Talk:Writing
From Academic Kids
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Major Restructuring. May 9, 2005
I apologize that I couldn't actually finish the reworking of this article. I thought it would take me only three hours or so, but I vastly underestimated the time requirements. As it is now the article is probably in worse shape that it was originally. However it is, to my eyes, in a form that makes it more easily extensible. I do plan on finishing what I started, but I can't devote any more time to it today, so I thought that I could get a little help.
As it is now the article looks terrible, much of it's content is blatently ripped from other locations within the Wikipedia, and it's horrifically incomplete. In addition there are no longer all of the sweet sweet hyperlinks in the article text and the images ( which go a long way to improve appearance ) are non-existant.
The wikipedia documentation encourages bold editing. How's this for bold? --blt 21:39, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
- Very nice. It's much easier to read and actually has the proper branches of information. RickGriffin 04:31, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
What Needs To Be Done?
In my opinion, we should break this article up into sections. As far as I see there are three things discussed here. First is writing, a noun meaning symbols and characters that convey information, and the history of this in ancient Mesopotamia etc. Second is writing, a verb meaning to produce written material such as books, articles, etc.. A little history on the second definition might be in order as well, discussing the oldest known written works and that sort of thing. Third is other things referred to as writing, which would be the bits about ghosts, cryptography, surrealism and hard drives currently in the article. If this doesn't adiquately devide the information then maybe a disambiguation page is called for, I don't know.
Any reactions or further ideas to this would be quite helpfull. If we just continue to add more and more things that are called writing we will eventually have the worst mess on the wiki. --Shane 01:29, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- I rearranged a bunch of things. I took out the thing about writing on rice and (with) atoms, because they probably didn't belong in the opening paragraph. If you still want them, try putting them in somewhere else? RickGriffin 01:21, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Is anyone able to expand on writing at near-atomic level? --Daniel C. Boyer
Typically, however, one will use a writing utensil (such as a pen or pencil) to write characters on paper; or a computer (or typewriter) to record characters to disk (emphasis added)
Er, show me this typewriter.
The day I met my girlfriend we went through the communications exhibit at the American Museum of National History, and I don't recall seeing any computer typewriters, but I'll admit under the circumstances I might not have been paying attention. --Calieber 15:52, Oct 30, 2003 (UTC)
I cut this:
An exception to the general rule that writing is an attempt to communicate is the writing in unknown scripts or languages alleged by mediums to be communicated to them by ghosts, spirits, or other, generally supernatural or extraterrestrial entities. This technique is known as automatic writing.
and this:
Rarely, "writing" is used to refer to the making of marks using various methods, that is not, strictly speaking, writing, as in the "indecipherable writing" (a type of surautomatism) developed by the Romanian surrealists; "indecipherable writing" is actually more akin to what would commonly be described as drawing or painting than writing.
because it didn't seem relevant to the general subject of writing. UninvitedCompany 23:17, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Could not interactive writing be covered under this heading? Apogr 15:41, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)
For example, the letter N in English
Is this not the Roman alphabet?
Prehistory versus History
I do not believe that written language is the measure of history.
The extension of human memory began when events were passed from one generation to another by oral tradition.
This predates the use of script to represent language by several eons!
prehistory
As an interesting aside, historians draw a distinction between prehistory and history with the advent of writing systems. The cave paintings and petroglyphs of prehistoric peoples can be considered the precursor of writing systems, but cannot be considered as such because they relied heavily on oral tradition in order to be understood. --writing and representation are completely different means of expression. Whole paragraph ought to be dropped in my opinion.
- I agree that this para has problems:
- Firstly, it can be noted that any writing system relies almost exclusively upon oral tradition to be understood - writing systems are learned and explicitly taught via spoken methods (at least, until the point where one understands enough of a writing system to be able to use it to further interpret that or other systems).
- Secondly, it might be better to be more specific re the distinction between history & pre-history, if this is to be maintained. Insofar as there is a boundary between the two concepts, the distinction usually implied by historians who adopt it is between recorded history (meaning, from that time onwards there are available texts of some sort or other which the historian can rely upon to give some near-contemporary account of events), and pre-recorded history (periods of time for which no records are extant or existed in the first place, and one must rely solely upon archaeological or other reconstructive methods to gain insight into the events of the past).
- It could also be noted that such a boundary would occur at different periods in different regions, and that within the same region recorded history may lapse into the un-recorded (and back again) numerous times.
