While I remembered that the first writing systems were created for keeping records and for the exchange of goods and money from my middle school Social Studies class, I had never thought about how this compared to the use of writing today. Writing was essentially associated with math back then, a way of keeping track of things; now, writing is often associated with artistic expression and essays exploring the meaning of things, well, other than math.
Many of my friends that are very good at math/sciences and/or are studying them in college claim they are bad writers or don’t like writing. Often, when discussing what we are studying, they cringe at all the writing that I do for my courses. Because I’m a WRD major, and we don’t just write but talk about what writing is, I point out to them that they write plenty: lab reports, explanations of a hypothesis/equation, etc. You could even count the equations themselves, depending on the context.
I’m curious as to what caused the shift from writing being used for everyday, mathematical usage to creative and analytical usage. Perhaps it has to do with Scribner’s metaphors: maybe different uses of writing brought greater power. Or perhaps writing simply became recognized as a tool that can be applied to any situation. There are many factors throughout history that have lead to the writing culture we now live in.
