The Power of Writing

Language is an essential trait that makes us human. Language allows individuals to spread and share ideas to better understand one another, debrief after events, happy or tragic, and together plan ahead. From language two broad categories can be established, verbal and nonverbal. Verbal language can be dissected further to reveal two more categories, essentially spoken and written language. Babies and toddlers develop spoken language before written, the environment in which their mind develops is immersed in a particular culture and language. This fact in correlation with individual realization through repetition that particular vocal sounds(words) produce desired results(being fed, etc.) more accurately than crying account for this rapid learn of spoken language. It is correct to assume for most children that written language development begins around the age of 4 years old, the age at which children enter kindergarten and begin their academic journey. Teacher after teacher will instruct students through reading and writing fundamentals and assign writing tasks to students which their grade is dependent upon meeting set criterion for each particular assignment. This process of memorization and repetition has a multitude of upsides and creates a literate society. Because of these many benefits of education, I wish not to change the manner of schooling, but to bring to attention a plausible downside. The downside I fear from such a procedure of teaching is the possibility of students gaining the tendency to think of writing as a task. However, writing is not a task, but a tool and a very powerful one.

As I have recently graduated from high school and am currently a college student I feel that my beliefs and views on writing are congruent with other students, or at least shared amongst some. Throughout high school, and even prior, I felt that all my writing was for no other purpose than that of receiving a grade from the teacher. My teachers would give the class writing assignments containing certain criterion that had to be met. I realized early on that so long as the criterion was met, correct page numbers, word length, formatting, etc., my grade on the particular assignment would always be at least a B. This realization held strong with little regard to the actual content of which I wrote, meaning that I did not have to supply advanced or superior writing so long as the writing was formatted correctly. Even my grade on this paper relies heavily on formating if I am to get a good grade. To illustrate this fact, I could write an outstanding work on this assignment, but if it were formatted in MLA rather than APA I would receive an F regardless of content. This dilemma has puzzled my adolescent mind since my discovery of the issue.

It was not until my time spent in this course, English 102, that I understood that although the process of learning to write is a task, it is a necessary task if I am ever to use writing as a tool. This assertion, I fear, is not as widely understood amongst students. I am saddened every time I hear the thoughtless complaints of my peers uttering such things as, “When will I ever use this in real life? There is no point. I will never use this again.” I am guilty on more than one occasion of having declared similar statements arising from the same lack of understanding, however, I am now proud to admit I despise such talk. It is true I may never use the Quadratic Formula again in my life, but I gained the knowledge of how to problem solve which I very likely will use everyday. I probably won’t recite that 300 word poem from memory again, but I now know I can memorize seemingly daunting amounts and have also improved the function of my memory. I may never write in APA again, but I will have the know how to address my writing to the particular audience it concerns. These examples show that, as with all things, the process of learning is a task. But the tasks have subtle benefits and overtime with continuous practice enable the writer to utilize his/her learned skills as tools.

When mastery of writing fundamentals is achieved the author has the ability to use writing as a tool. Good writing can be a powerful tool providing many beneficial forces, such as enlightenment, on the readers. The most pronounced effect I feel any written work can have on its reader is the ability to provoke thought within that reader. Provoking thought may lead the reader to further explore and expand the author’s ideas presented and/or potentially generate new ideas within the reader. Writing furthermore is capable of spanning across generations infinitely, a phenomenon Tom Standage portrayed in his article in The Economist:

The greatest invention of all must surely be writing. It is not just one of the foundations of civilization: it underpins the steady accumulation of intellectual achievement. By capturing ideas in physical form, it allows them to travel across space and time without distortion, and thus slip the bonds of human memory and oral transmission, not to mention the whims of tyrants and the vicissitudes of history.

Standage’s mention of writing is correct, except for the statement that writing escapes “the whims of tyrants and the vicissitudes of history.” This fact is very possibly true, but, unfortunately, is not always the case. The most prominent cases of book burnings are the ones that create the greatest irretrievable loss of public knowledge. The destruction of the great Library of Alexandria is arguably the greatest irretrievable loss of such knowledge in human history. The library, one of the largest and most significant of the ancient world, was built and opened around 323 BC to 246 BC and constituted a symbol that represented Egypt’s vast wealth and power. The burning of the library in 48 BC prevented its goal of capturing every work in the contemporary world and resulted in the incalculable loss of public knowledge that destroyed every scroll it housed, well more than some 700,000.

It is not strictly within the ancient world that you discover cases of destruction of written works as instances of such acts frequent mankind’s timeline. Not even 100 years ago today, Hitler and the Nazis burned every book written by Jewish authors they could find. Although the reasons the offenders of different cases had for destroying written works may vary, the result is always the same: an irretrievable loss of knowledge. The destruction of writing is possibly the greatest offence to humanity ever committed. To burn or otherwise destroy a book is to terminate tangible knowledge thereby preventing the potential enlightenment the particular work may have influenced upon its reader. The burning of books and other such works resets all mankind back to the beginning of what was lost, hindering the growth of any and every subject destroyed. The relation and purpose for adding the destruction of written works to this paper is to exemplify just how important a tool writing is by illustrating the results of its loss.

The best writers are able to capture the most accurate knowledge and understanding of the world around them within their works. Plato wrote some 2,000 years ago and is still studied to this day. The written works of talented others- Shakespeare, Twain, Poe, Hemingway, and many more- live on well past the time of their authors. The works are alive today not because they are accompanied by the name of well-known authors, but because they are masterpieces of written works. The philosophies of Plato are studied because they provoke thought concerning the meaning of life, not because his name is attached to them. In fact, it is because of his works that Plato is remembered in the same way that others, such as Shakespeare, are alive through their works. For this reason, good writing, writing worthy of study by countless generations, must stand alone. Good writing must stand alone in the sense that its contextual knowledge provokes thought in the mind of the reader, making this the reason it is a good work, opposed to it being recognized as good for the author’s sake.

As with all things, the process of learning is a task. Writing may appear to be a task, but one must remember that there is a learning curve required before writing can be utilized as a powerful tool. I hope students have the capability to realize that writing serves a much bigger purpose to humanity than most take for granted. Writing provides the service of collecting and expanding knowledge to all of humanity. For this reason I am thankful for writing.