In discussions of the shift from pre-digital to digital modes of writing, it is not uncommon to hear academics, educators, and writers speak of a move from fixity to fluidity. Heim’s early comments on the technology are still relevant:

“The text processor is transforming the way philosophy, poetry, literature, social science, history, and the classics are done as much as computerized calculation has transformed the physical sciences based on mathematics. The word processor is the calculator of the humanist . . . . It would seem that not only the speed of intellectual work is being affected, but the quality of the work itself . . . Language can be edited, stored, manipulated, and rearranged in ways that make typewriters obsolete. Extensive sources of knowledge can be accessed electronically and incorporated into the planning and drafting of ideas. This new text management system amplifies the craft of writing in novel ways.” (Heim, 1987, pp. 1-2)

Bolter also refers to the fluidity of electronic text, noting that writing on computer encourages authors to think in terms of “verbal units or topics” (2001, p. 29). Ultimately, Heim (1987) inquires, “Does the conversion of twentieth-century culture to a new writing technology portend anything like the revolutionary changes brought about by the invention of the printing press and the widespread development of literacy” (p. 2)? Critical opinion on this issue at the time was, and in certain respects has remained, divided. Some feel the word, or idea, processor augments human thought processes by easing manipulation of language; others conjecture that it represents a threat to literacy and to the mastery of the “predigital word.” In this last regard, asks Heim, might the advent of digital writing erode literature and “the culture based on respectful care for the word” (p. 3)? There has been extensive debate on such issues through the last twenty years, including discussions among instructors of writing respecting whether graphical interfaces might distract student writers through an over-emphasis on the iconic (e.g., Halio, 1990; Slatin, 1990; Youra, 1990; Kaplan & Moulthrop, 1990).

This week we’ll take up the question of how digital technologies for writing might extend and modify our experiences and understandings of writing and textuality.