Blackiston 1

Gillian Blackiston
Writing for the Professions
Dr. Martin
February 16, 2016
The Changing of the Quill Pen
At the start of the world people communicated via talking to one another. Eventually
people found ways to communicate with each other by putting the ideas down on something.
This could include paintings, scratches, numbers, letters on a number of different surfaces. The
history of the written language is fascinating to look at to see how the instruments used for
writing affect the people using them and how they communicate with one another. One such
writing instrument that is no longer widely used now is the quill pen. The quill pen is a writing
instrument that has an interesting history, different uses towards communication and its own
rhetorical action.
The history of the quill pen is short despite the period of time in which the quill pen was
used by people. There is not a whole lot to say in particular about how the quill pen came to be.
Before the quill pen was invented there were already writing instruments in place for the people
to write with. For example, one type of instrument was a metal or bone stylus. (History of
writing implements) One thing that aided the invention of the quill was the ink in which this
apparatus uses to write on paper. According to this website, The invention of inks paralleled the
introduction of paper (Bellis). This sentence shows that ink has been around almost as long as
paper has been. Since ink has been around, the people had to create ways in order to use the ink
to write their documents. Quills are often thought of as a pair with an inkwell. In most cases,

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people will see a quill pen and an inkwell sitting near each other on the writers table. Quills
might not have been invented if ink did not exist before hand in the written world.
The quill pen was created by taking a feather from a bird and was first introduced around
700 AD. The feathers used for quills were Obviously, feather pens were made from bird
feathers, but more specifically, they were made from goose, swan, crow, eagle, owl, hawk, and
turkey feathers. The strongest quills were those taken from living birds in the springtime from
the five outer left wing feathers (A History of the Feather Pen). Of course the people that
actually make the quill pens have to get birds in order to pluck the feathers off them or pick them
up off the ground. It takes a lot of work to prepare a quill pen. First, the end of the feather that
came out of the bird is slightly heated to help make it more durable for writing. The tip is then
ready to be cut. In this process the person makes sure the shaft is hollow to allow the ink to move
throughout the feather. It takes time to thoroughly make the precisions at the end of the feather
(Tillotson, Diane, Dr.). After its long run as being the primary writing instrument, the quill pen
was replaced with the early form of the ball point pen. After the basic ball point pen came readily
available nobody wanted to take the time to keep up with the quill pen and its care that it
required. In most cases the quill pen would only last about a week before it had to be replaced.
Overall, there was not any major changes to the quill in its construction or looks over the course
of its lifetime. The only things that would primarily change in the quill pen would be the type of
feather used and how the tip was shaped. However, one thing that has changed is how the quill
is used in communication and the assistance with aiding communication.
Nowadays the quill is no longer used very much to write out things on paper. When
people have to write things out by hand now, they like to use a pen or pencil. However, there are
certain people that do still write with quill pens. Usually these people are professional

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calligraphers. The women of the day and age of the quill pen used it to write letters and
invitations to other friends and relatives. Since women did not have a lot to do during the day
besides sitting around the house, they often wrote letters to let their friends know what was going
on. Also, if someone was having a party or wanted to invite people over for a meal, they would
often write a letter with a quill pen to send off in the post. According to this website, During the
Regency era, writing letters, reading them, and sharing the news they contained was an essential
part of social life, one largely slated for the women of the household (Grace). This passage
shows one way that the quill pen was used by the users of the time period. This use of letter
writing can be seen by a lot of the female characters in Jane Austens novels. Another actual
usage of the quill pen was to write and sign many historical documents like the Declaration of
Independence and the Magna Carta. For example, there were several copies of the Magna Carta
written: Salisburys Magna Carta has often been described as the best preserved of the most
beautifully written of the surviving four 1215 Magna Carta. It is written on sheepskin parchment
using a quill pen (made of a swan or goose feather) and ink made from oak galls and iron salts
(Magna Carta). This passage shows what kind of materials were used to write the Magna
Carta. These materials such as the pen could be a contributing factor in the overall restoration of
the document. Overall the two main uses of the quill pen were to correspond with others and to
write important legal documents.
Another way that the quill pen is an important writing instrument is that it assists the users
with communication of the time period. As stated above many people communicate through
writing letters to each other. If the quill pen did not exist it would be a little harder for people to
write letters to each other, but it could still be done. The quill pen assists them by giving them a
means to easily put their words and thoughts down on paper to easily send off. The users of the

