Why we write

Ashley Walczyk
MSMU Class of 2024

(6 - 8/2022) The history of writing

Writing has taken on several forms over the past few millennia. Dating back to 35000 B.C.E. with cave drawings, the language of the work captivated desires to transcribe them into stone that was able to be viewed by multiple people. The written language, developed several thousand years ago, is what helps us to record history and produce literature and poetry. Although the invention of written language was not created until 3500 to 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, these cave drawings depicted stories of daily life in the prehistoric world.

Written language formed in southern Mesopotamia, in an area called Sumer. The earliest form of writing was called cuneiform, which consisted of "making specific marks in wet clay with a reed implement," according to Joshua J. Mark from the World History Encyclopedia. Mark also went on to include a line of development of written language in the Egyptians, but it was soon determined that they used what we know as hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphs are commonly known as symbols and pictures to depict certain words or phrases.

The use of written language during this time was for communication between trades and for business purposes. Many small cities in Mesopotamia used this form as a means to communicate what they needed for resources. The distance between each city was hard for travel and being able to communicate in between each city and region was crucial for survival. As well as this language, the use of pictographs was popular amongst all the cities. These consisted of pictures used as symbols to represent something, like a good. Each good was then counted out and charted to track stock and financial transactions.

Phonograms were also used after the invention of pictographs. Created in the Sumerian city of Uruk in 3200 B.C, these phonograms were symbols that represented sounds. Similar to our alphabet, these sounds were what these civilizations used to communicate with each other. Pictographs and phonograms were revelations in the world of Mesopotamia; they had created a form of writing that would be able to keep track of the history of their culture.

A lot of stories, however, were still that of the oral tradition, telling stories to a group of people through memorization and public speaking. The Greeks and Romans made countless developments in written language history, which we know of with several works that were preserved and translated from their language. The Greeks and Romans both established what is known as the phonetic writing systems; however, the original invention was created in Phoenicia. Ancient Phoenicia is located along the east coast of the Mediterranean, in the areas of modern Lebanon, and parts of Syria and Israel.

Another early group who developed written language was the Chinese. The Chinese used divination rites, using oracle bones, in 1200 B.C. according to Mark. Although there is some debate on whether or not Mesopotamians had any influence on the creation of written language in several cultures, there is no distinguished proof that there was any cross between China and Mesopotamia. This means that the invention of written language happened not once, but twice, in world history.

The standard practice of divination started with heating bones or shells and etching marks onto them until they cracked. These cracks were then interpreted by a Diviner, who would exclaim what each marking meant and how it would affect their daily lives. This ritual was essentially what would come to be the Chinese script.

With written language established in these worlds, recording history became a lot easier than simply drawing pictures on the wall and trying to understand the meaning. This development also came as a shock to the world, as it was the first time that different cultures and civilizations were recorded. Although, it was not as simple as reading the scriptures provided from this time period, as other cultures provided more difficult forms of transcription.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many scholars had difficulties when trying to interpret the glyphs and culture surrounding the Mayan civilization. Without understanding the written language of the time, many assumed that this civilization was another Egyptian civilization. Problems with the recorded history resulted in the loss of some daily tasks of the Mayans. Fortunately, with modern technology, we can now understand the Mayan civilization and the Mayan calendar, noticing that it ended in the year 2012.

Some civilizations were not as fortunate at being able to be deciphered. The people in the Kingdom of Meroe and the Minoan Culture of Crete were two of these examples. Located in what is today Sudan, Meroe used Meroitic script. The Minoans used the Linear A script. Both civilizations cannot be fully understood because of the lack of these interpretations. This has led to conflicts today, as the history of these cultures could be lost.

Written language took on an evolution from its time in the pre-historic world to the ancient world to the pre-modern and even modern worlds. The first transcriber was Enheduanna of Mesopotamia. She lived from 2285 to 2250 B.C.E and was the daughter on Sargon of Akkad and a priestess. She wrote hymns to the goddess Inanna, which is accounted for as the first piece of scripture in history. Writing and religion are very intertwined, since many of these documents have religious significance, like with the Bible.

