Dennis Baron implements many sources in creating his piece From Pencils to Pixels.  Dennis Baron spent many hours researching the creation of modern literacy to compile the sources needed to create a piece that was very well supported.  Each of the sources Dennis Baron used allowed him to become more and more specific when relating his sources to his claim in "From Pixels to Pencils".  Because Baron was able to get more and more specific, his claim was able to become more and more developed.  One of the sources he uses to strengthen his claim is the The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, written by David Crystal. 

The first task that had to be completed when analyzing the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, was finding the focus of Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.  This was a very daunting task first of all because an encyclopedia usually contains information about many topics that often have nothing to do with each other and also when the reader opens the table of contents to the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, the table of contents practically includes a 'disclaimer'.  This 'disclaimer' reads, "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language is organized into eleven parts, comprising of 65 thematic sections.  Each section is a self-contained presentation of a major theme in language study, with cross-references included to related sections and topics.”  A sentence that reads six lines long can be a little bit overwhelming. While scanning through all of the sixty-five thematic sections, I came to the conclusion Dennis Baron picked a source that ran parallel with his claim. 

Baron uses Crystal in only one section of his piece "From Pixels to Pencils". Baron uses Crystal to explain how language and writing changed throughout the centuries especially in regards to technology.   The section from Crystal's, Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, which Baron uses in his article, "From Pencils to Pixels" contains a picture of early Sumerian inscriptions.   The Sumerian inscriptions found the Crystal's, Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language date back to around 3000 B.C. I believe Dennis Baron included Crystal's sources because Crystal’s sources qualify Baron's claim. Baron used the picture to explain his assumptions of the true beginning of language. “For example, on tablets from the city state of Uruk, about 1,500 symbols have been listed, most of them abstract in character”(196).  The language of the Sumerians is thought to have over 1,500 characters.  The thought of having over 1,500 symbols is mind-boggling.  How did they keep it all straight?  Some people in the United States have issues keeping the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet straight.   

The book that Crystal uses to develop his personal claim about the history of writing is a book by Diringer called The Alphabet. The book, The Alphabet further shows the complexity of the language that was created thousands of years ago.    

Each of theses sources lend a helping hand in the formation of Baron’s claim.  Baron talks about how we cannot say that writing was just created for language.  Baron says, “he development of writing itself illustrates the stages of technological spread. We normally assume that writing was invented to transcribe speech, but that is not completely correct. The earliest Sumerian inscriptions, dating from ca. 3500 BCE, record not conversations, incantations, or other sorts of oral utterances, but land sales, business transactions, and tax accounts.”  Baron also goes on to give examples about how the writing was more than an art form.  The Sumerians were doing “developing a system of accounting.”  This system of accounting has been thought to have been used since the 9th millennium B.C.(Crystal 196).  Both the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and The Alphabet both see how early writing developed.  They show how it developed into usage in all aspects of life.  Baron’s claims are reflected through all of the writings of Crystal but also Diringer.   

Dennis Baron effectively uses sources to develop his point of view regarding the creation of writing.  Dennis Baron uses The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language to develop his view.  Had he looked into it more, he would have found another source that fit in perfectly with his claim.  This is because Diringer’s book, The Alphabet, further develops the claim Dennis Baron had created in his article, From Pixels to Pencils.  

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