Writing

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.

Any instance of writing involves a complex interaction among available tools, intentions, cultural customs, cognitive routines, genres, tacit and explicit knowledge, and the constraints and limitations of the writing system(s) deployed.

Advancements in natural language processing and natural language generation allow certain tools (in the form of software) to produce certain kinds of highly formulaic writing (e.g., weather forecasts and brief sports reporting) without the direct involvement of humans^[12] after initial configuration or, more commonly, to be used to support writing processes such as generating initial drafts, producing feedback with the help of a rubric, copy-editing, and helping translation.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Writing technologies from different eras coexist easily in many homes and workplaces. During the course of a day or even a single episode of writing, for example, a writer might instinctively switch among a pencil, a touchscreen, a text-editor, a whiteboard, a legal pad, and adhesive notes as different purposes arise.^[17]

Motivations and purposes

As human societies emerged, collective motivations for the

Individual, as opposed to collective, motivations for writing include improvised additional capacity for the limitations of human memory^[24] (e.g., to-do lists, recipes, reminders, logbooks, maps, the proper sequence for a complicated task or important ritual), dissemination of ideas and coordination (as in an essay, monograph, broadside, plans, (code) issues, petition, or manifesto), imaginative narratives and other forms of storytelling, maintaining kinship and other social networks,^[25] negotiating household matters with providers of goods and services and with local and regional governing bodies, and lifewriting (e.g., a diary or journal).

The nearly global spread of digital

Some professions are typically associated with writing, such as literary authors, journalists, and technical writers, but writing is pervasive in most modern forms of work, civic participation, household management, and leisure activities.[30] The following are examples of this pervasiveness, but they are far from encompassing all the uses of writing.

Business and finance

Writing permeates everyday commerce. For example, in the course of an afternoon, a wholesaler might receive a written inquiry about the availability of a product line, then communicate with suppliers and fabricators through work orders and purchase agreements, correspond via email to affirm shipping availability with a drayage company, write an invoice, and request proof of receipt in the form of a written signature. At a much larger scale, modern systems of finances, banking, and business rest on many forms of written documents—including written regulations, policies, and procedures; the creation of reports and other monitoring documents to make, evaluate, and provide accountability for decisions and operations; the creation and maintenance of records; internal written communications within departments to coordinate work; written communications that comprise work products presented to other departments and to clients; and external communications to clients and the public.^[31][32] Business and financial organizations also rely on many written legal documents, such as contracts, reports to government agencies, tax records, and accounting reports.^[33] Financial institutions and markets that hold, transmit, trade, insure, or regulate holdings for clients or other institutions are particularly dependent on written records (though now often in digital form) to maintain the integrity of their roles.^[34]

Governance and law

Many modern systems of government are organized and sanctified through written constitutions at the national and sometimes state or other organizational levels. Written rules and procedures typically guide the operations of the various branches, departments, and other bodies of government, which regularly produce reports and other documents as work products and to account for their actions. In addition to legislative branches that draft and pass laws, these laws are administered by an executive branch, which can present further written regulations specifying the laws and how they are carried out.^[35] Governments at different levels also typically maintain written records on citizens concerning identities, life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, the granting of licenses for controlled activities, criminal charges, traffic offenses, and other penalties small and large, and tax liability and payments.^[36]

Written legal codes in modern governments are typically produced by legislative branches and provide standardized rules for commercial, civil, and lawful activity.[41]  The legal codes also provide remedies and penalties for violations of the rules, as well as procedures for their enforcement. In the United States, legal proceedings in courts produce written records, which can be appealed based on the written records to higher courts. Written records carry particular evidentiary weight in court proceedings. Lawyers also offer written briefs for initial proceedings, subsequent appeals, and other points at issue; maintain files on the cases they are engaged with; and negotiate written agreements that might resolve cases. Judges produce written opinions that may then be treated as precedent for subsequent cases.^[42][43][44]

Police departments and other bodies charged with the enforcement of laws and maintenance of civil, commercial, or criminal order regularly must produce reports of the interactions with community members, actions taken, the process and results of inquiries, and the disposition of cases.^[45] Such cases are often initiated by written complaints by those alleging injury, thereby opening a file on the case, which then aggregates all the related documents and reports to follow. These files serve as the basis for processing the case, as potential evidence in legal proceedings, and for monitoring and making accountable the working of these departments.^[46][47]

Scientific and scholarly knowledge production

Knowledge produced in research disciplines of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities arises primarily in the form of journal articles and book monographs. Experiments, observational data, archival documents, and other evidence collected as part of research inquiries are then represented within the written contribution and serve as the basis for arguments for new claims intended to be published in specialized academic journals and university presses.

