Modern Writer

By Elix Conrad

So you fancy yourself to be a writer huh!. Well!, don't let me stop you but how modern are you in your writing?.

I have to agree that nothing beats knowing all there is to know about Shakespeare. However you have to keep up with the times if you are a writer worth his/her salt.

Now this author doesn't know much about Shakespeare so will not bother you in that regard. However he knows a thing or two about modern writing. Thus he packaged the info nicely in this book and you simply have to gobble it up.

He will have you buying great gadgets for writers, grabbing various tools and blogging like a pro.

This book is definitely a must read so enjoy yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elix Conrad
• Release date: Nov 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393515784

Book preview

WRITING HISTORY

When you are writing an essay or coining a love letter, do you often stop and wonder, How did writing originate?. If you have been trying to find out about the origins of writing then let us inform you about this useful technology which we can say has been anchored to civilisation in a way. Dig in folks and enjoy.

WHAT IS WRITING

If we need to understand about the origins of writing, then first of all we must understand the definition of the word Writing itself. Daniels (1963: p3) defined writing as a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer. This definition of writing only applies to modern writing and excludes the early writing where one had to use his/her own deduction in order to understand what is written.

TYPES OF WRITING

There are three types of writing. The first and most ancient is called logographic. This type of writing constitutes the use of symbols to represent whole words. Next up we have syllabic writing which involves the use of symbols to represent syllables. Then we have the final type of writing which is called alphabetic writing and is being used nowadays.

GOD GIVEN GIFT

Whenever there is something hard to explain, man have always pointed to aliens and the supernatural world. Most of the UFO hunters and alien lovers will quickly attribute the invention or object to the all-wise aliens.

In the case of writing, some scholars give credit to God for the invention of writing. They state that God invented writing in a flash when he wrote the 10 commandments. Through Moses, the Israelites then learned this art which was later on spread to the whole world. The fact that Moses had to go back to have other tablets written when he broke the first two shows that writing was something new.

Many religions and societies also have various legends which proclaim that writing was a divine gift from the gods.

EARLY WRITING

What could have pushed man to invent writing?.Well I’m glad you asked. Looking at the archaeological evidence we have, writing coincided with civilisation in most parts of the world. In Mesopotamia, writing is believed to have been closely related to religion. Large cities had been built and along with them, large temples dedicated to various gods had also been built. Trade and movement of goods was controlled from these temples which also worked as storehouses. In order to keep track of  everything going in and out, tokens were created which means that early writing was for accounting purposes. These tokens were made of clay with etches to indicate the number of goods like grain, oil and livestock.

Around 3 300 BC, this was improved through the introduction of cuneiform which mostly involved symbols representing whole words. This logographic writing became common and evidence is found from thousands of clay tablets found at the excavation of the Uruk city. The earliest writing consist of pictures of the objects mentioned such as sheep and cattle. Eventually the pictures became more abstract and consisted of straight lines that looked like wedges.

In Egypt writing started at around 3 000BC. In Egyptian history, this is around the same time that Menes reigned and established Memphis which became the capital city for the most part of the ancient world. Such development would obviously have triggered the need for the written word which led to the creation of hieroglyphs. There is great debate among scholars on whether Egyptian hieroglyphs developed independently or were borrowed from Mesopotamia. You can pick your side but the hieroglyphs seem to have been fully developed when they started to be used which may point to the intervention of a divine being after all Egyptians have dozens of these gods. From early on, hieroglyphs also included alphabetic symbols for consonants which early cuneiform did not. They also included a syllabic script.

MOVE TOWARDS PROSE WRITING

The disadvantages with cuneiform writing is that it was rigid so you