Is it possible....

[floss85]

Me and a colleague are having a debate - can someone clarify who is right - Is it possible for someone to be able to WRITE but not be able to READ? Whether is is from it is from childhood or after a trauma.

Thanks

 

x

[hannahjo]

Surely you'd have to be able to read, to know what you write is right. Right?

[cliffsdoll]

 

  right

[floss85]

right?

[Slinkye]

My mum can WRITE (by copying) but can not READ the english language. But when you say WRITE I guess you are meaning writing comprehensively. Although, I think you can READ and not be able to WRITE (as in spelling) correctly.

[flump1]

Hi floss85  I agree with slinkye.  My Dad could read the newspaper, yet he could not write a letter to save his life !

[puttycake1]

The answer is surely that everyone has to be able to recognise letters in order to read, but that doesn't mean they can compose those same letters into words and sentences, so it is possible to read, but not write.

[floss85]

But...is it possible to WRITE but not READ?

[Loosehead]

Depends what you accept as writing, I mean an illiterate person can copy something out but they could'nt write it from a dictation. I would say no as writing means you are constructing something in words, something that has an intended meaning.  I mean I can copy out chinese but I can read or write it so writing does not mean copying verbatim it means comminication a message in the "writing" of the language concerned.

[Rach4018]

you can write the letter, like you can write symbols but you don't have to know what they mean. A small child can copy letters and write words without being able to read or know what they are.

to be able to write sentances then you must know how to read to know what you are writing makes sense.

[kazza12345]

I am a nurse, currently looking after a man with a brain tumour   ....  he can write things down that are perfectly intelligable to everyone, make sence and are pertinent to time and place.  However when he sees words on a page he cannot read them, or get them to make any sense to him.  So the answer is yes

[jake-the-peg]

Found this on it:

Sections of the brain's left hemisphere are essentia to aspects of communication. The structure known as the left angular gyrus contains the memories of how words are spelled, while the supramarginal gyrus converts speech sounds into letters (Heilman 2002, p. 49). Damage to these systems, both of which are within the parietal lobe, can result in inability to read or write, respectively known as alexia and agraphia. (Bizarrely, some people with specific types of damage to these regions can write but not read.)

 The reference is from Heilman, Kenneth. Matter of Mind: A Neurologist's View of Brain-Behavior Relationships. Oxford University Press, 2002.

 

Did you win?

[floss85]

Thanks a lot Jake-the-peg!!! I won!!! Yay!

[sheep_dude]

Of course you could, try and write with your eyes closed, it will be a bit scruffy but legible. A blind person could write as long as they weren't blind since birth. But i suppose their handwriting would deteriorate as they cant see it