Using a Clay Tablet

  1. When I attempted to write on a clay tablet, I had to not only think about what I wanted to write, but I also had to consider how I was going to have something legible appear on the clay. Whenever I have to type anything on the computer, I only need to worry about what I want to communicate and not how the computer is making the letters appear on the screen.
  2. If the technology I have to use for writing is something that I’m familiar with, then the writing process itself is fairly simple, and I can write just about anything I feel like. When I have to use technology I never use (like a block of clay and a stick), I become less concerned with the content of my writing and will focus all of my energy towards producing any writing at all.
  3. If the writing itself is very simple in appearance, like if you had to write a series of vertical lines, you could just apply a stick to the clay. But, if you want to write out words onto the clay, you might want to consider all of the different ways you could use that stick and which technique could be the best for getting the job done. You might even decide that the stick isn’t good enough and you have to upgrade like you would with a modern computer.
  4. If the technology isn’t used well, it can be difficult to read any text that is created. I have no idea how people from ancient civilizations were able to survive using clay tablets. What I first wrote on the tablet wasn’t legible enough. I had to go back over each letter, pressing and scraping, until I was confident that other people could actually read it.