Text....

Throughout or childhood and our lives, we are always taught about writing, speeches, how we speak to others and other ways that text is involved with us. However we never really discuss certain questions. What is a text? How is writing a technology? How do we experience oral versus written texts differently? Text for one is a representation of writing whether it is an oral or written document. Writing as stated in Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy chapter 4 “Writing Restructures Consciousness” is in a strict sense of the word, the technology has shaped and powered the intellectual activity of modern man, was a very late development in human history (pg 82) and is utterly invaluable and indeed essential for the realization of fuller, interior, human potentials (pg 81). But Ong also calls writing as artificial. Technology for the most is considered an artificial means for interior, and or exterior aids of the consciousness. Ong also stated that just because writing is artificial doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing but actually praises it because it becomes invaluable and essential for the realization of fuller, interior, human potentials. But text is not just about writing. Texts can also be pictures which can be aides to the memory or to the point (a pathos point to an argument) and also helps identify specific words with grammar relations to each other. But also oral talking is a text. While you aren’t reading the words, you become involved with the words. For example in MLK’s speech ‘I have a dream’ the way he speaks to the crowd gains their attention and the attention to the issue at hand. A speaker must be able to seem relatable and their words have to strike cord with the listeners. We have to hear their sincerity about the issue in their voice. With written texts we have to make that judgment for ourselves and try to imagine their voices involving with the issue. With oral speeches and texts, the voice is there and we can hear their emotion in it.