Writing also told stories and legends, passing on the tradition for many millennia. The first of these historical legends were the Matter of Aratta and The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Matter of Aratta was four poems that recorded King Enmerkar of Uruk and Lugalbanda, his son. These poems, which were composed between 2112 to 2004 B.C., were written to tell the ideas and thoughts of the King to his son. The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered to be the first epic in writing history. Written in 2150 B.C., it describes the quest for the meaning of life for the great King of Uruk.

Although many are accustomed to writing for documentation, essays, and research, writing stories and history are just as crucial as modern technology. With the technology seen in society today, writing and literature has slowly started to vanish. A main contributor to this is having access to the Internet and pdfs right at our fingertips. With the help of Kindles and some apps online—with membership subscription—purchasing and borrowing books is as easy as clicking a button. However, books have always been a part of culture and history. Books tell stories from the past, and these stories are critical to understanding the time period and culture the book was produced in.

Many of us write for small reasons, whether it be to expand our voice or get exposure into the world of journalism. We must remember to stay true to the topic we want to write about as well as remember who our audience is. Without these two crucial details, we will not be able to have a writing process that best suits this particular journal. Over the next three months, this section will focus on writing, grammar, and our writing processes, to better understand the work and dedication we put into our articles and the work we enjoy so much.

The art of writing has many complexities following the structure of a story. Without these rules, however, literature would be incomprehensible and hard to read. This is why grammar is important to the English language.

When we learned grammar, we first learned through oral communication. Native speakers of a language are in environments where they can mimic and reproduce their semiotics. Semiotics refers to the interpretation of signs and symbols to communicate, learn, and develop knowledge. It is a study of linguistics and signs to form significance and meanings of words. Although a more advanced study, it is important to understand the symbolism and essence of any word in any language.

However, non-native speakers and native speakers both learn about the rules of language inside of a school classroom. They will learn about parts of speech, sentence structure, types, patterns, and errors and fragments. It is important to understand the difference in appropriate and inappropriate structure in cohesive sentences.

Applying the appropriate parts of speech for communicating is also essential to proper grammar. Whether it be through written or oral communication, the parts of speech are used to help differentiate the ways words can function in sentencing. Common parts of speech include adjectives, nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adverbs. More complex parts of speech include articles, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions; these are taught at higher levels of primary schooling.

To understand the importance of the complex structure of sentences, it would be helpful to understand the functions of articles, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions. An article refers to the a, an, and the words that introduce nouns. There are certain rules to follow with these words, however. A and an function similarly—being used to introduce a general noun or something not mentioned previously in writing—however, an is followed by a noun that has a vowel at the beginning. The is used when the noun is specific, mentioned previously, or unique. Although these are simple rules to follow, there are also rules when to not use articles of speech.

Conjunctions connect words and phrases together to form cohesive sentences. There are two types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Coordinating is used when two ideas are similar and co-equal; subordinating is used to show the relationship of ideas. Interjections are punctuation used to denote emotions while repositions show the relationship in sentences. The complexities of parts of speech are significant in proper sentence structure and patterns.

The structuring of sentences is also learned at all levels in schooling. Schools start with simple sentences, followed by compound, complex, then to compound-complex sentencing. There are three things to know when forming a sentence: clauses, conjunctions, and subordinators. Clauses and phrases are groups of words that include both a subject and a verb. Clauses are composed of independent clauses—consisting of a subject and predicate—that can stand as a singular sentence, or dependent clauses—consisting of a subject and verb—that need more words to rely on, such as a phrase. Phrases have a different function as they do not consist of subjects or verbs, nor can they stand alone like an independent clause. Both phrases and clauses work together in sentence structuring.

