ENG1710 Intro to Language and Technology, SP2019
Prof. Ellis, Namm N520, jellis at citytech.cuny.edu
After today’s class, write at least 250 words summarizing your reading of Walter Ong’s “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought” and our discussion about the reading. Post your summary as a comment made to this blog post.
His obituary in the New York Times is here.
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Walter J. Ong âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ he talks about how the universe is big and that there is more improvement in our language and technology. He makes different references in his article with a philosophy that makes his reading very interesting. He is using a different perspective on how language and technology help us communicate with the people around us. We might not be able to see the different types of communication we are using in our modern world. They have many different ways of speaking with different languages that are being provided to us. The written text would change over time because it is not going to be the same. The context change because they have more to add and that it helps us remember that over the years our language does change and it becomes better which is helpful to us. We start to have a better understanding our why language and technology are helpful to us to understand the world and how animal and human are different and that they have their own language to communicate with each other. He uses philosophy to help others understand why we have language and technology to help us communicate with the people or animals around us. We might not understand what the animals are saying but were able to look at their expression. He wants us to understand that we have a communication with your friends or family through the text you are not showing any emotion towards the conversation you are having with them. Text in conversation can be misleading because you can look at it in many different ways.
Walter Ongâs âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ discusses the value of having a spoken and written language. Ong discusses the origins of the written language that forms from a spoken language by dividing them into two. First, he says that Primary Orality is the orality of people who have no prior knowledge of writing. Ong says that people who do have writing skills may call these people illiterate. People who do have a knowledge of both spoken and written language fall under the category of Secondary Orality. What Ong explains is that we have to admit that without primary orality, there would be no secondary orality. If we didnât have a verbal language to base a written form of said language off of, secondary orality wouldnât occur. When this does occur, as with many modern languages, it can expand not only the way we can communicate, but also the way that we think. Just like we mentioned in class, once you learn a language properly, for example english and spanish, it is pretty hard to unlearn how to think in both languages. We change the way we perceive the outside world due to how our thoughts inside our head formulate. Many times, we are not aware, or cognizant of these effects writing has on us since they are already a part of us. Of course, with secondary orality, there can be some miscommunication, for example, emotion canât be visualized as well with just writing. This is where we can value primary orality for not separating speaker with listener. Overall, we live in a world where both spoken and written language are influencing the way we think especially with the rise of modern forms of communication coming about.
Walter Ong explains a wide range of ideas in his piece of âWriting Is A Technology That Restructures Thought.â He begins to explain what is referred to as a high technology culture that is constantly changing through the advancements in the way we excel. As well as, Ong questions whether writing has changed the way we think, read and write as he uses the philosophical approach of Plato and Socrates. Writing, according to Socrates, has created a discourse in which writing is manipulated and manufactured so that it can allow others to express their knowledge about a subject. However, this is not always the case as writing is used to challenge those that are literate and wants to continue further research in acquiring more information.
Plato critiques writing suggesting that it destroys our memory and weakens our mind. But he is a hypocrite of his own logic because here he is writing these thoughts down as a student of Socrates. We as humans, in my opinion, has used writing as a form of advanced technology. Here it is we can use computers that practically does everything from researching information for us to updating its software updates on its own. Then, there is the advancement in smartphones and cars that are truly taking over our lives. Smartphones are our everyday addiction and many seem to be lost without it; so, writing and the ability to adapt knowledge has advanced our ideas.
The way it has restructured our society has allowed the advancements from the medical field, scientific, engineering and technology areas. In each of these fields these are languages that are continuing to help doctors and engineers conduct further research that can help other human beings. Writing can be manipulated, that in many ways have been proven to be true. Many religious books have been rewritten, so therefore, it is an exception as our literate culture tells these stories from different perspectives. Orality, nevertheless, has symbolized an ongoing structure in society where we have learned a story that has been passed down from generation after generation. It is known in the culture of all of humanity that we continuously look to seek answers from computers and writing.
Walter Jackson Ong is a professor in english whom by his writing is fascinated by write as a technological tool thats been invented by the literate. I seem to get a message from his writing that technology in the sense of writing is plan. meaning the plan is the writing. Structure as Walter Jackson say in his book is the key to our powers of language. This is technology. Many keywords seen in this reading is literate and oral culture. I think there is an argument here as if did the written language take something away from the oral culture. Then part two delves into this though deeper by comparing computers and writing as evolving the human culture the same way. Alot of good points were made in this chapter on how literacy benefits people.
