Key Competences
History of Writing
To investigate different materials used
to write on: clay, papyrus, parchments,
paper, etc
To discover how ink was made and used
throughout the ages.
To research how technology has
improved the digital means of
communication
To find out how the Mesopotamians and
Egyptians wrote.
To research how writing developed
through ages
To discover which writing instruments
were used in the past
To learn about the importance of scribes
in Ancient Civilizations.
Linguistic competence
Vocabulary related to writing instruments,
Ancient Civilizations…..
Digital ICT competence
Accessing websites for the purpose of
investigation
Using the e-mail to share information.
Making a PowerPoint presentation
Temporal competence
Comprehension of the time-scale of
developing of writing.
Interpersonal and civic competence
Investigating, sharing information and
producing texts together.
Autonomy and personal initiative
Using a website to research more about
aspects of different topics.
Knowledge and interaction with our
world
Discussing and sharing information
using appropriate technology
Comparing…..
Cultural and artistic expression
Drawing or searching for pictures to
illustrate findings
Describing illustrations and discovering
their historical value
Evaluating a historical text or document
Contenido:
Objectives
Key Competences
1
Writing in Mesopotamia 2
Writing in Egypt 3
The invention of paper 4
The invention of Ink 5
Brief history of writing instruments
6
Gutemberg, printing and 7
Linotype and offset 8
Typewriting 9
Computers and Printers 10
Mobile text messeges and email 11
The Phoenician Alphabet 12
How did we learn? 12
How did we evaluate? 12
Crosscurricular Project 2º ESO “A”
Course 2010/11
History of Writing
Pie de imagen o gráfico.
Objectives
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
THE STORY OF A SIGN
The signs changed over many years, and this is
the story of what happened to just one of the
signs:
Around 3100 B.C. people began to record
amounts of different crops.
Barley was one of the most important crops in
southern Mesopotamia and when it was first
drawn it looked like this.
Scribes drew the sign on soft clay tablets using a
pointed tool, probably made out of a reed.
The barley sign changed shape
when the scribes used a writing tool with a
squaredone off end instead of a point.
The end of this tool was used to
press wedge shapes like these into clay
tablets.
CUNEIFORM WRITING
Cuneiform writing was used to record a variety of information
such as temple activities, business and trade. Cuneiform was also
used to write stories, myths, and personal letters.
Writing in Mesopotamia. By Miguel A. Evora, Dylan Medina & Laura Mirabal
Writing in Mesopotamia
Página 2 History of Writing
THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING
Over five thousand years ago, people living in southern
Mesopotamia developed one of the earliest writing systems
in the world. The system was developed so that information
could be recorded. A reed stylus was the main writing tool
used by Mesopotamian scribes.
This writing system began with pictures or signs drawn on
clay tablets. Later the signs developed into a script we call
“cuneiform”
WHAT DID ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WRITE ON?
Hieroglyphs were written on papyrus reed.
Papyrus was a water or marsh plant that grew in an-
cient Egypt. It was cut into strips, pressed together,
pounded, and dried to make sheets which were writ-
ten on. 'Papyri' is the plural form of the word papyrus.
The Egyptians also carved hieroglyphs onto
stone and painted them on the walls of tombs and
temples.
Writing in Egypt
Writing in Egypt
and shorter form of hieroglyphs).
They were the only people in An-
cient Egypt who could read and
wri te the sa cred h i ero-
glyphs.Scribes had two main du-
ties:They kept government re-
cords and wrote letters for the
Pharoe
WHAT IS EGYPTIAN WRITING CALLED?
The ancient Egyptians believed that
it was important to record and communicate
information about religion and government.
Thus, around 3100 BC they invented written
scripts that could be used to record this infor-
mation. Using these scripts, scribes were able
to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of
ancient Egypt on temple and tomb walls and
on papyrus scrolls.
