（1） 写作是一种可以用来表达意义的图形符号系统。见下面的观察结果。此外，请参阅以下与书写系统相关的主题：

• 字母表
• 文字学
• 笔迹
• 表意文字
• 语言
• 书信

（2） 写作是写作的行为。见下面的观察结果。此外，请参见以下与合成相关的主题：

• 学术写作
• 慢读慢写的优势
• 基础写作
• 商务写作
• 合作写作
• 作文修辞
• 起草
• 在线写作
• 覆盖
• 预写
• 修订
• 技术写作
• 作家
• 写作过程
• 你的写作：私人和公共

作家论写作

• 写作语录
• 好文章的秘诀是什么？
• 写作是什么样的？（通过明喻和隐喻解释写作经验）
• 论重写
• 作家论写作
• 作家论写作：克服作家障碍

词源与发音

源于印欧语系的一个词根，“剪、刮、画轮廓”

发音：李婷

观察

写作与语言

Writing is not language. Language is a complex system residing in our brain which allows us to produce and interpret utterances. Writing involves making an utterance visible. Our cultural tradition does not make this distinction clearly. We sometimes hear statements such as Hebrew has no vowels; this statement is roughly true for the Hebrew writing system, but it is definitely not true for the Hebrew language. Readers should constantly check that they are not confusing language and writing. (Henry Rogers, Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Blackwell, 2005)

写作的起源

Most scholars now accept that writing began with accountancy. . . . In the late 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia reached a point at which it outstripped the power of memory of the governing elite. To record transactions in a dependable, permanent form became essential... [E]ssential to the development of full writing, as opposed to the limited, purely pictographic writing of North American Indians and others, was the discovery of the rebus principle. This was the radical idea that a pictographic symbol could be used for its phonetic value. Thus a drawing of an owl in Egyptian hieroglyphs could represent a consonant sound with an inherent m; and in English a picture of a bee with a picture of a leaf might (if one were so minded) represent the word belief. (Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing. Thames, 1995)

古希腊的识字革命

By Aristotle's time, political orators, including Demosthenes, were publishing written, polished versions of speeches they had earlier delivered. Though writing had been introduced into Greece in the ninth century [BC], 'publication' long remained a matter of oral presentation. The period from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the fourth centuries B.C. has been called the time of a 'literate revolution' in Greece, comparable to the changes brought in the fifteenth century by the introduction of printing and in the twentieth century by the computer, for reliance on writing greatly increased in this period and affected the perception of texts; see Havelock 1982 and Ong 1982. . . . Rhetoric gave increased attention to the study of written composition. The radical effects of greater reliance on writing can, however, be exaggerated; ancient society remained oral to a much greater degree than modern society, and the primary goal of the teaching of rhetoric was consistently an ability to speak in public. (George A. Kennedy, Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1991)

柏拉图论写作的奇异性

Thamus replied [to Theuth], 'Now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess. For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. . . . You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant.' Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to protect or help itself." (Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus, translated by H. N. Fowler)

关于写作的再思考

• “写作就像一种药物，常常被不知道什么是真什么是假的庸医所使用。写作就像一种药物，既是一种毒药也是一种药，但只有真正的医生知道它的性质和它的力量的正确配置。”（丹尼斯·多诺霍，《凶猛的字母表》，哥伦比亚大学出版社，1981年）
• “写作不是一种按规则玩的游戏。写作是一种强迫性的、令人愉快的事情。写作是它自己的回报。”（亨利·米勒，亨利·米勒论写作。新方向，1964年）
• “写作真的是一种思维方式——不仅仅是感觉，而是思考那些不同的、未解决的、神秘的、有问题的或只是甜蜜的事情。”（托妮·莫里森，西比尔·斯坦伯格在《为你的生活写作》中引用，普什卡特，1992）
• “写作比任何事情都更像是一种强迫，就像有些人一天洗手三十次，担心不洗手会带来可怕的后果。写作的回报比这种强迫要好得多，但也不比这更英勇。”（朱莉·伯奇尔，《性与感性》，1992）
• “如果日子不虚度，写作是必要的。否则，真的，怎样才能在此刻的蝴蝶身上撒网呢？因为一瞬间过去了，它被遗忘了；心情消失了；生活本身也消失了。这就是作家对同伴的评分；他在跳跃中捕捉到自己思想的变化。”（维塔·萨克维尔西部，十二天，1928年）
• “你很可能需要一本词典、一本初级语法书和对现实的把握。后者意味着：没有免费的午餐。写作是工作，也是赌博。你没有养老金计划。其他人可以帮你一点忙，但基本上是你自己。没有人强迫你这么做：你选择了，所以不要抱怨。”（玛格丽特·阿特伍德），《作家规则》，《卫报》，2010年2月22日）
• “写作的原因是一个我可以很容易回答的问题，因为我经常问自己。我相信写作是因为一个人必须创造一个可以生活的世界。我不能生活在任何一个提供给我的世界里——我父母的世界，战争的世界，政治的世界。我必须创造一个属于我自己的世界，比如一种气候，一个国家，一个atm机我相信，这是每一件艺术作品的理由。我们写作也是为了提高我们对生命的意识。我们写作是为了诱惑、陶醉和安慰他人。我们写作是为了小夜曲。我们写作是为了两次品味生命，一次是为了当下，一次是为了回顾。我们写作是为了成为一个真正的人能够超越我们的生活，超越它。我们写作是为了教会自己与他人交谈，记录进入迷宫的旅程。我们写作是为了在感到被扼杀、受限或孤独时扩展我们的世界。”（Anaïs Nin，《新女性》，支持敏感的男人和其他文章。哈考特·布拉斯·约万诺维奇，1976）

写作轻松的一面

• “写作就像是世界上最古老的职业。首先，你做这件事是为了自己的快乐。然后你做这件事是为了几个朋友。最后，你想，见鬼，我还不如为此得到报酬。”