Summary of Walter Ongâs âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ
Father Ong was a Jesuit Scholar that lived from 1913-2003 and studied linguistics. He wrote on subjects like orality, literacy, and technology. This article addressed how writing restructures thought and brings with it a new sophistication to communication.
Ong wrote about speech being a natural ability, and one that was universal to all humans. However, writing was a learned skill. Certain cultures didnât understand that any language could be written, and their native tongue could be written as well. Ong drills into this perspective by expressing the normality in current times is literacy and the abnormality, illiteracy. This echoed thoughts from the previous story on the Tiv culture, and their principles regarding orality vs. literacy.
Ong continues to describe differences in literacy by context. While writing advances the organization of thought, it also has constraints when communicating messages. Speech delivers emotion, cadence, and urgency, while writing is restrained to the grammar and context of the other words it is written with. Text lacks the nonverbal aspects of language and is separated from the present tense that speech happens in.
Ong expresses orality as a more holistic method of communication that brings people together. This dialectic relationship within communication presents itself in Ongâs writing. He says that humanity needs âboth proximity and distanceâ in our communication. This helps us think deeply, yet pull peers into the full understanding of the message.
These themes certainly resonated with prior readings and were easier to understand.
Walter Ong and his work âWriting Is A Technology That Restructures Thought.â Basically explains how literacy is a learning process and it is not something that humans are born with. He demonstrates the difference between having an idea and writing it down. He continues and tries to prove that a thought is only valid; when it is written down. He breaks it down for us into two categories: first primarily orality; which are the people who have no ability to write but only speak. The second one is secondary oralityâ which are those who have the capacity to speak and write. He shows us the value of writing and no matter how ignorant we are of it, it is still important. He brings up the example of Plato, since he disvalued the importance of writing; yet he wrote what Socrates used to say due to the fact that he didnât use to write anything but only spoke. Plato says that âwriting destroys our memoryâ and those of us who write, will be forgetting stuffâ As mentioned in the article âThose who use writing will become forgetful, relying on an external source for what they lack in internal resources. Writing weakens the mindâ ( Ong, page 27). Meaning that we rely on external things, which is writing per se. And because of that our memory becomes weaker since we donât rely on it alot. Which I kind of agree to because we are being told in school by different professors that when we write something we are more likely to remember it better and the fact that it helps us ârememberâ proves Platoâs point of view. Ong ends the essay with a list that of how writing separates such as:
1-it promotes objectivity
2- it distances word from sound
3- writing separates interpretation from data
4- writing separates civils
5-separates past from present
Walter Ongâs discusses in his article âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ the importance of having a spoken and written language. He stresses the fact that literacy helps divide and separate the speaker from the listener and the writer from its reader. He goes in depth and emphasizes on the term âoralityâ. Orality is the ability to use speech (spoken language) and comes in two groups, primary and secondary orality. Primary orality is the orality of people who have language of writing. The secondary orality is what we encounter today and it emerges from a highly literate and technology rich culture. Ong sees orality as a huge thing to get the full experience to get speech in non-verbal aspects. He also gives importance on the fact that writing has changed and continues on changing the way we think and without it we would not be able to think and act the way we do. Writing helps us express ourselves and properly communicate and preserve information, even though written text and scriptures may change over time (grammer, vocabulary, and dialect), it is still highly important to have writing to store, utilize, and advance our knowledge. He talks about how when something is written it lacks emotions, for instance a simply text message. When texting someone you are unclear about their exact emotions. Did that exclamation mark mean seriousness or anger? If he/she used all caps, does it mean they are shouting at me or showing excitement? Nowadays some argue that the emoji symbols have made texting with emotion much easier.
Walter Ongâs discusses in his article âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ the importance of having a spoken and written language. He stresses the fact that literacy helps divide and separate the speaker from the listener and the writer from its reader. He goes in depth and emphasizes on the term âoralityâ. Orality is the ability to use speech (spoken language) and comes in two groups, primary and secondary orality. Primary orality is the orality of people who have language of writing. The secondary orality is what we encounter today and it emerges from a highly literate and technology rich culture. Ong sees orality as a huge thing to get the full experience to get speech in non-verbal aspects. He also gives importance on the fact that writing has changed and continues on changing the way we think and without it we would not be able to think and act the way we do. Writing helps us express ourselves and properly communicate and preserve information, even though written text and scriptures may change over time (grammer, vocabulary, and dialect), it is still highly important to have writing to store, utilize, and advance our knowledge. He talks about how when something is written it lacks emotions, for instance a simply text message. When texting someone you are unclear about their exact emotions. Did that exclamation mark mean seriousness or anger? If he/she used all caps, does it mean they are shouting at me or showing excitement? Nowadays some argue that the emoji symbols have made texting with emotion much easier.
