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Prewriting Organizing Your Details
After you’ve chosen a topic and done a little research, you will want to make a list or a graphic organizer that covers each step in the process. Here’s what a list and a time line might look like for how the alphabet developed:
Numbered List
1. Egyptians used hieroglyphics, a picture language.
2. Hieroglyphics became hieratic and demotic writing.
3. Mesopotamians used cuneiform on clay.
4. These alphabets led to Phoenician.
5. Phoenician inspired Greek and Roman alphabets.
6. Latin letters replaced runes in Old English.
Time Line
3000 B.C. Hieroglyphics in Egypt; cuneiform in Mesopotamia
1800 B.C. Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions in Canaan
1000 B.C. Phoenician alphabet
900 B.C. Greek alphabet from Phoenician; first vowels
700 B.C. Latin alphabet from Greek and Egyptian