Chapter 16
Writing
description reflection
Writing is a medium of human
communication that represents language
and emotion with signs and symbols. In
most languages, writing is a complement to
speech or spoken language. Writing is not a
language, but a tool developed by human
society. Within a language system, writing
relies on many of the same structures as
speech, such as vocabulary, grammar, and
semantics, with the added dependency of a
system of signs or symbols. The result of
writing is called text, and the recipient of
text is called a reader. Motivations for
writing include publication, storytelling,
correspondence and diary. Writing has
been instrumental in keeping history,
maintaining culture, dissemination of
knowledge through the media and the
formation of legal systems. In this chapter we learned that human
societies arose, the development of
writing was driven by pragmatic
demands such as the exchange of
information, the maintenance of
financial accounts, the codification of
laws and the recording of history. Of
management in Mesopotamia
surpassed human memory, and
writing became a more reliable
method of recording and presenting
transactions in a permanent form. And
in some places the writing may have
evolved with calendrics and a political
necessity to record historical events
and Environmental impacts.