In Walter Ongâs âWriting is a Technology that Reconstructs Thoughtâ he divides language in two primary and secondary oralities and how secondary orality depends on primary. He further explains how todayâs secondary orality has still renders some illiterate to the tech culture of secondary orality.
Ongs considers people within the primary orality illiterate, he says these people would find it impossible to grasp writing. He also stated that secondary orality relies on that illiterate person becoming literate.
I thought about that as a child learning to write you go off to school as an illiterate, all we know is our spoken language, writing is a foreign to them. As we begin to write and form letters, words, and sentences with meaning,as Wade, entitled his writing, we take âThe Leap to Languageâ and cross over to the secondary orality where we have knowledge of language spoken and written.
Ong writes, âliteracy is always to be expectedâŚâ, I agree, although we are capable of writing and reading as technology imposes on our lives, it reshapes and reforms the ways in which we learn or must begin to learn again, there will always be people who can not or do not want to advance with modern day technology. For example I work with an Lady as a phone dispatcher for 5 years, she already had 25 years in the company. When the company upgraded and computers were installed we had to learn the computer by this time she was at requiring age but refused to retire. She could not grasp how to function on the computer , and after 40 years of service she had to retire.
The way we live our lives is constructed and reconstructed as technology advances our culture and it deveried from primary orality
The literate mind is a mind in which is full of knowledge in both literature and writing.
Primary orality is the human thoughts and the expression in which technology is taken in a form of literacy. Secondary orality would resemble parts of the oral culture or known as our modern culture that we know today. Walter Ong speaks about all three of these concepts in this article âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ. Ong discusses how orality can be a holistic way of showing orality. He expresses how âliteracy is imperious.â Human thought and language are constantly taking change. For example, when Ong speaks about secondary orality, it is of the modern culture or use of technology for the ârichâ. Small devices that are constantly being used by us, like our smartphones or smart watches. Furthermore, Ong uses this article to express his technical knowledge and express how our world is constantly changing around us in terms of the way we all communicate with each other.
I myself appreciated the reading of Walter Ongâs âWriting is a Technology that Reconstructs Thoughtâ because I absolutely took to his perspective. When Ong began to discuss the idea of secondary orality it really opened my mind because I never thought that their were dimensions to orality for it seems like such a black and white topic growing up without the furthered knowledge and understanding of not juss orality but its places of origin. Ong explained that secondary orality provided a different communication than primary orality because it allowed room for emotion and expression . something that primary orality lacks because of its non writing component. I began to look more into how body language and tone really played a heavy role in the ways of communication because the messages can be received in various manners by different people due to understanding of gestures expressions tone and other characters that add to comprehension. Writing as he mentions changes the way we think and as well changes the way in which we receive information and in a way that was effective for growth. I battled with the thought that if we as a people did not mature to the effectiveness needed we would not have the technology or significant assets that we possess now because our understanding would have lasted sophistication without the ability to communicate effectively threw literacy.
Walter J. Ongâs âWriting is a Technology That Restructures Thoughtâ offers extensive insight into writing and its application to restructuring thought. His example of musicologists conveys his point well. My favorite example Ong provides good examples to get his point across. In his example, he argues that writing is a valuable technology that is often taken for granted. He provides a provocative theory when he discusses the existence of words in different contexts and their affordances and constraints in the conveyance process. This concept can be seen in things like text communications and verbal communications that can be similar in intent but greatly different in context. This is a very common occurrence in todayâs digital world especially through written text. Ong then discusses the artificial paradox, which I also found interesting. All these things Ong mentions are so pertinent in our lives today that they become invisible us. When comparing primary orality and secondary orality we have obvious pros and in secondary orality but we also have great complexities that come up as a result of the technology. Ong sees orality as inclusive and literacy as dividing because of the loss or separation from orality. Overall Ong argues that writing is changing the way that we think. Our way of thinking as a literate society is drastically different from an oral society and is the reason we have advanced to where we are now.
In “writing is a technology that restructures thought” by Walter Ong, he talks about Primary Orality meaning orality of people who have no knowledge of writing. Primary orality is the fact that the only way we’re able to communicate with others is in person, we literally have to have everything in our thoughts. He goes on to talk about secondary orality which is the orality that emerges from a highly literate and technology rich cultures, it includes media, like the radio, the TV, smart phone, smart watches, computer, tablet, iPod, basically anything we use to communicate other than in person with our bear thoughts in the moment. Ong see orality as seeing the big picture and bring people together. When we communicate in person we’re able to connect and emotions is involved. While, He sees literacy has dividing because people just don’t connect when communicating through literacy. Writing change the way that we think. So, when we communicate in the form of writing, we don’t say things how they come out of our thoughts.