Such data collection and drafting of manuscripts may be supported by grants, which usually require proposals establishing the value of such work and the need for funding.^[48] The data and procedures are also typically collected in lab notebooks or other preliminary files.^[49] Early versions of the possible publications may also be presented at academic or disciplinary conferences or on publicly accessible web servers to gain peer feedback and build interest in the work. Prior to official publication, these documents are typically read and evaluated by referees from the appropriate research specialties, who, in their written evaluations, determine whether the work is of sufficient value and quality to be published.^[50] Referees may also recommend certain improvements be made or that the work not be published.

Publication in such a disciplinary forum does not establish the claims or findings of such work as authoritatively true, only that they are worth the attention of other specialists. Only over time, as others may cite the work (see intertextuality) and use it to advance further claims and the work appears in review articles, handbooks, textbooks, or other aggregations, does it become codified as contingently reliable knowledge.^[51]

Scientific or scholarly work written for more popular audiences relies on the published work of the scientific literature for its authority but does not in itself directly contribute to the scientific literature.^{[citation needed]}

Journalism

News and news reporting are central to citizen engagement and knowledge of many spheres of activity people may be interested in about the state of their community, including the actions and integrity of their governments and government officials, economic trends, natural disasters and responses to them, international geopolitical events, including conflicts, but also sports, entertainment, books, and other leisure activities. While news and newspapers have grown rapidly from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, the changing economics and ability to produce and distribute news have brought about radical and rapid challenges to journalism and the consequent organization of citizen knowledge and engagement.^[52][53] These changes have also created challenges for journalism ethics that have been developed over the past century.^[54]

Technical and medical writing

Technical and medical writing are recognized writing specialties that, address the needs of scientifically and technologically based professions for precise, accurate, and timely communications, internally and externally, for the audiences the professions serve. Internally, these specialized writers ensure that communications present the necessary information in clear and precise terms to people in various roles. Both in the writing they do, and with the support they provide other professionals within their organizations, they make sure that each person within the organization has the information they need and that the work of the organization is coordinated by making sure all necessary tasks are assigned, and carried out, in a timely and accurate way. Through various media and genres, technical and medical writers elicit the goodwill and cooperation of the public served, while informing the public of the services and products offered, instructions needed for best outcomes, and other information. Technical and medical writers make sure appropriate and accurate records are kept for internal and external accountability and regulation. An important part of their roles is to prepare reports for government approval and monitoring.^{[citation needed]}

Literature and the leisure book market

Works of

Authors and publishers' agents produce considerable documentation preparatory and subsequent to the successful publication of literature: prospectuses, developmental editing notes, contracts, correspondence with potential reviewers, press-releases, marketing plans, etc.^{[citation needed]}

Writing within education and educational institutions

Formal education is the social context most strongly associated with the learning of writing, and students may carry these particular associations long after leaving school.

Writing also pervades schools and educational institutions in less visible and memorable ways.[58]^[59] Since schools are typically hierarchically arranged bureaucracies, writing also circulates in the forms of notices and regulations that teachers receive from their supervisors and arrange their instruction according to district and state syllabi and regulations.  Teachers often must produce and submit lesson plans or other information about their teaching. In primary and secondary education teachers may need to write notices or letters to parents about matters relating to their children's learning, school activities, or regulations. Within school hierarchies many memos, notices, or other documents may flow. National policies and regulations as elaborated by ministries or departments of education may also be of consequence. Additionally, research in the various subject areas and in educational studies may be attended to by educators in the classroom and higher bureaucratic levels.  And of course, subject learning draws on the knowledge produced and authorized by disciplines.^{[citation needed]}

Software code

This section is an excerpt from Hypertext.[edit]

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). As implemented on the Web, hypertext enables the easy-to-use publication of information over the Internet

.

• Written personal and group communication, using
  chat software
• Unoriginal writing such as translation of texts and transcription of spoken language
• Screenplay writing for film and other audiovisual scenes.

Writing systems

The major writing systems broadly fall into four categories: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, and featural. As pictograms do not represent a language's sounds, they have been argued not to constitute a writing system.^[63]

Logographies

A logography (also called a logosyllabary) is written using logograms—written characters which represent individual words, morphemes or certain syllables.^[63] For example, in Mayan, the glyph for "fin", pronounced ka, was also used to represent the syllable ka whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated. Many logograms have an ideographic component (Chinese "radicals", hieroglyphic "determiners"). In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of a semantic (meaning) element called a radical with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation, called a phonetic. However, such phonetic elements complement the logographic elements, rather than vice versa.^{[citation needed]}

The main logographic system in use today is

A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables,^[63] typically a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone. In some scripts more complex syllables (such as consonant-vowel-consonant, or consonant-consonant-vowel) may have dedicated glyphs. Phonetically similar syllables are not written similarly.^[63] For instance, the syllable "ka" may look nothing like the syllable "ki", nor will syllables with the same vowels be similar.^{[citation needed]}

Syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include the Linear B script for Mycenaean Greek; Cherokee,^[64] Ndjuka, an English-based creole language of Suriname; and the Vai script of Liberia.

