Kessler, Brett and Rebecca Treiman. 2015. Writing systems: Their properties and implications for reading. In The Oxford handbook of reading, ed. by Alexander Pollatsek and Rebecca Treiman. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199324576.013.1

Abstract

An understanding of the nature of writing is an important foundation for studies of how people read and how they learn to read. This chapter discusses the characteristics of modern writing systems with a view toward providing that foundation. We consider both the appearance of writing systems and how they function. All writing represents the words of a language according to a set of rules. However, important properties of a language often go unrepresented in writing. Change and variation in the spoken language result in complex links to speech. Redundancies in language and writing mean that readers can often get by without taking in all of the visual information. These redundancies also mean that readers must often supplement the visual information that they do take in with knowledge about the language and about the world.

Paper

• Unofficial manuscript, PDF format.
• The final, definitive version is available at Oxford Handbooks Online, or via the DOI.

APA citation:

Kessler, B., & Treiman, R. (2015). Writing systems: Their properties and implications for reading. In A. Pollatsek and R. Treiman (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of reading. New York: Oxford University Press. Advance online publication. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199324576.013.1