Walter Ong, A Jesuits, and linguistic scholar explain his views of language by dividing language into two oralities, primary and secondary. Primary Orality being the orality of people who have any knowledge of writing, and secondary Orality being the orality that emerges from a highly literate and technology-rich culture. Ong expresses that people often think of writing as a mechanical skill. However, he believes that writing demands a high level of effort, thinking, and memory. Ong also indicates that oral is dated whereas writing is longlived. History is often documented in written form leaving future generations with an account of what has happened in the past. Ong expresses that words are just words when written and emotion is no longer attached to them. However, Ong also acknowledges that writing restructures the way we think and communicate. Though the words no longer have emotion, the meanings remain. Words are now disconnected from its speaker and left to the sole interpretation of the reader. Advertising seems to be the perfect example of one using words to create emotion through writing. However, often, most advertisers opt-in for the use of both written and visual media when creating a project as a way for the consumer to not only gather a deeper understanding of the product but to also evoke an emotion (cognitive marketing). Whether it be nostalgia, love, sadness, or sympathy, writing is more significant for understanding detail and meaning while oral expresses emotion which may be temporary but, together with magic can happen. Hence the reason why Iâm personally in love with audiobooks, I get the best of both worlds. When read by the author, I get a better understanding when listening to the tone of which all the words are being written.
Walter Ongâs , âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ , provides a lot of insight on language and technology. Ong talks about the literate mind, primary orality, and secondary orality. What is primary orality? Well we can best describe primary orality as the the orality of people who have no knowledge of writing. This means people who donât know how to read or write or even communicate if part of primary orality. Now we start to talk about secondary orality. Secondary orality is the âorality that emerges from a highly literate and technology rich culture. What does that entail ? Well when we say highly literate and technology rich culture , we are talking about the culture that have all of these physical technological devices that we tend to use such as: printers, cell phones , radios , televisions etc. Walter omg sees orality as holistic.holidtic can be best defined as some thigh characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. That would be the philosophical definition of holistic. Ong states that orality is dividing sand seperating. Walter Ong has a very agreeable statement , which says, â writing is changing the way that we thinkâ. That is probably the most powerful statement ove heard all class. The fact is writing is always changing how we speak, how we communicate with one another. I think Iâll end on this one note that , â Writing separates known from knower.
There are three different levels of human evolution when it comes to language; and that is the literate mind, primary orality, and secondary orality. These three levels are how the humans of that level communicated. The literate mind is when humans have is the âunderstanding of the natural human mental processesâ before writing and that it comes from the consciousness; human instinct. The second level is the primary orality which is humans that also have no knowledge of writing but they could communicate through speech. The third level is called secondary orality which is where we are currently, humans that interact with speech and writing. This level of humans is those who are able to think and convey more complex ideas to others. Although through the evolution of communication there was some loss, it gave back too. When we have moved to the third level writing has been added. Writing has changed the way that people think then when it was just speaking. It has given us a way to communicate our ideas to others. It has given us a way to read what others ideas are and able to develop on other ideas. We lost meaning when we have moved to write and it losses the effect of meaning since writing is cold while speaking people can tell what the meaning is with the speaker’s tone and volume of voice and also ones use of body language conveys meaning. Writing also opens the door for entrainment where the creative side of humans thoughts can be put down to be entertained.
Walter J. Ong âWriting is a Technology that Restructures Thoughtâ he talks about how the universe is big and that theyâre more improvement in our language and technology. He speaks about a few different thing like literate mind, primary orality, and secondary orality. Primary orality is verbal expressions within cultures. Secondary Orality is a concept in work of scolar by Ong. Literate mind is pretty obvious to understand, it’s basically about reading and writing. Also knowing how to understand it and if you don’t that makes you âilliterateâ. He was a professor of literature. His main focus was exploring how the transition of orality to literacy influenced culture. He compares computers and writing to help with the human culture. Walter sees orality as âholisticâ. Holistic means characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. The two different oralities show how communication is evolving. He tells us that writing is a technology that we take for granted. I agree with that because reading or writing is one of the first things that you learn and we forget that if we didn’t have any of this technology that weâd only have writing left. People forget that writing came before all of this technology. Now people just care about technology and thatâs all. In the next few generations were gonna forget about writing all together and just know about technology.