The most famous of all ancient Egyp-
tian scripts is hieroglyphics. However,
throughout three thousand years of ancient
Egyptian civilisation, at least three ot-
her scripts were used for different purposes
This Egyptian writing used small
pictures to represent different ob-
jects, actions, sounds or ideas.
Some pictures stood for whole
words
The individual characters
are called 'hieroglyphs' There were
more than 700 hieroglyphs.
The word hieroglyph is
m a d e f r o m t w o G r e e k
words:Hieros meaning holy;
Glyphe meaning writing.So hiero-
glyph means holy writing.
The Egyptian scribes had
to learn how to read and write hie-
roglyphs and hieratic (a quicker
WHAT DID ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WRITE WITH?
Egyptian writing was done with pen and ink
on fine paper (papyrus)
Egyptian "pens" were
thin, sharp reeds, which they
would dip into ink to write with.
The ink and paint came
from plants which they crushed
and mixed with water.
HOW TO READ HIEROGLYPHCS
This writing was uncovered by the French
Champollion through the Rosetta Stone.
How do you know which way to read Hieroglyphs?
You need to look closely at the hieroglyphs to
discover. It depends on which way the people or ani-
mals are facing. For example, if an animal hieroglyph
faces right, you read from right to left. If it faces left, you
read from left to right (the same way that we do). Just to
confuse you, sometimes they read hieroglyphs from top
to bottom.
Writing in Egypt. By Camila Balsa, Fernando Delgado & Alejandro Santos
Página 3 History of Writing
QUILL PEN AND DIP PEN
The writing instrument that
dominated for the longest period in
history (over one-thousand years) was
the quill pen. Introduced around 700
A.D., the quill is a pen made from a
bird feather. Goose feathers were the
most common; swan feathers were of a
premium grade being scarcer and
more expensive. For making fine lines,
crow feathers were the best, and then
came the feathers of the eagle, owl,
hawk and turkey.
Quill pens were used for
writing with ink. But quill pens had a
problem: they lasted for only a week.
Quill pens went into decline
after the invention of the metal pen. It
was first patented in America in 1810.
The dip pen is a metal nib with capilla-
ry channels mounted on a holder. It has
no ink reservoir.
Brief history of writing instruments
PENCIL AND MECHANICAL PENCIL
In 1795, Nicholas Jacques Conté
discovered a method of mixing powde-
red graphite with clay and forming the
mixture into rods that were then fired in
a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to
clay, the hardness of the graphite rod
could also be varied. This method of
manufacturing, which had been earlier
discovered by the Austrian Joseph
Hardtmuth of Koh-I-Noor in 1790,
remains in use.
The first patent for a refillable
p e n c i l w i t h l e a d - p r o p e l l i n g
mechanism was issued to Sampson
Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins in
Britain in 1822. After buying out Haw-
kins' patent rights, Mordan entered
into a business partnership with Ga-
briel Riddle from 1823 to 1837.
Brief history of writing instruments.
By Leticia Glez, Mª Victoria Hdez & Adrián Vera
Brief history of writing instruments
Página 4 History of Writing
especially from the jointed bamboo
plant. They converted bamboo stems
into a primitive form of fountain pen.
They cut one end into the form of a
pen nib or point. A writing fluid or ink
filled the stem, squeezing the reed
forced fluid to the nib.
STYLUS,BRUSHES AND REED PEN
Styluses were first used by the
ancient Mesopotamians (around 3400
BC) and Egyptians (around 3100 BC).
They made styluses in various
materials: reeds that grew on the sides
of the rivers, bones and metals.
Cuneiform was entirely based
on the "wedge-shaped" mark that the
end of a cut reed made when pushed
into a clay tablet.
The Egyptians developed a
form of writing with pictures. For
writing on papyrus scrolls scribes used
thin reed brushes or reed pens.
GREEK NEEDLE AND ROMAN REED-PEN
The earliest means of writing
using pen and paper was developed by
the Greeks. They employed a writing
stylus, made of metal, bone or ivory, to
place marks upon wax-coated tablets
The Romans (753BC) also used
a metal stylus for writing upon thin
sheets of wax (on wooden tablets). When
they no longer needed the writing, they
rubbed it out with the flat end of the
stylus.
