ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to describe the various changes in writing instruction that have occurred over time. It discovers whether the instructional methods differed as much as their environments did. The book deals with a multitude of specifically US responses to the challenges of providing writing instruction for the citizens of a democracy; these responses are predicated on the deeply ingrained presumption that writing leads to power. In all the periods covered in these studies, the ability to communicate well was a source of public power. Writing is both a mental and a physical human activity, setting out thought in concrete visible images on some sort of surface. The earliest widely used writing surface was woven from the papyrus plant and manufactured on long sheets, which were then rolled up for storage after the writing was inscribed on one side.