Much like clauses, subordinators also have two subcategories: coordination and subordination. Coordination is used to join sentences together that share similar ideas and themes. Coordination can join two independent phrases together using words such as for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, or a semicolon with or without a conjunctive adverb—however, furthermore, and consequently. Subordination is used to join two sentences together on two conditions: when indicating that one idea is dependent on another, or when showing a cause-and-effect relationship. Usually, these sentences have one independent clause and one dependent clause. The independent clause usually has more emphasized than the dependent clause.

The clauses, conjunctions, and subordinators form the building blocks of the English sentence structure. Simple sentencing structure is one independent clause while compound sentence structure has two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction. A complex sentence structure has one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Compound-complex sentences are both compound and complex sentences: they have two independent clauses with one or more dependent clauses.

Some schools include a sentence word count to ensure that their students vary their sentence structure in their writing. Depending on your level and technique, it will influence how many words you can fit into a sentence following the rules of sentence structure.

Following the topic of building blocks, another essential factor to writing is sentence types. There are four different types: declarative, used to declare something; imperative, used when making requests or giving orders; interrogative, used to ask questions; and exclamatory, used to give emphasis and an excited tone.

Sentence patterns are also crucial in understanding sentencing in the rules of grammar. This is used to categorize sentences in the English language and can help writers and speakers express their meanings in a more cohesive and concise way. The five different patterns are subject-linking verb-subject complement, subject-transitive verb, subject-transitive verb-indirect object-direct object, subject-transitive verb-direct object-object complement, and finally subject-intransitive verb. These are best to understand with practice and examples.

Understanding sentencing helps correct sentence error. Sentence error alters the professionalism in writing and speech. Identifying and eliminating grammatical and mechanical errors in a sentence will help improve or establish a strong voice and persona. There are some tricks to help recognize when a sentence is grammatically incorrect, such as reading each sentence aloud and independent from one another. It is also best to keep track of the common errors made in sentences to help recognize them in the editing stages. The next step to fixing grammatical errors is to focus on coordination and subordination errors, diction problems, modification errors, parts of speech or sentence errors, and parallelism errors. Mechanical errors are also quite common in writing. These consist of splices, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments.

The more one writes, the more advanced their technique and skill become. Writing sentences leads to stories in both fiction and journalism, and rhetorical reasoning in essays. Rhetorical reasoning is the guide to writing, composing, and composing processes. This will include the addition of ethos, pathos, and logos in a paper, as well as diction, voice, and tone. The register, the measure of audience awareness and clarity, of a piece can also be included in rhetorical reasoning. Rhetorical reasoning is an underdeveloped concept that helps analyze the best argument or stance to take in any given rhetorical situation.

Practice is always important when learning how to play an instrument, paint and draw, singing opera and belting. The same rules apply to writing. Grammar is essential to writing and communicating. Editing for grammar is important to consider practicing. There are several more concepts to check while editing, such as avoiding cliches and generalizations or vague language, including appropriate bias-free and inclusive language, and checking to make sure that parts of a sentence, patterns, types, and structures all fit within the grammar guidelines. Grammar is a difficult process to master. Each process has a unique way to edit grammar to make a work stronger. The more practice, the better.

Our writing processes

Whether we try to plan our pieces accordingly or choose to sit and let the words flow from our brain to the page, we follow our own and slightly similar loose process of writing. Each writing process is different for every writer, depending on a few unique factors, ranging from personality to lifestyle. As each writer evolves, so do their processes. Each process follows each of the set structure: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.

For some, prewriting can be easy or hard, depending on what each writer prefers to do at the start of an article. For some of our writers, they developed a planned writing style, starting with brainstorming, thinking, taking notes, interviewing, researching, and outlining. For others, they choose to start with a prompt and let the words flow with little to no direction of where they are headed. Of course, for our articles, we start with a prompt, followed by interviews, research, and note-taking. Only some of our writers choose to write freely without much sketching; however, most of us like to roughly outline our pieces.

Processes can range from ordered to chaotic. An ordered process follows those writers who tend to gravitate more naturally to the idea of incorporating upfront planning and outlining in their processes. However, more chaotic processes follow the writers who prefer to lean full-on into creativity’s wild ride, only straightening up their art later on. Neither style is a better path to follow, since the work would be divided separately and evenly between prewriting, drafting, editing, and revising. Whatever style works best for our prompt is what we follow.

