FIRST HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy

 

Due electronically by 5 PM, September 17:

 

1) What does it mean to "technologize a word" (from the book's subtitle)?

2) Imagine you are asked to give a tour of MIT to a person in the stage that Ong labels "primary orality". Where would you take them? What aspects of MIT would this individual easily grasp, and what aspects would he or she have difficulty understanding?

3) "More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness." (p. 78) What does Ong mean by this statement? Provide an example of another significant invention that, in your opinion, has transformed human consciousness, and evaluate its impact in relation to that of writing.