Shropshire Routes to Roots

6. The machine age

Introduction

Until the mid-nineteenth century, all forms of writing were produced by a person adding a liquid medium such as ink to a material, such as paper, using an instrument, the pen. Although this method of writing continues to the present day, the mass production of writing changed completely when human ingenuity devised a way to streamline the process.

The typewriter

Although the printed word could be changed quite quickly in a printing press, there still had to be an initial 'copy' to work from. The typewriter was a complicated device performing a simple function. It utilised the concept of metal type and an ink source in a totally different way to the printing press, by producing the original piece of work instead of copying it. It standardised the way in which words were put onto paper and therefore a quickly written piece was immediately recognisable and decipherable by others.

As the typewriter evolved and technology caught up, it became possible to produce machines in the mid-twentieth century that allowed a crude form of editing, by back-printing and over-printing of the text. This was the first glimmering of the concept of word processing.

The word processor

During the 1950's the new science of computers lead to many people believing that it would be possible to directly input into a computer memory for recall at a later date. By the mid-1960s, the first commercial word processors were coming onto the market, and their impact was going to be just as great as the invention of the printing press had been 500 years before. Whilst a word processor seems to be nothing more than a typewriter attached to a screen, it is far more than that. It has changed the whole way in which writing is conceived and presented.

The modern personal computer Larger image, in a new window [30kb] [Photograph: Routes to Roots]

The complete editor

Ever since writing had been invented, the concept had been to record words and thoughts in a logical sequence. The whole of the narrative was stored in the brain of the writer, and was produced word by word in its natural sequence.

There are three small commands in a Word Processor that have revolutionised the way we write, and think about writing: they are CUT, COPY and PASTE.

Cut, Copy, Paste buttons

It is now possible jot down your ideas as they appear, often without a natural order, and then subsequently edit those ideas using the three commands. You can CUT out as much as you want (stored in the computer memory), or COPY as much as you want (stored in the computer memory), and then put it anywhere you want in your document (PASTE).

Word Processor page Larger image, in a new window [27kb]

You have total control of your output and can add, alter or delete anything you wish. Your brain is free to roam, pick and choose and then to collate all the information into a sensible whole. Word processing does exactly what it says. It allows you to 'process' the words you put on the page rather than simply record them.

Electronic communication

The last, but almost certainly not the final, word must go to the internet, Email and text messaging. There is a good chance that the advent of electronic message sending will once more change the way in which we write.

There is already a vast lexicon of shorthand words and icons used in Email and texts, which bear some resemblance to the original, but which are creating a whole new language. In some respects, the use of images in texts and Emails to express words takes us back to the very beginnings of writing. They are the modern equivalent of the pictographs and hieroglyphics and can be understood worldwide. Is this the start of a new and universal language?

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