Ignored Technology :: Technological Writing Essays

Ignored Technology A problematic theory that has been hard for me to accept is the notion that writing itself is considered to be a technology. Whenever I think of what the word â€Å"technology† means the mental images that come to my mind are computers, automobiles and other modern conveniences. I had never considered writing to be in this category however, when all of the modern inventions are taken away it is easy to see this new truth. Writing is a technology that most Americans take for granted, probably due mostly to our advancement in technological resources, but nevertheless taken for granted. Through this writing experience I was both better able and prepared to come to my own conclusions and now I can accept this new classification in my mind and vocabulary. The first aspect of this project was to come up with a way of writing that was permanent, portable and creative. When I read over the assignment the first writing surface that popped into my mind was tree bark. This would be the perfect writing surface because the inside of the tree bark is usually somewhat flat and lightly colored. Next, I thought about how I would write on the inside of this bark. I remembered back to my days of being an outdoorsy type of young girl and the campfires my family would build. I distinctly remembered how the sticks would become black on the ends when we were cooking our marshmallows to make S’mores. We used to â€Å"write† on the wood that was piled and ready to be put into the fire with our blackened sticks. So, for this project I thought I might try the same principle from my campfire days. I was a little concerned about finding a nice piece of bark in this winter weather, but one day my dad was doing some outside work and happened to stumble across a dead tree that was just beyond the property line. The tree had a large piece of bark hanging from one of the limbs. He just gave the chunk of bark a tug and I had my writing surface. That part came much more easily than I had originally anticipated. The next part of the project was finding my writing tool.