Alphabets

An alphabet is a set of written symbols that represent consonants and vowels.^[63] In a perfectly phonological alphabet, the letters would correspond perfectly to the language's phonemes. Thus, a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. However, as languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for, the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language.^{[citation needed]}

Sometimes the term "alphabet" is restricted to systems with separate letters for consonants and vowels, such as the Latin alphabet, although abugidas and abjads may also be accepted as alphabets. Because of this use, Greek is often considered to be the first alphabet.^{[citation needed]}

Abjads

In most of the alphabets of the Middle East, it is usually only the consonants of a word that are written, although vowels may be indicated by the addition of various diacritical marks. Writing systems based primarily on writing just consonants phonemes date back to the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Such systems are called abjads, derived from the Arabic word for "alphabet", or consonantaries.^[63]

Abugidas

In most of the alphabets of India and Southeast Asia, vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are called abugidas.^[63] Some abugidas, such as Ethiopic and Cree, are learned by children as syllabaries, and so are often called "syllabics". However, unlike true syllabaries, there is not an independent glyph for each syllable.^{[citation needed]}

Featural scripts

A featural script represents the features of the phonemes of the language in consistent ways. An example of such a system is Korean hangul.^[63] For instance, all labial sounds (pronounced with the lips) may have some element in common. In the Latin alphabet, this is accidentally the case with the letters "b" and "p"; however, labial "m" is completely dissimilar, and the similar-looking "q" and "d" are not labial. In Korean hangul, however, all four labial consonants are based on the same basic element, but in practice, Korean is learned by children as an ordinary alphabet, and the featural elements tend to pass unnoticed.^{[citation needed]}

Another featural script is

Mesoamerica

A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing, known as the

Of several

In 2001, archaeologists discovered that there was a civilization in Central Asia that used writing c. 2000 BC. An excavation near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that was used as a stamp seal.^[69]

China

The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on so-called "

In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of isolated tortoise-shell carvings dating back to the 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle-bone script is disputed.^[71][72]

Egypt

The earliest known

Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes.^[73] Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries was purposely made even more so, as this preserved the scribes' status.^{[citation needed]}

The world's

Linear Elamite is a writing system attested in a few monumental inscriptions in Iran. It was used for a very brief period during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven since Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have attempted to decipher the script, most notably Walther Hinz^[76] and Piero Meriggi.

The

Europe

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2023)

Notational signs from ~37,000 years ago in caves, apparently convey calendaric meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, and are considered the first known (proto-)writing in history.^[77][78]

Cretan and Greek scripts

Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the

While research into the development of writing during the late Stone Age is ongoing, the current consensus is that it first evolved from economic necessity in the ancient Near East. Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form.^[84]

The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the emergence of civilisations and the beginning of the

The Tifinagh script (Berber languages) is descended from the Libyco-Berber script, which is assumed to be of Phoenician origin.^{[citation needed]}

Religious texts

In the

Contemporary efforts to foster writing acquisition

Multiple programs are in place to aid both children and adults in improving their literacy skills. For example, the emergence of the writing center and community-wide literacy councils aim to help students and community members sharpen their writing skills. These resources, and many more, span across different age groups in order to offer each individual a better understanding of their language and how to express themselves via writing in order to perhaps improve their socioeconomic status. As William J. Farrell puts it: "Did you ever notice that, when people become serious about communication, they want it in writing?"^[91]

Other parts of the world have seen an increase in writing abilities as a result of programs such as the World Literacy Foundation and International Literacy Foundation, as well as a general push for increased global communication.^{[citation needed]}

See also

References

Works cited

• Mukhopadhyay, Bahata Ansumali (2019). "Interrogating Indus inscriptions to unravel their mechanisms of meaning conveyance". Palgrave Communications. 5 (1): 1–37.
  ISSN 2055-1045
  .
• Robinson, Andrew (2003). "The Origins of Writing". In Crowley, David; Heyer, Paul (eds.). Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Allyn and Bacon.
• Stiebing, William H. Jr.; Helft, Susan N. (2018). Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture (3rd ed.). Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1-134-88083-6
  .
• Wells, B. K. (2015). The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Indus Writing. Oxford, UK: Archaeopress.
  ISBN 9781784910464
  .

