Writing isn’t as natural as speech would be for us. In Dylan B. Dryer’s article, “Writing Is Not Natural”, He explains why writing isn’t natural to us along with how it doesn’t do the authors justice when it comes to thorough, expressional ideas. As homo sapiens, it’s natural and familiar that we know how to speak and communicate with each other. Writing is made up of symbols that represent the sounds that we make when we speak. Think of it as speech in visual form, it just lacks true emotions. The symbols can be used in many different ways but can not be used to translate its original form in thought, which makes it difficult to understand what it is that the author is trying to depict. It is important that we reignite these symbols into its original connotation. What also doesn’t make writing natural is that it has only been around since 3000 BCE and there being multiple languages but not all languages having a writing system.
Writing can only be seen as symbols that represent sounds that we make, however, writing doesn’t represent the gestures, silences, expressions and clarifications we make when we’re speaking on a topic that one is knowledgeable about. As mentioned by Dryer, “Speech, however, employs an extensive array of modalities unavailable to writing.” It’s important that expression and gestures are captured for a proper response to listeners’ verbal and nonverbal assessment and evaluation.
Now that technology has evolved in writing, there are different ways writing can be developed, by using a keyboard, writing utensils and devices, but can those writing devices translate the same exact physical expression and gestures through writing? “Nor written language itself can be said “natural” in the way that speech is.” The answer is not exactly, Dryer expressed that there is a “persistent gulf between the writers‘ intentions and readers’ interpretations, are simply inherent to a piecemeal technology encumbered with centuries of patchwork solutions to antiquated designs.”
The limitations of writing does not allow the author to fulfill their ideations but rather form their ideas the best way they can in a visual form. Writing will never truly fulfill the author’s ideation and intentions in their own writing. The readers interpretations of the author’s work will be inevitably different from what the authors true intentions are, which can be misleading for the reader. Writing cannot fulfill the expressions, gestures and emotions in the same way if you were speaking face to face, which Dryer made that clear in his article.