The Romans created a reed-pen
perfect for parchment and ink, from the
hollow tubular-stems of marsh grasses,
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
GLOSSARY
Seeds: Any propagative part of a plant, including tubers,
bulbs, etc.
Resin: It’s a secretion of many plants, of an amber color.
Cartridge: It’s a component of an inkjet printer that con-
tains the ink.
Dye: is a substance which is used to change
the colour of something.
Walnut: It’s a light brown edible nut. It has a
wrinkled shape and a very hard round shell.
The Invention of Ink
History
The ancient Chinese used black ink and
wrote with pens or brushes. It was com-
posed of black carbon and rubber. The
Chinese emperors wrote with purple ink.
Different colours of ink were used accor-
ding to status.
Components
Dye for ink came from metals, plants and
marine animals, such as squid or octopus.
Walnut ink was used by many artists to
get a golden brown colour for their pictu-
res. Other components were added to
make ink more permanent, such as re-
sins.
Ink in printers
Nowadays, in the use of printers, we use
ink cartridges.
Black is always separate and colours
come from mixing together magenta,
yellow or cyan
The Invention of Ink. By Adrián Martín, Gloria Rguez. & Carolina Ibañez
Página 5 History of Writing IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Brief history of writing instruments
FOUNTAIN PEN AND INKWELLS
The first fountain pens appeared in the
1850s. In the 1870s Duncan MacKinnon, and
Alonzo T. Cross created stylographic pens. Sty-
lographic pens are now used mostly for drafting
and technical drawing but were very popular in
the decade beginning in 1875.
Inkwells began in the 1880s, with the
invention of the first practical fountain pen by
Lewis Waterman. With its own supply of ink, the
flow of the ink was emitted in a regular, contro-
llable stream.
BALLPOINT PEN
In 1938, László Bíró, a Hungarian
newspaper editor, with the help of
his brother George, a chemist, began
to work on designing new types of
pens including one with a tiny ball in
its tip that was free to turn in a socket.
As the pen moved along the paper,
the ball rotated, picking up ink from
the ink cartridge and leaving it on the
paper.
The first real advance in papermaking came with
the development of a smooth material for the mold cove-
ring, which allowed the reuse of the mold immediately…
From China, papermaking moved to Korea, whe-
re production of paper began as early as the 6th century
AD.
Taught by Chinese papermakers, Tibetans began
to make their own paper as a replacement for their tradi-
tional writing materials.
The Invention of Paper
The shape of Tibetan paper books still reflects
the long, narrow format of the original palm-leaf books.
By the 10th century, Arabians were substituting linen
fibers for wood and bamboo, creating a finer sheet of pa-
per. Although paper was of fairly high quality now, the
only way to reproduce written work was by hand, a
difficult process.
The Invention of Paper. By Claudia Pérez, Álvaro Berrocal & Aurora Bethencourt
The Invention of Paper
Página 6 History of Writing
For centuries, people tried to discover better
surfaces on which to record their thoughts. Wood, stone,
ceramics, cloth, bark, metal, silk, bamboo, and tree leaves
were all used as a writing surface at one time or another.
Paper was created by the Chinese about two
thousand years ago (200 BC).
The next development in writing material was with
the ancient Egyptians. It is from them that the word paper is
derived. Paper comes from the Egyptian word "papyrus".
The first paper made by the Chinese was made of
hemp that had been soaked in water and beaten into a
pulp. Papermaking didn't reach Europe for another thou-
sand years.
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
All this has brought about changes that affect the book,for example ,the
conventional composition is now so expensive that only justifies very
large.spins, but there is a wide variety of cheaper printing met-
hods,such as photocopy and electronic duplication.
The evolution of printing from the simple method of buffer to the proc-
ces of printing press seems to be produced independently at different
times and in different parts of the world..
