Computer Mediated Writing
New Writing Space
Computer Mediated Writing
Writing technologies are invented and designed to facilitate the process of communication. Writing requires material space or medium for effectual communication. For electronic writing that can be counted as computer based technology, the writing space encompass both the computer screen, where the text is displayed, and the electronic memory, in which the text is stored (Bolter, 2001). It refashions the writing space of the printed book and the manuscript.
Act of creating text seems easier instead it involves layers (hardware placement & software) and thoughtful procedures of complex writing technology that has specifically designed for creating electronic writing space. Whole new writing space is based on conceptual frame work designed by integrating four classes or themes (Engelbart ,1962) that are given below
- Artifacts
- Language
- Methodology
- Training
Each theme is projected by considering human cognitive and physical actions and sub actions that are essentials to exteriorize thoughts for text composition in order to provide comfort and to pursue augmentation (Engelbart, 1962) in human intellectual effectiveness. “The aspects of the conceptual framework that are discussed here are primarily those relating to the human being’s ability to make significant use of such equipment in an integrated system (Engelbart, 1962).
The electronic machine, called computer, provides writing space with complete range of tools required to resolve deficiencies and to increase the level of effectiveness (Engelbart, 1962). Such tools embed into word processor to facilitate writing, drawing objects, design & redesign plans and restructure existing files. Since “the act of writing could itself release a flood of thoughts—one idea suggesting another and another, as the writer struggled to get them down in some form before they slipped from his conscious grasp” (Bolter, 2001) the new writing space, Word processors facilitate act of writing by giving tools to edit, insert and dictionary (vocabulary) to inscribe (flood of) thoughts. Later, writer can flesh out their main thoughts into a master piece of writing. In fact, the new writing machine would permit you to use a new process of composing text” (Engelbart, 1962) and flexibility.
The new writing space has not only remediated the limitation of traditional print media but it has been revolutionizing and redefining itself. As Bolter have articulated that the writing space, word processor in 1980 has transformed into an image processor which can employ images, graphics and videos (2001).
The writing space includes features of ancient writing spaces. As bolter said that “electronic writing by contrast is inclusive and for that reason resonates with and reminds us of the earliest forms of writing. Electronic writing seems in some ways to be more like hieroglyphics than it is like pure alphabetic writing”. Furthermore he added that “the computer can serve as a copier, a note pad, a calendar, or a teletype machine. In fact, it is hard to think of a marginal technology in the history of writing that the computer cannot reproduce, just as it is hard to think of a dominant technology whose elements the computer does not borrow and reinterpret. Electronic writing may therefore participate in the restructuring of our whole economy of writing (Bolter, 2001)”.
Electronic writing, computer mediated writing, has greatly impacted the written communication. Warschauer (2007) writes in his article on the influence of computer mediated writing that “the purposes of writing, the genres of written communication, and the nature of audience and author are all changing rapidly with the diffusion of computer-mediated communication, both for first and second language writers”(p.2).
References:
Englebart, Douglas. (1963). “A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man’s intellect.” In Hawerton, P.W. and Weeks, D.C. (Eds), Vistas in information handling, Volume I: The augmentation of man’s intellect by machine. Washington, DC: Spartan Books. Available (as “Augmentation of human intellect: A conceptual framework”):
Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Warschauer, M. (2007). Technology and Writing. The international Hand Book of English Language Teaching, 907- 912.
Hi Rakhshanda,
To the extent that electronic writing is stored, I agree with Bolter’s (2001) claim that computers and word processors have remediated writing materials and processes. When people first started to use word processors in the late 80s or early 90s, they often “lost files” because they weren’t accustomed to “saving the text” as they worked, or doing a “save” action at the point they completed their work. We’ve had to retrain our brains to pause and do this saving behaviour as part of the new computer-mediated writing process.
I am not so sure that Bolter’s claim that word processors capture a writer’s “flood of thoughts” more efficiently than the writing spaces that preceded the software (especially not the pen and paper writing space). I don’t believe that the efficiency of word processing can apply to all writing genres because of the different craft involved in one writing genre compared to another.
For formal writing, I agree that texts can be efficiency composed with a word processor (draft 1, draft 2, draft 3, etc). Type the ‘gist’, edit the draft with the extra details, and finalise a grammar-perfect, liner construct of information that informs or persuades the reader (who is a known audience). This is the efficiency gain that Bolter refers to. So I think of business documents, academic essays/articles, and news journalism as examples of the writing genres that might use and benefit from composing and editing a “flood of thoughts”.
For creative writing, the aim of the craft is *not to tell the world as it is*, rather to reveal enough of a real or imagined world that the audience (usually unknown) believes the characters, voice and plot, and links their own experience or the experience they can “picture in their minds” with what the writer has given. The role of the reader is to help create the story. A writer who *tells the world as it is” instantly loses the reader of the short story and novel genre. I spent some years in amateur short story writing and it is hours upon hours of work to create the voice and narrative that gives a reader an immersion experience. Not only that, the creative writing craft is done differently by each writer and for different reasons. They don’t know the audience. They may not even care if there is an audience, because they enjoy creating the imaginery world as if it exists.
When I was writing, paper and pen was a far better utility for capturing a “flood of ideas” that would often come in the middle of the night or need to be quickly jotted after the inspiration moment in the shower. Powering up a computer, opening a blank white screen, and operating a keyboard completely distanced me from the language (a story I could see and a dialogue I could hear in my mind).
Perhaps what is happening in the late age of print is that there are new genres, new writers and new audiences, or even new writing processes. Connor O’Brien was interviewed by the NSW Writers Centre (Australia) this year about digital literature and digital technologies. He refers to an *online hive mind* to describe the collaboration of creative writers. Even with writer collaboration, there is no aim for efficiency, rather to have a different type of immersion experience.
Reference:
NSW Writers Centre. (2015). Digital Writing: What’s it all about?
http://www.nswwc.org.au/2015/01/so-what-is-digital-writing-all-about-interview-with-connor-obrien-director-of-dwf/