How we Communicate Through the Written Word

For thousands of years humanity communicated through the spoken word, language. Writing itself has only existed for roughly 2% of all our history as modern humans. An astonishing figure given our modern life. It is almost unfathomable to think of a world without writing; true, it is by far our main method of communication today. Books are abundant, Newspapers and magazines line the isles at stores, even advertisements litter our screens and roadways; not to mention the internet itself, perhaps the most important innovation in communication since the printing press.

Now-a-days there are a multitude of ways to communicate through writing. More conventional tools still exist like paper and pen: crafting essays for scholars, news for the masses, or books for the bibliophile. The internet has provided and expanded writing to more people, and with this expanded not only the genres that exist, but also the methodologies for communicating with an audience and effectively getting across a theme.

To better understand how we communicate through the written word we must first look into the history of writing itself, looking at how it has expanded and evolved through the eons.

First Writings

The first recorded writing system that archeologists have discovered is cuneiform, a system in which a scribe presses a stick into clay to form arrowed markings which can hold a multitude of meaning. However, it was mainly used for legal, religious, and business proceedings. This corresponded to the growth of civilization, as society became more complex the need to record what was said became more important than ever.

Evolution

Writing did not stop with merely the market, courthouse, and chapel, however. More and more people began to adopt writing and use it for personal notes, letters, or entertainment. In fact, Reference.com states that the first book ever recorded was written in the 18th century C.E. It was the epic of Gilgamesh. though it may look different from what we imagine books to look like now-adays it shows a clear evolution of writing in a relatively short timeframe, especially as a means to record events and stories.

The next big innovation in writing came in 1436. When, as Dave Roos from History.com explains, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg created the first modern printing press. A mechanical machine that prints letters upon a piece of parchment. Although Gutenberg was not the first to invent a printing press, China had been using block printing since the 9th century, and a mechanical press was created in Korea a century prior. However, Gutenberg’s creation used a system that made the printing more unison on the page, which helped with adoption by traders.

The Internet and Writing

The internet itself is a several decades long endeavor of innovation and change. First beginning in 1964 by several M.I.T. scientists, using military contracts they created the ARPA-net, a network between two computers (Both the size of a small house) located in UCLA, and Stanford University.

As time went on many innovations struck computer networking, expansion of separate networks first began shortly after the ARPA-net. After about a decade Vinton Cerf created a way for computers to access these separate networks, the first semblance of a worldwide web.

In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee then changed the internet forever, he introduced what he called the world wide web. Not only making it possible for networks and computers to interact by sending information to each other, but by turning the internet into a web. This innovation meant people could upload and retrieve information directly from the ‘web’ and not have to rely on other networks in order to do so.

Since then, the internet has continued to expand, from the commercial wave of the dot.com bubble, to video streaming platforms, and social media. The internet has changed the way humanity communicates on a level akin to the printing press. Similarly, to the prior invention the internet has afforded more people access to information on a scale not seen since.

Additional Information & Sources

What Was the First Book Ever Made? (reference.com)

7 Ways the Printing Press Changed the World – HISTORY

The Invention of the Internet – Inventor, Timeline & Facts – HISTORY

Writing is a Social Act

Writing is an inherently social act, it involves a “speaker” and an audience. Even through all the innovations we saw prior this simple fact has not changed. But why is writing social? And how do these social influences effect the written word?

Rhetoric and Why we Write

Think about any time you have sat down to write something. Think to yourself why was I writing that? What purpose did it serve? Who was I talking to when putting those words on paper? These are the inherent aspects of all written words. Even notes to oneself are not written without consideration of the above. Perhaps you needed to remember to do a chore, and so you wrote a note with yourself both as the author, and audience. More broadly any piece of writing is a relationship between an author and his/her audience. Though we will discuss this further below, this relationship influences what we write, and why. From entertainment to social causes, to business or legalese, we all have our reasons for writing, and a target audience whom we are writing to.

Socialization

An important aspect to writing is also socialization. an act that occurs from one’s experience with writing. This can be Affected by family, friends, and schooling. Socialization is what helps form our style of writing, as well as influence who we may want to write to. It is a key aspect to the writing process and helps to constantly keep the written word evolving.

Audience and Author

The relationship between audience and author has changed immensely over the past several decades in large part due to the internet. When we usually think of this relationship, we imagine an author who has something to say, maybe it’s a social cause, or a story in a fantasy setting, maybe it’s a cookbook; In the end it doesn’t matter what we are writing, as every genre has an audience of people wanting to learn more or entertain themselves. This creates the relationship between audience and author, where the audience will provide feedback, perhaps in reviews, sales, or simple talk. This influences the author to evolve their writing around what their audience has given them; simply put, “My books on the historical influence of pie isn’t doing too well, but my fantasy novel about dragons and floating cities did wonderful! I’ll focus my writing endeavors there”

The Feedback Loop

The internet has created a feedback loop. This has blurred the lines between author and audience, as both the author and audience in a traditional setting have oftentimes been flipped around. At times a content creator online is the author of their own works, at other times they are the audience listening to other creators’ criticism or praise. In this new era, we are all the audience, as well as the authors of written content.

Additional Information & Sources

Rhetorical Situations // Purdue Writing Lab

Author and Audience // Purdue Writing Lab