A majority of our staff begins the drafting stage at different points in their planning. Drafting occurs when we put our thoughts into complete sentences and paragraphs, explaining and supporting our ideas in full, completed, and concentrated thoughts. For Emmy Jansen, she describes herself as a "one-draft wonder," being able to sit down and write in one sitting. She believes that "you should say what you mean the first time you say it," and that to take that away would be to take away what the truth was that she was attempting to communicate. For McKenna Snow, her drafting could take up to five times before she feels she is on the best path. Snow also tends to keep her various ideas, reusing them where she sees fit. On the other hand, both Claire Doll and Joseph Carlson tend to start with more organization and structure before beginning their drafting process. Fortunately for them, they also write one draft and return back to edit and revise.

For drafting, there is no best way to do it. Some writers, like Jansen, write one draft and can make edits and revisions to the first draft. Others, like Snow, write multiple drafts before feeling confident in the right draft. It varies for each writer, depending on prompts or inspiration. For all writers, however, this part of the process will shift and change certain ideas, depending on how the author wants to convey their message to their audience. This could also lead to evoking additional ideas or implications in their drafts, causing a new angle or approach to the prompt.

Each drafting process can also vary by time as well. Sometimes, the draft could take days or weeks to complete, or as little as a few hours. Doll explains that for her, writing about personal experiences were easier to accomplish, using her Mother’s Day article as an example: "I absolutely loved writing about my mother, because I was able to vividly describe memories with her and paint an image of what it is like to be her daughter."

It is important during the drafting phase to find the best environment to work in. Each of our writers undergo the same processes; however, our ideal settings to be able to efficiently produce a draft varies with each individual. Jansen prefers a place like a coffee shop with some background noise; however, Snow, Carlson, and Doll prefer to sit in an area that is quiet. Finding the best environment to work in for each writer can help produce the best work possible. Therefore, as essential as the writing process is, the environment that the writer surrounds themselves in is just as important.

For our writers, revision varies depending on what is made available. Revising is key to our articles, as it is the part where we shift our articles from writer-centered to more reader-centered. This means that our focus shifts slightly, providing information on the topics we researched and communicating that information to our audience. For some, like Doll, taking a break from the work for a few days helps before returning with a fresh set of eyes. Others, like Carlson, uses a friend to help look over his draft, making pointers on what to revise and edit. No matter what, however, we always check over our work in the time between sending in the final draft and the released publication. As Snow explains, "what I send in to be published are my words, so I care about what words they are, and what they are communicating."

During the editing and revising stages, this is when most writers go back to find grammatical and technical errors. From the previous edition, grammatical and technical errors could range from adding punctuation, changing clauses, formatting a sentence differently, or simply changing a word or two to help convey the message better. This is the final step to the writing process before the paper is sent to the publication and reaches our audience. As crucial as revising and editing are, it is important to remember to not forget to edit and revise your work before final publication. These stages will also refine our prose, making our sentences as concise and accurate as possible, providing the most effective and informative articles to our audience members. Only then would our work be considered "polished"—completely perfect with no minor errors present.

As simple as this process may seem, we can sometimes undergo a process stopper known as writer’s block. Writer’s block is when a writer experiences a phenomenon that is best described as an overwhelming feeling of being stuck in the writing process without the ability to move forward and write anything new. All writers experience this phenomenon, including us. The ways to overcome writer’s block vary by each individual writer. Carlson believes the best way to overcome writer’s block is to either write about anything or talk to a friend about your process. He claims, "No matter what, writing something is better than writing nothing, and even if you write garbage, you’ll be a better writer for next time."

Doll, on the other hand, believes that stepping away from the laptop and clearing the mind helps with writer’s block: "I will go for a walk, go for a drive, or just take time away from my laptop to think about my writing. After all, thinking about writing is very much part of the process of writing itself."