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Do not fill this in! === Motivations and purposes === As human societies emerged, collective motivations for the [[development of writing]] were driven by pragmatic exigencies like keeping track of produce and other wealth, recording [[history]], maintaining [[culture]], codifying knowledge through [[Curriculum|curricula]] and lists of texts deemed to contain foundational knowledge (e.g., ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]'') or to be artistically exceptional (e.g., a [[literary canon]]), organizing and governing societies through the formation of [[legal systems]], [[census]] records, [[contract]]s, [[deed]]s of ownership, [[tax]]ation, [[trade agreement]]s, [[Treaty|treaties]], and so on.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Jack |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/124074929 |title=Handbook of Research on Writing: History, Society, School, Individual, Text |date=2008 |publisher=L. Erlbaum Associates |isbn=978-0-8058-4870-0 |editor-last=Bazerman |editor-first=Charles |location=New York |pages=177–190 |chapter=The Collection and Organization of Written Knowledge |oclc=124074929}}</ref> Amateur historians, including [[H.G. Wells]], had speculated since the early 20th century on the likely correspondence between the emergence of [[Writing system|systems of writing]] and the development of [[city-state]]s into [[empire]]s.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Short History of the World|title-link=A Short History of the World (H. G. Wells)|last=Wells|first=H. G.|year=1922|page=41}}</ref> As [[Charles Bazerman]] explains, the "marking of signs on stones, clay, paper, and now digital memories—each more portable and rapidly traveling than the previous—provided means for increasingly coordinated and extended action as well as memory across larger groups of people over time and space."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bazerman|first=Charles|url=https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/literateaction/v2/theory.pdf|title=A Theory of Literate Action, Vol. 2|publisher=Parlor Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1-60235-477-7|location=Anderson, SC|pages=193|chapter=Literacy and the Organization of Society|access-date=27 August 2020|archive-date=22 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822012440/https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/literateaction/v2/theory.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in [[Mesopotamia]] outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method for the permanent recording and presentation of transactions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=M.W. |date=1981 |title=The Construction and Implementation of the Cuneiform Writing System. |journal=Visible Language |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=345–372 |issn=0022-2224}}</ref> In both [[ancient Egypt]] and [[Mesoamerica]], on the other hand, writing may have evolved through calendric and political necessities for recording historical and environmental events.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=John D. |date=1986 |title=The Emergence of Writing in Egypt |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/124697 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=307–316 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979972 |jstor=124697 |issn=0043-8243 |access-date=6 December 2022 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206142739/https://www.jstor.org/stable/124697 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Justeson |first=John S. |date=1986 |title=The Origin of Writing Systems: Preclassic Mesoamerica |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/124706 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=437–458 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979981 |jstor=124706 |issn=0043-8243 |access-date=6 December 2022 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206142741/https://www.jstor.org/stable/124706 |url-status=live }}</ref> Further innovations included more uniform, predictable, and widely dispersed legal systems, the distribution of accessible versions of [[Religious text|sacred texts]], and furthering practices of [[Models of scientific inquiry|scientific inquiry]] and [[Knowledge management|knowledge consolidation]], all of which were largely reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of inscribed language. The [[history of writing]] is co-extensive with uses of writing and the elaboration of [[Soft systems methodology#Human activity system|activity systems]] that give rise to and circulate writing. Individual, as opposed to collective, motivations for writing include improvised additional capacity for the limitations of human [[memory]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hutchins |first=Edwin |title=Cognition in the Wild |publisher=MIT Press |year=1995 |isbn=9-780262-581462 |location=Cambridge MA}}</ref> (e.g., [[Time management|to-do lists]], [[recipe]]s, reminders, [[logbook]]s, [[map]]s, the proper sequence for a complicated task or important [[ritual]]), dissemination of ideas and coordination (as in an [[essay]], [[monograph]], [[Broadside (printing)|broadside]], [[plan]]s, (code) [[Issue tracking system|issues]], [[petition]], or [[manifesto]]), imaginative narratives and other forms of [[storytelling]], maintaining [[kinship]] and other social networks,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Christiansen |first=M. Sidury |date=2017 |title=Creating a Unique Transnational Place: Deterritorialized Discourse and the Blending of Time and Space in Online Media |journal=Written Communication |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=135–164|doi=10.1177/0741088317693996 |s2cid=151827910 }}</ref> negotiating household matters with [[Business correspondence|providers]] of goods and services and with local and regional governing [[Activism|bodies]], and [[Life writing|lifewriting]] (e.g., a [[diary]] or journal). The nearly global spread of digital [[communication]] systems such as [[e-mail]] and [[social media]] has made writing an increasingly important feature of daily life, where these systems mix with older technologies like paper, pencils, whiteboards, printers, and copiers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sterponi |first1=Laura |last2=Zucchermaglio |first2=Cristina |last3=Alby |first3=Francesca |last4=Fatigante |first4=Marilena |title=Endangered Literacies? Affordances of Paper-Based Literacy in Medical Practice and Its Persistence in the Transition to Digital Technology |journal=Written Communication |date=October 2017 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=359–386 |doi=10.1177/0741088317723304 |s2cid=149050969 }}</ref> Substantial amounts of everyday writing characterize most workplaces in [[Developed country|developed countries]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brandt|first=Deborah|title=The Rise of Writing|publisher=Cambridge UP|year=2015|isbn=978-1-107-46211-3}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> In many occupations (e.g., [[Lawyer|law]], [[accounting]], [[software design]], [[Human resource management|human resources]], etc.), written documentation is not only the main deliverable but also the mode of work itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jakobs |first1=Eva-Marie |title=Handbook of Writing and Text Production |last2=Spinuzzi |first2=Clay |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2014 |isbn=978-3-11-022063-6 |page=360 |chapter=Professional Domains: Writing as Creation of Economic Value}}</ref> Even in occupations not typically associated with writing, routine [[workflow]]s (maintaining [[Records management|records]], [[Incident report|reporting incidents]], record-keeping, [[inventory]]-tracking, documenting [[sales]], [[Timesheet|accounting for time]], fielding inquiries from clients, etc.) have most employees writing at least some of the time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beaufort|first=Anne|title=Handbook of Research on Writing: History, Society, School, Individual, Text|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8058-4870-0|location=New York|pages=221–237|chapter=Writing in the Professions}}</ref> The following section offers examples of how writing constitutes much of the labor of many modern careers. 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