The Latest in New Tech: Writing
In the article “Writing is Not Natural”, Dylan B. Dryer explains to us that writing is a form of technology. Its uses are vast but not when put up against spoken language, in comparison written text is quite limited. Humans have been using spoken communication for hundreds of thousands of years, with a constant feedback loop that is almost instantaneous. Thousands of millennia later, communicating with one another has become one of the most natural things we do. Even in early childhood we learn to express ourselves through facial expressions and sounds. The social ques that form around communication are everywhere. To try and convey all that experience into text, which has only existed for around five thousand years, there is no surprise the written word comes up short.
Dylan Dryer explains that as writers it is easy to think the problem when our writing doesn’t get across the meaning we were aiming for comes from a lack of ability. We must remember that any inscriptive language is an attempt at translating what we mean into symbols, and then the audience must make the reverse translation into spoken language. The miscommunication is inherit in the medium of written language this directly leads to a misunderstanding of our true meaning. This disconnect of communication is important to remember as a writer, you shouldn’t be over critical of your works when the system given to you is lacking. Similarly this is something important to remember as a reader, and how we form our opinions on a piece of writing.
Dryer goes on to talk about how all of written language is a learned technology, not something that comes about naturally. There are many languages throughout history that do not have any form of written symbolism. It is by no means a requirement of a full fledged language to have a written counterpart. Although using this technology becomes so engrained in our lives it is easy to forget that something as simple as a pencil is a form of technological advancement. Many people will go their whole life working to become the best writer or storyteller. Never being able to achieve the ability to get their message across as clearly as if they had been able to speak it out loud.
“The
limitations of this system—confounding illogicalities in pronunciation
and spelling (choose but loose; wood and would; clout but doubt)” – Dylan B. Dryer
Dryer wraps up the article by discussing the contradictions that exist in the English written language. Contradictions that have to be learned and adequately dealt with when trying to put everything learned about how to deliver a message clearly, into a different medium of communication.
I believe having an understanding of how written language came to be part of our world so quickly can really help us as writers. With the knowledge in mind that it is a fairly new practice, it can be much less discouraging when our own writing comes up short. Dylan Dryer talks about “the persistent gulf between writers’ intentions and readers’ interpretations…”, this is the precise problem with ours and any written language. Maybe one day we will master the written word to the extent of perfect communication, but until then there is much to learn. 1Furthermore we can use these ideas as a tool themselves to stay motivated in our endeavors to become the best we can be in this new age technology of writing.
