The Future Extinction of Pencils
Writing is a form of communication that allows people to be able to express themselves. According to Dr. Yancey from the article New slant on writing encourages participation, “Writing becomes the vehicle for making connections with other human beings” (Chute). Over time, this form of communication has been done in many different ways starting from oral traditions, to stone tablets, to paper and pencil, to the present day use of typing on a computer and the information being available to the entire world. Each way has allowed the author to be able to get their opinion across, but these new-found methods are clearly replacing the old forms. These new ways of writing such as blogs and online works have led to a change in writing.
Writing has been found to date back to around the time 3300-3200 B.C. It started out being used as pictures to ask a question; this being known as pictograms or later on hieroglyphs. A little bit later on, this form became a standardized writing (“History World”). One of the greatest changes in writing came in the 15th century B.C. when they began to create an alphabet using phonetic symbols to create sounds for words. These sounds then began to be put together to make words that were handwritten (“History World”). During the 7-15th century AD, handwritten works began to be written as print (“History World”). This helped to make writing quicker and more efficient. Writing worked this way for a very long time after this. Then came the invention of computers where writing became very easy and this type of writing is now adapted into society. Writing has changed dramatically over time.
Forms of writing such as print journals, short responses, and paper and pen formal essays are starting to appear to be events of the past. These types of writing were widely used up until the increased usage in computers and the knowledge known about them had amplified. These writings allowed teachers and bosses to be able to assess their students and employees. It is also a quick and simple way to be able to understand a person’s view on a matter and a way for people to be able to express themselves. Writings like these have helped to increase people’s knowledge on the subject matter. With the use of paper and pencil, it also gives a unique quality to that paper. Everyone writes differently and it is clearly shown in this way. It keeps the people of the world from becoming the exact same person.
There are also negatives that come from these written works. Many times there are a set number of words that must be written as compared to many blog articles that do not have a specific word count. This set word count leads to writers writing nonsense and unimportant words because it is their job to write that many words and they are paid to do that (Kelleher). It causes a latent result of writers not caring about what they are writing. They are more worried about reaching a specific amount of words to get paid instead of writing a paper or article that could be more meaningful if they were not worried about the word count. This also affects the reader and their continuation of reading that magazine or newspaper further. Another undesirable trait of this writing is that it reaches a significantly smaller audience. Only a select few will read this paper, unlike blogs on the internet that can have millions of people reading them.
Present forms of writing include blogs and electronic writing. These types of writing are fairly recent and are just now starting to be used by a majority of the population. Forms like this encourage less formal writing and are written for mainly a much larger audience. Although it seems like people are writing less these days, that is actually a misguided judgment. People are writing more than ever and many do not realize they are doing so. These types of writing include texts, emails, tweets, and chats. Most people are doing these nonstop throughout their daily lives (Kelleher). By doing these types of activities in our daily lives, it helps to create our debate skills. According to Kelleher, it helps to create “a strong, distinctive voice” (Kelleher). People are not afraid to voice their opinions through these methods of writing and it increases knowledge among all the people involved as well as the other people that may read this. Writing online also helps to increase the audience size to thousands and even millions of people around the world. If you make it viewable in a certain way, nearly everyone on the planet would be able to read it.
Negatives also occur from these types of writings as well. The usage of text messages, Facebook, and Twitter allow the use of very informal writing (Kelleher). This in many cases can be good because it will increase the amount of writing being done and the growth of people’s writing basis; but if people become too accustomed to this usage, it can affect their formal writing as well, leading to papers that are laden with errors. This online writing is also leading to a decreased amount of magazines and newspapers being sold because people realize that they can read things similar to these on the internet which are many times free of charge and easier to get than going up town to buy a paper.
A lot has changed in writing over time; even more importantly than a cross-over from pen and pencil to electronic devices is that of the formality and the amount of depth that can now be put into a paper, a blog, or a text. The formality has greatly decreased in writing, but depth and feeling has also increased because of this. With less formality, people feel more comfortable with letting their feelings show in their writings and with giving their opinion. These new forms also allow the use of pictures which can help the audience better understand the writing. Many of the class blogs we had used pictures and videos to help convey a point and these pictures or videos helped me to understand their opinion better. By seeing others opinions on a matter and by seeing their writing, it helped to increase my knowledge on the subject as well as to enhance my writing ability; this helped me to see writing in a broader approach.
Writing is a very important factor of everyone’s life. We use it every day and for countless reasons. It has changed dramatically over time from hardcore copies to electronic copies and text messages, but it is still writing. These new forms of writing have helped to increase the knowledge of writing and the topics of this writing in the world. Writing will continue to change and progress as time moves forward, but it will always be an important factor in allowing the emotions and opinions of everyday people to be expressed.
Bibliography
Chute, Eleanor. "New slant on writing encourages participation." Post-Gazette 23 Feb. 2009: n. pag. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09054/951056-298.stm>.
"HISTORY OF WRITING." History World. History World, n.d. Web. 6 May 2011. <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=3517&HistoryID=ab33>rack=pthc>.
Kelleher, Kevin. "How the Internet Changed Writing in the 2000s." GigaOM, 01/03/2010. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://gigaom.com/2010/01/03/how-the-internet-changed-writing-in-the-2000s/>.
