Writing and Thinking Are Culture-Specific Phenomena

When it comes to culture, we have to look at its definition. Culture is the social behavior and norms found in human societies, which is considered as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human society.

There is no doubt that culture has many phenomena, among which writing and thinking are the specific ones. That’s because when we mention culture, we will think about poems, novels, architectures, many places of interest and so on. All of them are based on writing and thinking, especially critical thinking.

Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion with signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language, but a tool used to make languages be read. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar, and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols. The result of writing is called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence, record keeping and diary. Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, maintaining culture, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems. At the same time, thinking is so important that we can’t highlight it any more. Thinking encompasses a goal oriented flow of ideas and associations that leads to a reality-oriented conclusion. Thinking is an activity of an existential value for humans, because thinking underlies many human actions and interactions. Thinking allows humans to make sense of, interpret, represent or model the world they experience, and to make predictions about that world. It is therefore a specific aspect of human culture.

To sum up, culture is a broad concept which includes nearly everything we can see, feel, touch, and experience. What’s more, only by thinking and writing can we know about culture. That is to say, writing and thinking are culture-specific phenomena.

文章以“阅读、写作、文化”为话题展开论述。开篇指出文化的内涵，为后文做铺垫。第二段阐明读与写是 特有的文化现象。第三段分明具体说明读与写是如何与文化相连的。结尾总结全文，深化主题。