Gutenberg, Printing and Typography
Gutenberg, Printing and Typography
The printer is an industrtial method of
reproduction of texts and images on a
paper or similar material,which con-
sists of applying ink,usually oil on me-
tal spikes,called types,to be transfe-
rred to paper by pressure.
New media appeared in a time of chan-
ge and accelerated speed communica-
tions more and were a response to in-
creased demand for information and
entertainment.
However,the modern printing press
was not established until approximate-
ly the year 1400,by the hands of Johan-
nes Gutenberg.In Europe,many people
claimed to be part of this art,although
opinions suggest that it was the Ger-
man Johannes Gutenberg, who had the
initiative to join a team of prin-
ters,which supports him as the inventor
of the typography.
POURING HOT METAL.
A ladle was used to pour the molten
metal, a mixture of tin,lead, and anti-
mony into the mould to form a piece of
type.
TYPE MOULD
The matrix was placed in the bottom of
a mould like this.The mould was then
closed and the molten metal was pou-
red into a trough at the top. The sides
were opened to release the type.
HELD TIGHT.
When the type was complete it was
placed in a metal frame called a chase.
The type is locked in a place with pie-
ces of wood or metal to make a fra-
me.The frame is then placed in the
printing press,inked,and printed.
Gutenberg, Printing and Typography By Daniel Déniz, Rubén Polo & Patricia Sánchez
Página 7 History of Writing IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The Linotype is a machine invented by
Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886 which
mechanized the process of writing to
be printed.
The machine revolutionized typeset-
ting and with it especially newspaper
publishing. Before this invention, no
newspaper in the world had more than
eight pages.
composition than original hand compo-
sition in which operators place down
one pre-cast metal letter, punctuation
mark or space at a time.
The Linotype ma-
chine operator enters text on a 90-
character keyboard. The machine as-
sembles matrices, which are molds for
the letter forms, in a line. The assem-
bled line is then cast as a single piece,
called a slug, of type metal in a process
known as "hot metal" typesetting. The
matrices are then returned to the type
magazine from which they came. This
allows much faster typesetting and
Offset
the ideal procedure of the commercial
printer.
Offset lithography is one of the most
common ways of creating print. A few
of its common applications include:
newspapers, magazines and books..
Many modern offset presses use com-
puter to plate systems as opposed to
the older computer to film, which in-
creases their quality.
Offset Lithography a printed variant
was discovered around 1904 by Ira W.
Rubel, a printer of New Jersey (United
States).
Rubel discovered, accidentally, that
printing the image onto a surface of
rubber reproduced on paper much
better than that produced by the iron
directly. The reason for this improve-
ment is that the rubber is softer and fits
better than the iron.
Working with this idea , it could start
Linotype and Offset By Alberto Abreu, Claudia Santamaría & Eva Basterrechea
Página 8 History of Writing
Fist Printing Machines
When we speak of printing, we refer to
the monotype system. It is said that
Gutenberg invented the printing press
using movable type, as does the mono-
type.
The linotype and monotype machines
that have been created to facilitate the
composition of the type in the typo-
graphic workshops.. Although the mo-
notype was more innovative than the
linotype, the latter was the one that
lasted for a long time, but today has
been replaced by the computer, which
does the job in much less time.
The Linotype is a machine invented by
Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886 which
mechanized the process of writing to
be printed.
The machine revolutionized typeset-
ting and with it especially newspaper
publishing. Before this invention, no
newspaper in the world had more than
eight pages.
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
printing on paper of inferior quality
and cheaper than was traditionally
used. Then, offset lithography became
History
Some inventors have contributed to this
machine.
Henry Mills obtai-
ned a patent for a
machine that, from
the patent, appears
to have been similar
to a typewriter in
1714.
The first typewriter to be commercially success-
ful was invented in 1867 by C. Latham Sholes,
Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in Milwau-
kee.
Typewriting in Popular Culture
Typewriting. History
complished with typewriters in the
western world. Typewriters, however,
remain in use in various areas of the
world.
Introduction.
