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Development of Writing
Writing is one of the most important skills in almost of all countries. Since to write something is too natural for us, we do not think the usability; but for the ancient people, writing is not a basic skill. It is just for some educated people. This report shows the development of writing and why it is the most important product of early society.
Before the discovery of writing, there are a few ways to pass on the knowledge to the next generation, paintings or oral presentations. Paintings could include much information but not exact information, so it easily caused some misunderstanding. Oral presentation could have more particular information, however, the information could be added or modified by the teller. The information would be far and far different from original one if it had been passed for many people, so to convey same information to many people was very hard work for that people. This situation is also important for us, because to know the ancient knowledge that did not have writing system will become difficult work.
The first form of writing was invented in Sumerian culture. A series of simplified picture signs called pictographs constructed several sentences. Pictographs represented the objects and related ideas. These signs were chiseled on soft clay tablets and then baked hard. The system is called cuneiform. The investigation increased their economy and culture including education. The baked tablets allowed recording the information without much misunderstanding for a long time. In addition, the tablets were easy to carry, so the information was quickly conveyed.
At first, writing affected their economy. It means that they can trade many things with much information about it, for example, the price, term to make it, for what, who made, and etc. They could also know its data of the past years that helps their negotiations
and thinking. In this way, the writing system increased their economic power.
Secondly, writing had developed educational system. It can also be said recent society. At first, the people who entered a school have learned how to write and read, and then they would learn mathematics, literature, science, social studies, and others. Of course, the skills also help to study art and music. People can get the knowledge of the past age, and add their own feature, then send the knowledge to the next generation. All of these subjects are stand on the writing system.
Third is that writing helps to construct highly organized society. Writing made easy to communicate the person who stay far. Before the development of writing, the only way to communicate other people was to talk directly. Writing provided the way to communicate long distance, so it makes the peoplefs information spread widely. For the ruler or the government, this was very important factor to govern the society. The common knowledge had built the common environment, and it would be a form of rule or law in that society.
Finally, religion was improved by [next page]