paper 3 [a new page]

It is no question that writing has changed over the years, but what we should be asking ourselves is “why?”  One thing important concept to consider is materiality, or the effect the materials used to write have on the writing itself. As the materials humans have access to change, so does the writing. As writing and its materials have changed, so have the products of literature: the library, the encyclopedia, and even the book itself.

Materiality has had a drastic effect on the content of a work in various ways, often due to the sheer difficulty of the material to use. For example, in our class we did an assignment all in crayon as opposed to a computer like we usually do.  Many students found this assignment difficult because the crayon was physically taxing and more difficult to use, especially compared to the simplicity of typing on a computer.  This difficulty led most of the assignments done by the class to be shorter than if it were to be done on a computer.  It also gave a more informal feel to the assignment, causing many students to use a more simplistic language and some even went as far as to incorporated pictures.  This is similar to the blogs we have been using. The style of writing for a blog is different than writing a formal paper.  Blogs have a more informal feel as well, thus allowing more room for expression and allowing grammar, punctuation, and spelling rules to take a back seat to personality and creativity. They also encourage the use of pictures and video. The use of a technology, such as a computer, for writing has not always been around.  As the materials available for writing changed throughout the years, so did the content, style and focus of the writing itself.

Writing was first done on a papyrus roll, giving a piece of writing a continuous flow with little to no closure.  At this time, because a majority of the population was not educated and did not have access to such scrolls, they were more commonly used as a script for storytellers to read their content aloud.   Centuries later, the papyrus roll was replaced by the codex, more similar to what we picture a book to be today.  This was a bound form with pages, being less continuous than the scroll because of its limited length.  As David Bolter points out in Writing Space, “A whole work could be contained in a single codex,” because it allowed for more room and was considered a more complete verbal structure (77).  With the codex, silent reading and study became more popular as the codex allowed a wider access to writing and whose form was generally better received and considered more convenient.   In the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts came into play and were considered by some to be “multimedia writing at its finest” (Bolter 78). They were still considered a codex, but were hand-decorated with beautiful pictures and fancy fonts and designs.  This remained the only successful multimedia writing expression until technology became a usable material. 

The creation of technology as a writing material has had a great effect on the writing of today. The internet has increased the accessibility of writing; today, anyone with a computer can be both a reader and a writer. The Internet acts as a gateway to the rest of the world, making it easy for anyone to digitally publish a work a via website or blog to share information or their personal thoughts and opinions with anyone in the world. Because there is no longer any standards in being a writer, the general quality of what is available to be read has decreased dramatically.  Both the papyrus roll and codex were of difficult materials to come by, therefore, every piece of early writing had an important purpose as to why it needed to be shared.  However, today, because it is so easy to publish writing, not only has the quality of writing go down, but the reliability of the information accessible as well.

The eBook was created to mimic the physical presence of a codex and have the exclusivity of a printed book, but with the benefits of technology.  It restores the reliability and quality of literature in technology.  The eBook provides similar look and feel of a book because of its size, shape and the maintained linear act of turning pages. However, its ability to be updated electronically returns it slightly to the age of the papyrus roll in diminishing its sense of closure.  The eBook has many benefits. Downloaded books are significantly cheaper than physical books and there are thousands of downloaded books available for free through the library and online.  They also have the practically unlimited selection of ordering online, instead of the limited selection of what is in stock at a book store, but instant access to the book instead of waiting for an ordered delivery. They are easy to carry because they are lighter than the average paperback, and can carry millions of books at once.  With an eBook, anyone, especially a student, can annotate a book without causing permanent damage. EBooks are also better for the environment because they require no physical materials to create and cannot be damaged by the weather like a book that is biodegradable and can be eaten away by worms.  Because of these benefits, eBook users are increasing in number and eBooks are even being used in schools as a tool for students and teachers alike. As technological materials have developed and merged with the writing world, they have changed the accessibility, format and content of the book.

The desire to make one “great book” that encompasses all knowledge, known as the encyclopedia, dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times.  This is in part mostly to what Bolter said; “The encyclopedia offers a solution for both conditions for surplus and scarcity” (84).  In times when books were hard to find, an encyclopedia allowed people to gain the information of many books using only one.  When books were abundant, the encyclopedia acted to inform the people of what was most important and reliable to keep the public from becoming overwhelmed.  However, as books multiplied and became too abundant and the general knowledge of the people increased, the goal of maintaining an encyclopedia became harder to achieve.  Trying to solve this problem, Britannica turned to a different material and became the first successful digital encyclopedia (Bolter 85).  This allowed the creators more room for information and more immediate access to the information searched.  With this, the encyclopedia’s type of organization, both digitally and physically, shifted from that of association within elaborate “hierarchies of topic” to alphabetization (84).  This allowed speedier access to information, but it no longer characterized relationships between topics.  With this alphabetization came the index, showing on which page information on a selected topic can be found.  This finalized the nonlinear fashion of the encyclopedia, making it one of the first and only books made to be read out of order.  As technology takes over the world of books, it also changes the encyclopedia and how people find information.

