Ok so here is the topic I am interested in but I need you guys' help with a compelling thesis. I'm having trouble because the two events do seem to be correlated and I want to argue for causation but at best any evidence is circumstantial and the arguments rather circular.
How can I improve this statement?
The increase of literacy during the Renaissance made greater standardization of written language necessary to preserve meaning and understanding.
I don't know much, but that thesis is exactly opposite of what I would have expected. Wouldn't greater standardization of spelling help literacy? Or maybe greater literacy actually made it less standard because everyone could spell however they wanted. Have you found some information on the topic?
ReplyDeleteSome. What I was thinking was it is kind of like getting letters from family members, when there are only a few of you and you all know eachother it is super easy to tell what someone meant even when it is misspelled or in bad grammer. But when I am grading papers from people I don't know and there are major misspellings or grammer problems I can't figure out what they mean. If you want people to beable to understand eachother there needs to be consistency, otherwise the guessing will make communication impossible.
ReplyDeleteI like it. It is an interesting perspective to have on spelling. I'm planning to write about how spelling has affected knowledge itself in how people gain skills and share that knowledge with others. I'm thinking about doing it over a span of history starting from Pre-Renaissance through to modern day, although I'm worried that I'll be too heavy in modern day so I'm considering shifting focus to Pre-Renaissance to Renaissance.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming you will be solely focused on literacy during the Renaissance?
I wanted to focus on it during the Renaissance but have had trouble finding sources that old that specifically mention spelling and standardization. It seems like it was a much bigger deal in the 1700s.
ReplyDeleteI do think trimming down your time frame would be worth while you only have a max of 4 pages and all of recorded writing could be a bit tight.
Ok, final thesis until tomorrow:
ReplyDeleteThe sudden increase in literacy necessitated standardization of orthography for ease of learning and consistency of understanding.