Five Forms of Text

1. Recipes:
In my opinion, a recipe is definitely a commonly used and most likely overlooked form of text. They're passed down from grandma, they're shared among the internet, after (hopefully) following all of the directions correctly you're presented with something completely new. You've read some words and created something real, which seems to me to prove that a recipe is most definitely an example of an "alive" text, in the truest sense of the word.

2. Text Messages:
Another form of text that presents itself as being very alive is the text message. A shift from email, to instant message, to eventually being able to chat incessantly with our friends from any location, a text conversation is normally lively and a quick way to communicate. Not only are you presented with their thoughts at a rapid rate, you're even able to view that they're "thinking" or responding to what you've contributed with the appearance of little dots that indicate they're typing.

3. Newspapers:
Whether printed or online, newspapers are consumed by many. The news is constantly being shared, talked about, spread around, which makes this form of text very alive. Although the actual event within the story might have ended, it's still very easy to reference, archive, or view the different forms of news articles, which implies many audiences can/will be able to view them.

4. To-Do List:
A functional everyday form of text, we're constantly scribbling little things down before they slip our minds. Just a simple grocery list or a note to your mom telling her where you're going, these little instances of text seem to be alive in the sense that we felt compelled to get the ideas out of our heads and onto paper for some reason. You could probably argue that little lists like this become dead as soon as the task was completed, or item bought.

5. Books:
Finally, the most commonly thought of form of text, a book, is definitely an example of an alive text. You could read the same book as somebody else and get a completely different interpretation. You could revisit an old read and pick up on something you might have previously overlooked. Although the words are sedentary, the meaning you can pull from them is fluid.