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Learning to read and write is seen as both the acquisition of skills useful in a modern society and an introduction to a world increasingly organized around the reading and writing of authoritative texts. While most agree on the importance of writing, insufficient attention has been given to the more basic question of just what writing is, that is, how best to think about writing as both a technology of communication and an instrument of thought. In this article we elaborate and defend the view that writing is distinctive not only as a technology for the visual representation of speech but more basically as a technology for taking language "off-line," that is, as language enclosed by quotation marks. Writing, like oral quotation, provides a set of objects divorced from the speaker that persist in time and space and that can be considered and reconsidered somewhat independently of the context of expression and the intentions of the original author. Of special relevance are the units of meaning, namely, words and sentences. When writing turns words and sentences into objects of analysis, it facilitates distinctive modes of discourse such as extended prose and distinctive modes of thinking such as formal rationality.

Compares the structure of language and meaning in speaking, writing, and computing. Argues that writing and computing are biased toward a radical explicitness that eliminates the role of interpretation, the construction of a personal, subjective meaning. Discusses the cognitive implications of teaching children to cope with this explicitness. (KH)

This paper examines the relation between literacy and children's understanding of a set of concepts referred to as the "say/mean distinction," which is the notion that what a text says contrasts with subjective interpretations a reader or listener brings. (Author/MT)

Suggests a parallelism between children's mastery of mental language and their thinking about the world. Recounts a study in which children's mastery of verbs was measured and a relationship between reading skill and looking to the text to justify answers was established. (AEW)

Cautions against the common tendency to find in illiteracy an explanation for poverty, unemployment, disease, and hopelessness. Argues that to solve a pressing social problem it must be described correctly, and that social problems are solved by providing opportunities. (SR)

The pros and cons of the influence of television on society are debated. Television is considered a means by which cultural information is transmitted and a powerful mechanism of socialization. However, television can be seen as a threat to the traditional role of literacy in society. (JN)

Examines the language and authority of textbooks as they relate to oral discourse, ritualized speech, and literacy as an archival function. Points out that texts serve an important archival function in preserving knowledge from which rules of thought and action may be derived. (JMF)

Appraises the academic reception of McLuhan's ideas. Suggests how his insights can be applied within a systematic research tradition. (The author uses his own research on the bias of speech and writing as an example.) (PD)

Examines psychologist David R. Olson's current work on children's language development and its possible educational implications. Stresses the increasing tendency to investigate children's language development in relation to their thinking and learning rather than in isolation and to include literacy development in the oral language development model. (HTH)

Walter Ong emphasized two broad implications of literacy on mind, consciousness and interiority. I review some recent evidence for these conjectures by reference to my own research on children's understanding of mind. I then go on to show how a theory of literate consciousness may help to explain the peculiar nature of Trump's political rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing, I argued, advances our thinking by bringing a new consciousness to language, and consequently, that we introspect and think about our language along line laid down by our scripts. In the second book, I The mind on paper i , I attempted to expand on Vygotsky's claim that "A word is a microcosm of human consciousness" and that "writing brings awareness to speech". Learning to read, I argued a new level of awareness of linguistic form beginning with words, as word awareness and with phonemes, the sounds represented by letters of the alphabet. While granting that writing turns language into an object of thought, he goes further to claim that writing misrepresents spoken language, creating a new language altogether, written language. [Extracted from the article]

Learning to read and write is seen as both the acquisition of skills useful in a modern society and an introduction to a world increasingly organized around the reading and writing of authoritative texts. While most agree on the importance of writing, insufficient attention has been given to the more basic question of just what writing is, that is, how best to think about writing as both a technology of communication and an instrument of thought. In this article we elaborate and defend the view that writing is distinctive not only as a technology for the visual representation of speech but more basically as a technology for taking language “off-line,” that is, as language enclosed by quotation marks. Writing, like oral quotation, provides a set of objects divorced from the speaker that persist in time and space and that can be considered and reconsidered somewhat independently of the context of expression and the intentions of the original author. Of special relevance are the units of meaning, namely, words and sentences. When writing turns words and sentences into objects of analysis, it facilitates distinctive modes of discourse such as extended prose and distinctive modes of thinking such as formal rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Literacy, specifically the use of writing for rational purposes, adds a new dimension to the traditional problem of the relation between language, thought and rationality. Central to rational thought are the logical relations expressed by such terms as "is", "or", "and" and "not". Whereas some see these concepts as fundamental and innate, it is here argued that such terms exhibit a diverse range of uses in speech and thought but through literacy and education they become explicit objects of thought and formalized or 'normed' into logical operators as part of a literate rationality. This more formal orientation to language is seen as metarepresentational and may be shown to have both an historical and a developmental trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the claim that writing turns the implicit properties of spoken language into visible objects suited to reflection and analysis. It examines this hypothesis through an analysis of relational terms including ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘not’, their meanings and uses in ordinary conversational contexts, and the changes that occur when these terms are recruited for systematic logical thinking. Keywords: literate rationality; literacy hypothesis; written register; relational term; logical thinking; logical discourse; metalinguistic judgement [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literacy is important not only as a means of access to new information and as an extension of memory. Rather, it is argued that writing is a means to the awareness of the implicit properties of language. This awareness is expressed through new concepts for referring to what is said, what is meant by it, what it implies, of what it is composed, and the like. Writing achieves this effect through distancing the thoughts of the writer from the fixed, objective form it takes when written down. The effect on the reader, correspondingly, is equally distanced from the writer with the result that reading is less like hearing a speaker that like over-hearing. I describe this effect by saying that writing puts language within quotation marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces some aspects of the history of Western literacy in terms of the invention of three discrete forms or genres of writing and reading, namely: logical prose, empirical description, and subjective narrative fiction. It then attempts to explain these developments in terms of the special properties of language brought into consciousness when, through writing, expressions become permanent objects fixed in time and space and distanced conceptually from their speakers’/authors’ intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]