Chad
Allen
English
101
14
September 2012
Moving Forward
In Dan Sperber’s article, “The
Future of Writing,” Sperber addresses the issue that people have slowly moved
away from writing, and are moving toward a new way of speech-to-writing lifestyle[M1] [M2] .. With his knowledge on the topic, Dan
Sperber argues that the advancements in technology will sooner or later
diminish the importance of writing in our society. Sperber believes
speech-to-text technology is not as amazing as it first seems, and that it
could overall bring more harm to the world rather than good. He advocates
many values in writing that reading fails to accomplish.[M3] Sperber uses many different points of
view in his writing to back up his claims
Sperber starts out his article by
questioning the claim that, “both writing and reading will soon be things of
the past . . . a mere parenthesis in human history” (Sperber 3). The whole idea that writing and reading could
be ending is such a bizarre thing to even bring up. While I was reading, I had
to stop and think about a world where reading and writing would be unnecessary
to normal life, and the idea really boggled my mind. Everything we do as human
beings really revolves around reading and writing. For instance, I am writing this
paper now, and reading Sperber’s article, at the same time. Sperber brings up a
good point by stating that, “with a less frequent use of writing and reading,
there would be fewer written texts to read, and fewer people disposed to read
them. As a consequence, the benefits of writing and reading would be smaller,
and might not compare favorably with the costs” (Sperber 5). I believe that
Sperber makes a good claim
here because there really is no benefit to removing writing and reading from
society, there are just many consequences. [M4]
Another idea Sperber brings to the
table is that in our world today, most of us would much rather just write
instead of dealing with speech technology, which is not 100% reliable. Sperber
reminds the people of today that, “if given the choice, most of us would rather
write than dictate. The main reason, I presume, is that when you dictate you
have much less control over your text than when you write” (Sperber 5). By
making this comment, Sperber believes that while speech/writing technology
seems like a cool idea at first, there are many observations that have to be
made about the accessibility. When you talk, you have much less control over
what you say, rather then
[M5] when you physically write out what you
are saying.
A strong point that really stood out
to me is when Sperber states, “Writing allows one to express one’s thought in a
richer, subtler and more controlled way than speech” (Sperber 8). Sperber’s
claim here is that by writing, a person can really shape what they want to say,
and make it more unique than that of just verbally talking. I 100% agree with
this idea because from personal experiences, I love having the option of
rereading my text and spicing it up, making it overall better.
Sperber somewhat agrees with the argument [M6] that speech is better then [M7] writing by stating, “however used we may
be to moving a pen over paper or to pressing keys, speech is much more natural”
(Sperber 9). By making this comment, Sperber is digging deeper into the
aesthetics of the situation by providing the readers with something familiar,
the fact that speech is more natural. Everyone talks, and it is much easier to
write. I agree with his claim, but even though speech is more natural, writing is
much more sophisticated and intelligent. Everyone can speak well[M8] , but not everyone can write well.
In conclusion, I believe that Dan
Sperber gives very accurate opinions on the benefits of writing, and how
writing will always be an important part of society in the future. Sperber’s
article was very convincing because he was very knowledgeable on the topic, and
was very relatable to the readers. I was hooked on his writing style and fully
understood his argument. Sperber demonstrates a very realistic writing style
and shows his readers many alternate views that can be thought of as
unsatisfactory opinions. I would definitely recommend this article to any
technological person out there who believes that writing is unnecessary to
life, and that speech technology will be the new standard. I would also
recommend this article to anyone who is curious about the importance of writing
and reading in society. Overall, Sperber makes excellent claims on the
importance of writing, and how advancements in speech technology might not be
as amazing as they first seem[M9] .
[M10 Works
Cited
1[M11] .
Sperber, Dan. “The Future of Writing.” Dansperber.fr.
International
Cognition and Culture Institute, 11
September 2012[M12] .
[M6]Hmmm,
you have conflicting points in your review.
You state Sperber is both for writing and for speech-to-text…does he
advocate for one more strongly than another?
You should try and explain this more in your article as it is confusing
to the reader (especially if they have not read the article, which Sperber is
actually for.
[M12]Overall
you definitely understood the article and your comments were insightful.
You may have slightly misunderstood part of the
article. It seems at one point you are
saying Sperber thinks writing will stay, but then say Sperber actually thinks
it will be replaced. Explain this
further
Also, I’d like to see a bit more commentary on what
Sperber thinks about reading. Will it
stay or be replaced?
Really good start, but needs a little work.
Grade: 4/4
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