Symbols can do many things. They can translate thoughts and speech into symbols and inscriptions. Symbols and other things cannot be used to record speech in their original forms but can translate the speech and thoughts into inscriptions. For other people to read and understand these symbols and inscriptions, they must know the “code” which takes those symbols and makes meaning out of them. Not all languages and cultures have writing or a particular system of symbols such as an alphabet, numbers, etc. Walter Ong has explored the emphasis on technological dimensions of writing, including words like inscriptions, codes, arrays, and symbols. Typically, the term “technology” is used for more recent innovations, but cultural artifacts mediating activity can also be called technology. Some typists no longer have to look at their fingers while typing on the QWERTY keyboards. And as children learn to write, they slowly start to “write” letters as symbols rather than “draw” them. The next step in naturalizing the relationship between self and writing is the acquisition of tools of inscription, such as pens, pencils, markers, computers, and cell phones; as the use becomes natural, they fade from consciousness.
Although these things become natural, they cannot be as natural as speech. Writing is taught and remembered through muscle memory and can be denaturalized. For example, writing with the non-dominant hand shows what the muscles and brain had to get used to when learning to write. Remembering that writing is not natural is important when it comes to writers and their writing. Writers tend to judge their own writing harshly by comparing the writing to speech and how easy it is to speak. Writing cannot employ the different things that speech can, such as facial expressions, gestures, clarifications, and silent pauses. Writers do not get the verbal and nonverbal feedback that is given while speaking when they are writing. Writer’s benefit from the realization that they do not need to blame themselves for the shortcomings and limitations of the system, the different pronunciations and spellings, and the writers’ intentions versus the readers’ perceptions or interpretations. Writing is a very complex entity, and it is not natural. There are so many different ways to write and perceive the writing. While writing may come easy for some people, it can be difficult for others. I have always struggled with successfully putting my thoughts into words, and I have often asked myself why writing could be more challenging than speaking. As Dylan B. Dryer puts it in “Writing is Not Natural,” Speaking is easier than writing because of the different verbal and nonverbal cues that cannot as easily be put into symbols or writing on paper.