When early societies began struggling with encyclopedias, many turned to libraries as their source of information. Like an encyclopedia, libraries attempted to contain the knowledge of the world.  However, libraries did not bother to abridge literature to fit in a single book but acted as a building to house all books.  This allowed visitors access to a wide variety of texts first hand to be used for both leisure and study. Within the library, books are sorted by genre and alphabetized within each category.  Today, with the World Wide Web at our fingertips, it is as if we have complete access to both an encyclopedia and library all in one.  We no longer need a building when all literature can be found online.  Unlike physical books in libraries, digital books can be stored on different electronic shelves under different categories and they can be accessed instantly with the push of a button (Bolter 87).  Search engines, or websites that allow you to search the internet for pages containing called for information, and hyperlinks, clickable text that takes you to another page containing information similar to that of the text, developed as navigational tools of the internet. As an encyclopedia should, the World Wide Web contains nearly all of the information in the world and can be maneuvered via search engines and hyperlinks that act as the index. By typing a key word or phrase into a search engine or clicking on a hyperlink, you instantly receive wanted information on that topic in the blink of an eye. 

Writing has changed in many ways over time.  From being spoken aloud, to read silently; written on a scroll, or typed on a computer; writing has become something brand new.  Materiality has always been a factor, affecting the quality and content of a work.  As our culture and the materials we have access to continue to change, so will our writing.  In the long run, all we need to do as a culture is keep writing because after all we “are writing both in and on the world” (Bolter 97).  As writing and its materials continue to change, so will its products: the library, the encyclopedia, and even the book itself.  

Chapter 5: The Electronic Book

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW THE LINK TO OUR PREZI

crayons again!

I was given another student's crayon assignment to interpret and reflect upon. The assignment I was given was written on horizontally on the page, in a landscape fashion.  Everything on the assignment is written in crayon. It is broken up into three paragraphs and each paragraph is written in a different color. Only the first paragraph is indented.  The first paragraph is purple, the second grey, and the third a very light green. These colors proceed in order of increasing in lightness and therefore decreasing in clarity.  Besides the actual color of the text, there is no other sense of decoration.  The writer attempted to keep straight margins, but certain words are sticking out as if struggling to fit in. There is a top margin and a left hand margin, but no margin on the bottom or right. It is as if the whole assignment is shifted down and to the right.  The word spacing is relatively consistent until the end where the writer must have ran out of room because the word spacing decreased and the words became crammed together. The lines of words are kept straight, but like the word spacing, the spaces between the lines decrease and become significantly more cramped.  There are no full words or phrases crossed out, but some individual letters within a word are written over as if to correct a spelling problem or to change word after already starting to write.  The last word of the entire assignment, “times”, is written over in purple like first paragraph. It doesn’t seem to tie in with the first paragraph, so it was probably just to make sure it was legible as the color got lighter and the words became more cramped. The punctuation and capitalization is proper throughout, despite the informal feel of writing with crayon.

There are many interesting features of the crayon assignment. While preparing the assignment with crayon, it felt significantly different than it would have completing the assignment with more familiar medians.  After completing the assignment as well as this analysis, it became clear to me the effect the writing implement has on the writing.  Each means of writing leads the writer to think and create in a whole new way.  This assignment lead us to consider how technologies take part in the way we communicate. The crayon made it seem more casual so I felt as if I had to write less and in a more juvenile fashion.  On the other hand, it was more liberating and I felt more creative writing with crayon. I found I had a similar feeling using other more artistic means of communicating, such as the four letter word visual argument.

Bolter said, in his text Writing Space, “With any technique of writing – on stone or clay, papyrus or paper, and on the computer screen – the writer may come to regard the mind as a writing space” (13). I agree with Bolter that the mind is considered a writing space.  Anywhere thoughts can be created and developed upon is a writing space, even if literal words are not used.  The writer has three writing spaces to deal with; the space in their own mind, the physical space on which they are creating, and the space in their audience’s mind. In my opinion, it is most difficult to get writing from the space in your own mind into the physical.  The mind is limitless, but when you physically create your writing you are bond by the limitations of the material.  This writer of the crayon assignment was bound by the size and shape of the paper the assignment required. No matter how much the writer had in her mind, there was only so much she could fit on the paper. She was also limited by the use of crayon because of how physically tolling it was to use.

The writer did a decent job facilitating the interaction between the physical writing space and that of the reader’s mind.  Though she did not use her material to connect and further express what she was writing, she did not allow it to restrain her either.  She responded fully to the given question and used proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling throughout the whole assignment.  She kept her writing clear and concise. She interacted with the space of the viewer’s mind successfully with her words, not the visual of the crayon, by interacting well with the physical space and using it to the best of her ability. This expression was successful because of the obvious fact that I was able to understand and appreciate her response. Though she may not have used the material to its full capacity, she still accomplished her goal of communicating with the reader.