History.
Typewriting in popular culture.
In music.
In film.
In television.
In videogames.
Introduction
A typewriter is a mechanical or electro-
mechanical device with keys that,
when pressed, causes ink to be printed
on a medium, usually paper.
From their invention before 1870
through much of the 20th century, ty-
pewriters were indispensable tools for
many professional writers and in busi-
ness offices.
Women started to work out of their
houses as typists.
By the end of the 1980s, word proces-
sors and personal computers had lar-
gely replaced the tasks previously ac-
using a typewriter to type her murder
mystery novels.
In music
Some compo-
sers incorpora-
ted typewriters
into their music.
They have used
the typewriter as
a percsusion
instrument
In Film
Some actors and actresses are shown
using manual typewriters
In TV
Typewriters have been used many
times. For example, in the popular
television show Murder, She Wrote,
Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela
Lansbury is seen in the opening cre-
dits and in a few scenes throughout
several episodes in different seasons
Typewriting. An Introduction By Laura Germán, Laura Martínez & Alicia Martín
Página 9 History of Writing IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Henry Mills Samuel W. Soule Carles Glidden Lathan Sholes
Dot Matrix Printer
A dot matrix printer or impact
matrix printer is a type of computer
printer with a print head that runs back
and forth, or in an up and down motion,
on the page and prints by impact,
striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon
against the paper, much like the print
mechanism on a typewriter.
Each dot is produced by a tiny
metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin",
which is driven forward by the power
of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid,
either directly or through small levers
(pawls). Facing the ribbon and the
paper there is a small guide plate
pierced with holes to serve as guides.
for the pins.
Injet Printer
An inkjet printer is a type of
computer printer that creates a digital
image by propelling variable-sized
droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet
printers are the most commonly used
type of printer and range from small
inexpensive consumer models to very
large profess ional machines.
�Features: the main characteristics of
an inkjet printer are speed, measured
in pages per minute (ppm), and the
maximum resolution, measured in dots
per inch (dpi). In both setting, the
higher the better.
Computers and Printers By Alicia Gargía, Alba García & Ana Heredia
Computers and Printers
Página 10 History of Writing
A c o m p u t e r i s a
programmable machine that receives
input, stores and manipulates data, and
provides output in a useful format.�A
computer is a group of integrated
circuits and other related components
that can execute with accuracy, speed
and as indicated by the user or
automatically by another program, a
variety of sequences of instructions.
The computer, in addition to a
software, needs some specific data
(called Input) that must be supplied
and are required at execution time to
provide the end-product of data
processing (called „Output‟). Then, the
information can be used, reinterpreted,
copied, transferred or retransmitted to
other people, computers or electronic
components. It has some peripherals
and auxiliary devices such as: screen,
keyboard, mouse, scanner, speakers
and secondary storage. Originally,
they were the size of a large room,
consuming as much power as several
hundred modern personal computers.
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Laser Printer
A laser printer is a common
type of computer printer that rapidly
produces high quality text and
graphics on plain paper, in black as
well as colours. The printing device
consists of a photoconductive drum
rotating device attached to a toner,
and a laser beam that is modulated and
projected through a mirror disk to the
photoconductor drum. The disc
rotation causes a sweep of the beam on
the generatrix of the drum. The areas
of the drum on the incident beam are
ionized and, when these areas pass
through the toner reservoir, they
attract the ionized powder in the toner.
Then, the drum contact the
paper, impregnating powder in the
corresponding areas. Finally, the ink is
fixed to the paper by double action of
heat and pressure. For monochrome
laser printing is used one toner. For
colour laser printing, are needed four
toner.
adding the vowels (e.g. keyboard
becomes kybrd).
SMS language or Textese ,also known
as txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto,
txtk, texting language, txt lingo, or txt
talk, is a term for the abbreviations and
slang most commonly used due to the
necessary brevity of mobile phone text
messaging, in particular the widespread
SMS (Short Message Service)
communication protocol. SMS language
is also common on the Internet, including
in email and instant messaging. It can be
likened to a rebus, using pictures
and single letters or numbers to
represent whole words (e.g. "i <3
u" which uses the pictogram of a
heart for love, and the letter u re-
places you).
