Given the preconceived notion that the text in the essay written by Walter J. Ong, titled” Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought” was going to restructure my reading, because of its difficulty, I decided to read the essay at least three times in order to understand its meaning. Ong obviously takes writing as a new technology to great heights. His use of complex words definitely takes away the emotion in writing that he strongly proclaims. I felt the composition disengage me as a reader, mainly because I spent more time looking up words I didn’t know rather than understanding the meaning of the text. I did painstakingly get through three readings of this composition and did come away with some meaning from the text. Ironically, Ong simplistic title for this essay explains exactly what this complex composition was try to say. Maybe that was his motivation behind this writing. It definitely restructured my thoughts in the way writing he states is portrayed as a non emotional way to communicate, or did it. It definitely got my thoughts and emotion going . Ong proclaims,"Writing is a consciousness-raising and humanizing technology". (31)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
"Restructuring My Thoughts"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was rather put off by the text even though I did read it a few times. I found myself getting through a paragraph then forgetting entirely what I had just read. I have to say that this is one of the more difficult texts that I had to read...not because the reading itself was hard but because it was easy to get lost in the text.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, however, I think that the main idea of the essay is that writing is simply a process to organize the thoughts you have onto paper, however it can also destroy memory as well.
It is an interesting concept to think that Ong brings up the point that Plato states that you need if you talk to a person you will understand the text better than reading a text.
Ong then goes to say that now writing is so intigrated that Plato's statements no longer are true. We need to read print to learn more, and we have to express emotions and memories by puting them in print.