper than the text itself, making the reader have to dig deeper and look at the style. We persistently teach younger generations about how writing is comparable to speech, creating the problem where they critique their writing too harshly. They try to write the way they communicate with others but it falls short of getting the message across because we lose some of the most important things for human understanding.
I picked this image because no matter the way you’re writing it will almost always be hard. You will almost never be able to explain what you want to in the way you want to or need. You just need your ideas to come out and flow, don’t over think it. Let them flow, your first draft is never going to be your best draft, well it should not be your best draft hopefully.
