"Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought"

11/03/09

Walter Ong, the author of this essay, brings up very thought provoking points about writing and literacy. He begins the essay by arguing that writing is not a mechanical skill that is obligatory for every human do know and understand. In fact Ong argues that writing, although created by humans, is not natural to humans like oral communication is. By natural he means that all humans, unless effected my some mental or physical disability, learn to speak at a relatively young age. This is not true for writing. Writing, as the title implies, is a technology that humans use to help express thoughts like computers or musical insturments. Ong compares writing to a musical instrument to show how both are technologies "The Fact is that by using the mechanical contrivance a clarinettist or pianist or an organist can express something poignantly human that cannot be expressed without the mechanical contrivance... I instance the moderen orchestra here to make the point that writing is an even more deeply interiorzed technology than the performance of instrumental music is." So if writing is an instrument it needs to be practiced, much like any other techology, to express human emotions and knowledge. I agree with Ong on the subject of writing and literacy. We should not look at illterates as sub-human beings with a sickness or disability but rather just realize they need to be taught an unnatural way to express something so human. Ong also argues that writing can also divide socities creating a "high" and "low" language. The high language, like learned Latin, is completely controlled by writing and the "low" language is compeletly controlled by speech and oral communication. This divison can cause tension between groups that speak different discourses than one another. This article completely changed my view on literacy. When we first started talking about literacy I believed that illterates were somehow worse than literates. I know that is not the case now as Ong made me realize that writing is not natural but rather a human invention that must be learned and practiced to express human thought, emotion, and knowledge. As Ong puts it "Writing is a humanizing technology" and I to believe that it is.