For words that have no common
abbreviation, users most commonly
remove the vowels from a word,
and the reader is required to inter-
pret a string of consonants by re-
Mobile Text Messages and e-mails
Mobile Text Messages and e-mails
A mobile phone is an electronic device
used for two-way radio telecommunication
over a cellular network of base stations
known as cell sites.
Mobile phones differ from cordless
telephones, which only offer telephone
service within limited range through a
single base station attached to a fixed land
line, for example within a home or an
office.
The history of mobile phones begins
with early efforts to develop mobile
telephony concepts using two-way radios
and continues through emergence of
modern mobile phones and associated
services
control information, including,
minimally, an originator's email ad-
dress and one or more recipient ad-
dresses. Usually descriptive informa-
tion is also added, such as a subject
header field and a message submission
date/time stamp.
Electronic mail, commonly called
email or e-mail, is a method of exchan-
ging digital messages from an author to
one or more recipients. Modern email
operates across the Internet or other
computer networks. Some early email
systems required that the author and
the recipient both be online at the sa-
me time, a la instant messaging.
Today's email systems are based on
a store-and-forward model. Email
servers accept, forward, deliver and
store messages. Neither the users nor
their computers are required to be
online simultaneously; they need con-
nect only briefly, typically to an email
server, for as long as it takes to send or
receive messages.
An email message consists of three
components, the message envelope,
the message header, and the message
body. The message header contains
Mobile Text Messages and e-mails By Sara Yurda, Alfredo Rguez & Sergio Santos
Página 11 History of Writing IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The students were divided into
two groups. One group studied the
History section and the other the
technologic section. Then they were
divided in groups of three and assigned
specific topics in order to make the
project.
Visit to the Natural History
Museum to take part in a workshop about
the first techniques of writing.
The students researched
information on the Internet in order to
prepare the specific topics.
Each group handed in the work
for revision by the teachers involved.
Each group made a power point
presentation of the chosen topic, which
was sent by email to the teachers for revision.
Each group explained his topic to the rest of the class using the power
point presentation.
How did we learn?
The Phoenicians contributed to our modern system of writing: the phonetic alphabet. It was invented by the
Phoenicians around 1200 BC. Phoenicia was an ancient civilization on the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, Syria,
and northern Israel. It was a trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean Sea during the period from 1550 BC to
300 BC. They traded with people over great distances from the Middle East to Europe and Africa.
They invented a phonetic alphabet with twenty-two consonants, using symbols to represent these sounds. The
Phoenician script used 22 consonants, but no vowels. The reader was assumed to speak the language, so they would know
what sound to put between the consonants. This new method was simpler and easier and was soon used by many people.
The alphabet used by the Hebrews, Greeks, Italics, Iberians,
Germans, Indians and Arabs are based on the Phoenician alphabet. Later (circa
800 BC), the Greeks adopted this Phoenician alphabet and added vowels to it.
The Etruscans adopted and modified the Greek alphabet and passed it along to
Rome. The Romans made their own refinements to it, and this led to the
alphabet we use today.
This was the origin of our alphabet. The word itself comes from the
Greek letters alpha and beta.
Students of 2º A ( ESO) CLIL Group)
Andrea Cedrés (Assistant)
Ana Oñate (CLIL Coord)
Marisa Ucar ( Teacher of History)
Javier Pérez (Teacher of Science)
IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
How did we evaluate?
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
1. Showing ability to find specific
information in texts
2. Showing comprehension of the different
peoples involved in…..
3. Showing comprehension of the social ….
4. Showing comprehension of texts about
history in oral or written form
The Phoenician Alphabet By Mrs Marisa Ucar,
Página 12 History of Writing IES Chapatal CLIL 2º ESO
Santa Cruz de Tenerife