In all honesty I am not sure why we write. But I have found that starting to write just a little, maybe not even about the topic you are trying to work on, will sometimes spur something within, that the answer just comes to you. I know that someone, somewhere, has probably concocted a term for this already, but I simply think it's neat.
Having said (well, written) all that, this in fact has just happened to me!
I think that we write in order to arrange our thoughts in a way that maybe we can not express verbally. It's a form of expression that can allow us to express ourselves differently. It's also a type of learning method. For me personally, I have to write things down in order to not forget them. Things as simple as a to-do list and list making in general as well. The simple act of writing keeps me organized, it allows me to not forget because I see it in black and white in front of me. Along with my lists also comes a feeling of satisfaction when I can cross things off!
In class we discussed how writing can make a civilization more modern. I agree. We now have something tangible that can not be changed so easily. If we consider prehistoric documentation. Of course prehistoric peoples had ways of documenting (mainly cave drawings) that showed important moments in their lives. Although we still have these drawings today, does it mean the same for us? It is different that reading. Looking at a single image can be interpreted many ways. Reading the sentence, "See Spot run." Cannot. It is defined and punctuated and the message is clear. Along with this we can consider word of mouth transition. The message get changed from person to person as it is passed along. Similar to the childhood game of whisper down the lane.
I guess the long typed point I am trying to make is just this: on Monday's class, I was unable to come up with any of this. Sitting down to write, even though it was a slow start that had nothing to do with writing, spurred something within, and tada! My response. Period.
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"See Spot run." Most of us see the beginner reader book in our head when reading that line, but what if you did not know that book? What if your only frame of reference was TV reruns? Maybe the fire-breathing dragon under the stairs in The Munsters house came to mind instead? You are correct that pictures can be interpreted in different ways by those viewing it, but so can words. And in some cases lead to millenium long fighting between the readers. To properly understand "Spot" one must know the picture that accompanies the text. To use the easiest example: look how many Bible translations currently exist.
Yes Sara, the term has already been coined. It's called Writing to Learn, and is at the heart of the process movement because most of the time we don't know what we're going to write until we start writing, even if we thought we knew what we were going to write beforehand. Great stuff, isn't it?
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