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quill pen have an easy way to get their words and thoughts down on paper. The pen is assisting
with communication with allowing for a faster way to get things done. However, it is a little time
consuming to always write a letter and wait for the ink to dry. Nowadays, the quill pen would not
be that great with assisting communication among people. Today we have computers in which
we can easily shoot off an email or a phone to send a text without having to write it out on paper.
With a quill pen, a user would need the assistance of ink and paper in order to be able to use the
quill pen. If a user did not have these things with the quill pen, communication would be a little
bit harder to come by.
However, a quill pen is shown being used today in a modern day book series. A particular
quill in this series assists communication by letting the professors know which students have
been selected to attend the school. This quill is called the Quill of Acceptance. The quill detects
when a child bears magic ability and attempts to write down the name of child in a book
(Rowling). The quill of acceptance is assisting the schools communication by letting the school
know who the potential students are. If the quill did not do the job of writing the names of
students down, the school would have a lot more work to do in order to figure out who to invite
to their school. Overall, the quill pen can be used in assisting communication between various
people. Another way that the series demonstrates the quill assisting communication everyday is
by having it be the primary writing instrument in books. In the very first book, when the students
are sent their invitation to attend the school, they receive a list of supplies that are required. One
item on that list is quill pens. Having quill pens listed under supplies means that the students will
be doing all their writings, homeworks, and tests with this writing apparatus.
The final thing that we must consider is how the quill pen is an actual rhetorical action on
its own. Rhetoric is the means of persuasion and is often found in pretty much everything in the

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world. The quill pen is persuading in its own way because it makes itself appealing to the user to
use. At the time that the quill was the most used writing instrument, people could have found a
better way to write instead they used the quill for a long time. Also, a quill pen usually takes only
one hand to use, which enables the other hand to do something else. In the book Baroque Visual
Rhetoric the author writes, Then there is the angel proffering a pot of ink for Johns quill pen,
leaving the saints left hand free for rhetorical exclamation (Minor). Rhetoric also has to deal
with the ethos and logos of the user. Ethos and logos deals with the emotional and logical part of
the person and the way that we think. According to Laura Micciche That is to say, emotion is
part of the grounds of ethical and rhetorical action, a claim that insists that action requires more
than reason and rational deliberation (169). This short passage shows how writing anything out
on paper requires some form of thought. The users of the quill pen would have to be very careful
about what they are writing before they even write it. They have to be sure that what they are
writing is going to be well addressed if on the off chance that it is read aloud to more than the
intended audience. For people using quills to write letters, they do not any easy way to fix their
mistakes unlike we do now with pens and pencils. If someone makes a mistake with a quill pen
and ink, there is no going back and erasing it. One of the ways to fix the mistake is to grab a new
piece of paper and start writing the whole thing over again. This is very similar to if someone
was typing on a typewriter.
In conclusion, the writing quill pen has a unique history, users use the quill in order to
communicate and the pen has its own rhetorical action. The quill pen is often thought of being
the primary tool to write with during the Victorian era of the world. The feathered quill expanded
more than just that particular time period. Quills are just another way that writers could put their

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thoughts and words down on whatever surface they could. Feathered quills should be brought
back as another writing instrument.

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Works Cited
"A History of the Feather Pen (a.k.a. the Quill)." Figments Studio. N.p., 06 July 2015. Web. 13
Feb. 2016.
Bellis, Mary. "A Brief History of Writing Instruments." About.com Inventors. About.com, 17
June 2015. Web. 13 Feb. 2016
Grace, Maria. "Regency Letter Writing." Random Bits of Fascination. N.p., 07 Oct. 2014. Web.
14 Feb. 2016.
"History of Writing Implements." History of Writing Instruments. Grandee Corporation, 2007.
Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
"Magna Carta: History, Scribes, Calligraphy." Manuscript. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 14 Feb.
2016.
Micciche, Laura. "Emotions, Ethics, and Rhetorical Action." Emotion, Ethics, and Rhetorical
Action (2005): 168. JAC Online. JAC, 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque Visual Rhetoric. Toronto: U of Toronto, 2016. N. pag. Google
Books. Google, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
Rowling, J. K. "The Quill of Acceptance and The Book of Admittance." Pottermore. Pottermore,
n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Tillotson, Dianne, Dr. "The Quill Pen." The Quill Pen. Medeval Writing, 11 July 2011. Web. 13
Feb. 2016.