Writing

"Write" redirects here. For other uses, see Write (disambiguation).

The Rosetta Stone (196 BC) bears writing using three different scripts: hieroglyphs and Demotic script record the same text in the Egyptian language, while an equivalent passage in Greek uses the Greek alphabet. These correspondences proved instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs during the early 19th century.

Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of human language. A writing system uses a set of symbols and rules to encode aspects of spoken language, such as its lexicon and syntax. However, written language may take on characteristics distinct from those of any spoken language.[1]

Writing is a cognitive and social activity involving neuropsychological and physical processes. The outcome of this activity, also called "writing", and sometimes a "text", is a series of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. The interpreter or activator of a text is called a "reader".[2]

In general, writing systems do not constitute languages in and of themselves, but rather a means of encoding language such that it can be read by others across time and space.[3][4] While not all languages use a writing system, those that do can complement and extend the capacities of spoken language by creating durable forms of language that can be transmitted across space (e.g. written correspondence) and stored over time (e.g. libraries or other public records).[5] Writing can also have knowledge-transforming effects, since it allows humans to externalize their thinking in forms that are easier to reflect on, elaborate on, reconsider, and revise.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Harris, Roy (2000). Rethinking Writing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-253-33776-4.
  2. ^ Smith, Dorothy E. (2005). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 105–108. ISBN 978-0-7591-0502-7.
  3. ^ Ong, Walter (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-415-02796-0.
  4. ^ Haas, Christina (1996). Writing technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 978-0-8058-1306-7.
  5. ^ Schmandt-Besserat, Denise; Erard, Erard (2007). "Origins and Forms of Writing". In Bazerman, Charles (ed.). Handbook of Research on Writing: History, Society, School, Individual, Text. New York: L. Erlbaum Associates. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-135-25111-6.
  6. ^ Bazerman, Charles; Russell, David, eds. (1994). "Writing as a mode of learning". Landmark Essays: On Writing Across the Curriculum. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003059219. ISBN 978-1-003-05921-9.
  7. ^ Adler-Kassner, Linda; Wardle, Elizabeth A., eds. (2015). Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Logan: Utah State University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-87421-989-0. JSTOR j.ctt15nmjt7.
  8. ^ Winsor, Dorothy A. (1994). "Invention and Writing in Technical Work: Representing the Object". Written Communication. 11 (2): 227–250. doi:10.1177/0741088394011002003. S2CID 145645219.