15 Speaking, Writing, and Literacy

Abstract

Speaking, writing, and literacy are three essential skills that help people communicate effectively. Speech allows individuals to express their thoughts and feelings, writing preserves our ideas and information in forms such as letters, journals, or stories, and literacy is the way we understand reading and writing. Together these concepts enable individuals to connect and share with others and participate in society. However, as society continues to evolve and develop, so does the way we implement speaking, writing, and literacy into our everyday lives. Originally, people’s only means of communication was through speech. As the years progressed, different variations of verbal communication were created. Walter Ong separates speaking into two categories: primary and secondary. Writing is a form of technology that allows people to communicate nonverbally with anyone from anywhere in the world. Writing is considered to be a technology because it exists outside of our mind. It evolved from spoken languages and later became applied to various practices, such as texting, printing, typing, and more. And literacy goes beyond just reading and writing, it focuses on one’s ability to comprehend and understand. To be literate in a subject means to have a deep understanding of all the elements involved when you claim to be knowledgeable in that area.

Speaking

Before we began to write things down, approximately 2,500 years ago all communication was oral and based on sound. The sound of language is actually still one of the most prominent characteristics it has today; regardless of the fact that nowadays it is more common to communicate in written forms. Walter Ong uses the term orality to characterize speech and literacy for written language (Applen pg. 2). Both of these methods affect the way we think and understand things in our world. Speech is a concept that has developed alongside us. It adds onto already existing concepts as well as creates new ones. Ong mentions the struggle individuals in society used to have with using oral communication. Once knowledge was acquired, it had to be constantly repeated otherwise it would be forgotten. It was difficult for individuals to refer back to something they heard without there being any concrete evidence of it.

Going in hand with speaking, writing also started out a little differently from how we use it today. The first people to fix oral communication in a written form were the Greeks. When they started to write things down, it saved them a lot of time and energy they used on trying to remember so many things at once. As a result, it opened their minds to have more original and abstract thoughts. Socrates compared the art of writing to painting; in the way that it can portray an image of life but when asked a question remains silent. It is highlighted that written words, no matter how elegant, have no power to protect themselves if they are not understood or challenged. As a writer, we have the ability to edit and carefully craft our sentences to reflect the point trying to be made. However, statements always have the possibility of being taken out of context or misunderstood after they are written. In the age of technology, words can be easily manipulated which can lead to misinformation and even potential harm.

Writing

Writing is a skill that starts being taught to us as early as age three. In some cases, there are children who are able to write before they are able to fully speak. In an academic setting, students must use writing in different forms. For example, they might be asked to write a one sentence response to the question on the board; or they may be asked to write an essay based on a series of prompts they can select from, and other similar mediums. We were taught grammar and punctuation rules, proper formatting and structure for papers, drafts and editing, and so many other things it is hard to keep track. And all of that is tied into literacy. Writing is now recognized as a technology that is used to express our thoughts and ideas outside of our minds. Take the alphabet for instance. Humans needed to invent the alphabet and something to write with in order to record their thoughts. Writing is also considered a tool as it allows us to preserve history and communicate complex ideas.

In this current digital era, writing is even more accessible through numerous platforms and media. Due to its wide flexibility, it has become an essential tool for human communication and expression. According to Claude Shannon’s (1948) “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, it is important to note that ““digital,” however, also has a connection to the material production of texts, whether in print form or electronic.” And Angela Haas (2005) mentions “Digital also refers to our fingers, our digits, one of the primary ways…through which we make sense of the world and with which we write into the world.” She goes on to argue that historical forms of written communication were created with fingers and codes. This includes the Mesopotamian Cuneiform, Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs, Chinese logograms, Aztec codices, and more (Eyman pg. 242-243).

Writing in digital spaces revolves around the use of platforms and various electronic technologies to create and share our thoughts and ideas. Unlike physical writing tools such as paper and pencils, digital writing occurs within technology. Text can be typed and edited with rapid speed and displayed on numerous devices such as phones, computers, ipads, and more. Digital writing is also extremely accessible to anyone who has a device. Once the creator posts something, it can be viewed within a matter of seconds by people all around the globe. This allows us to have communication with people who may come from different cultures, backgrounds, countries, etc. Having access to this influences how we interact with written information.

Literacy

I would bet money that in an academic setting, students are taught that literacy is about speaking properly and using grammar correctly. Now get ready for this curveball, literacy is more than just written and verbal communication. When referring to physical forms, literacy is the ability to interact with and understand written materials, such as books or letters. All forms of written text have influenced the way language has developed. Secondary orality refers to the speaking and listening skills of people who are influenced by their literate background (Applen pg. 6). An example of this would be the things we see on television or hear on the radio. This is because when people are speaking, they are often reading from carefully prepared written material. Think of newscasters, they look directly at the camera to seemingly make eye contact. However, what they are actually doing is reading words off of the screen to give the illusion that they are giving accurate information based on memory. And because we are influenced by the texts that we hear, we work them into our speech patterns.

Digital literacy is an individual’s ability to understand and create content on various digital platforms. It is a tad more complex because it requires users to know how to read and write with sign systems (video, audio, image, etc.). Digital literacy also goes beyond text and includes the use of symbolic systems, visual representations of language, and digital object manipulation. In this generation, we often communicate through digital platforms. For example, emailing our professors when we need an extension or dming someone we think is cute on Instagram. Literacy includes cultural and communicative practices shared among individuals. As society continues to change, so will literacy.