What is a text?
A text is any form of words, be it in writing or speaking. Written material or a transcript, the original wording of something, Bible passage, a book for study (we are most familiar with the textbook)anything on a computer screen, phone screen (here we are most familiar with a text- a written communication sent via cellular phone).
How is writing a technology?
To Plato it was an alien ideal therefore a ‘new technology’ using paper and ink. Today it is still a technology because other technology can be used or is needed because of writing. And writing must be fine-tuned, practiced, and learned. After all kids start in kindergarten learning their letters and how to spell, but writing is more than that you also have to learn grammar and …. Wait for it …. RHETORIC!
Writing is man-made “artificial” according to Ong. And as such it enhances human life. Therefore making writing a technology.
How do we experience oral vs. written texts differently?
Written text we add our own emphasis and tonnage to the piece; we hear our own voice telling us the story. But oral texts have their own passion and inflection and as some people are auditory learners so when they hear it they remember it better. Oral texts can sometimes be more spontaneous, less thought about than written texts. But then sometimes more thought can be put into oral texts.
When we experience oral text, we begin to associate ideas with a voice pattern. Written text is more of a visual association. Sometimes an emphasis is made in an oratory whereas that emphasis is lost in the written text.
With an oral text there is the chance to ask questions and have the answer explained, it a text there is rarely that opportunity. Also an oral text relies on memory while the written is external.
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