Further reading

• A History of Writing: From Hieroglyph to Multimedia, edited by Anne-Marie Christin, Flammarion (in French, hardcover: 408 pages, 2002,
  ISBN 2-08-010887-5
  )
• "The Art of Writing" (1974). The Book Collector 23 no 3 (autumn):319–338.
• In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. By Joel M. Hoffman, 2004. Chapter 3 covers the invention of writing and its various stages.
• Origins of writing on AncientScripts.com
• Museum of Writing Archived 24 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine: UK Museum of Writing with information on writing history and implements
• On ERIC Digests: Writing Instruction: Current Practices in the Classroom Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine; Writing Development Archived 15 April 2004 at the Wayback Machine; Writing Instruction: Changing Views over the Years Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• ISBN 978-88-6429-020-1
• Children of the Code: The Power of Writing – Online Video
• Powell, Barry B. 2009. Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, Oxford: Blackwell.
  ISBN 978-1-4051-6256-2
• Reynolds, Jack 2004. Merleau-Ponty And Derrida: Intertwining Embodiment And Alterity, Ohio University Press
• Rogers, Henry. 2005. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
  ISBN 0-631-23464-0
  (paperback)
• Ankerl, Guy (2000) [2000]. Global communication without universal civilization. INU societal research. Vol. 1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU Press. pp. 59–66, 235s.
  ISBN 978-2-88155-004-1
  .
• Falkenstein, A. 1965 Zu den Tafeln aus Tartaria. Germania 43, 269–273
• Haarmann, H. 1990 Writing from Old Europe. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 17
• Lazarovici, Gh., Fl. Drasovean & Z. Maxim 2000 The Eagle – the Bird of death, regeneration resurrection and messenger of Gods. Archaeological and ethnological problems. Tibiscum, 57–68
• Lazarovici, Gh., Fl. Drasovean & Z. Maxim 2000 The Eye – Symbol, Gesture, Expression. Tibiscum, 115–128
• Makkay, J. 1969 The Late Neolithic Tordos Group of Signs. Alba Regia 10, 9–50
• Makkay, J. 1984 Early Stamp Seals in South-East Europe. Budapest
• Masson, E. 1984 L'écriture dans les civilisations danubiennes néolithiques. Kadmos 23, 2, 89–123. Berlin & New York.
• Maxim, Z. 1997 Neo-eneoliticul din Transilvania. Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis 19. Cluj-Napoca
• Milojcic, Vl. 1963 Die Tontafeln von Tartaria (Siebenbürgen), und die Absolute Chronologie des mitteleeuropäischen Neolithikums.Germania 43, 266–268
• Paul, I. 1990 Mitograma de acum 8 milenii. Atheneum 1, p. 28
• Paul, I. 1995 Vorgeschichtliche untersuchungen in Siebenburgen. Alba Iulia
• Vlassa, N. 1962 – (Studia UBB 2), 23–30.
• Vlassa, N. 1962 – (Dacia 7), 485–494;
• Vlassa, N. 1965 – (Atti UISPP, Roma 1965), 267–269
• Vlassa, N. 1976 Contribuții la Problema racordării Neoliticul Transilvaniei, p. 28–43, fig. 7-8
• Vlassa, N. 1976 Neoliticul Transilvaniei. Studii, articole, note. Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis 3. Cluj-Napoca
• Winn, Sham M. M. 1973 The Sings of the Vinca Culture
• Winn, Sham M. M. 1981 Pre-writing in Southeast Europe: The Sign System of the Vinca culture. BAR
• Merlini, Marco 2004 La scrittura è natta in Europa?, Roma (2004)
• Merlini, Marco and Gheorghe Lazarovici 2008 Luca, Sabin Adrian ed. "Settling discovery circumstances, dating and utilization of the Tărtăria Tablets"
• Merlini, Marco and Gheorghe Lazarovici 2005 "New archaeological data referring to Tărtăria tablets", in Documenta Praehistorica XXXII, Department of Archeology Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Ljubljana: 2005–2019.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Writing.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Writing.

Wikiversity has learning resources about Collaborative play writing

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Fiction technique

Look up writing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Language, Writing and Alphabet: An Interview with Christophe Rico Damqatum 3 (2007)
• "Signs – Books – Networks", virtual exhibition of the German Museum of Books and Writing i.a. with a thematic module on sounds, symbols and script
• Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse — open access books, journals, teaching resources on research and practice.