Text-Editing skills with word processing
The series of articles in the Computers and Composition journal made me smile. Even though their focus was on K- 12 or college entry level students, I can’t help but think these problems with acquiring text editing skills go further to include baby boomers who are transitioning from paper to technology use.
In Joram, Woodruff, Lindsay and Bryson’s (1990) article, they state that “even when they [the students] are instructed in a range of text-editing skills, they may forget the ones which are necessary for high-level revision.”
“…we must design ways to help students develop the strategies and skills
they require to work effectively with this new medium. …students should
be taught text-editing and typing, with a focus on the functions that are
more difficult to learn such as cut -and- paste and search -and- replace.
Students’ competence at these skills should be assessed periodically to
ensure that they are not using inefficient procedures. …they may be
distracted from high-level writing concerns by the amount of attention they
must devote to text editing. This may explain why many students can only
make use of the inset and delete functions, because these are the simplest
operations and require the least amount of attention” (Joram et al.1990) .
I have seen this behaviour in both college students and staff. First year post-secondary students should have to pass a technology efficiency course much like the English grammar entry requirement. And tenured faculty should be given access to training to improve their competence in these skills. I’ve noticed it all seems to come down to time management and if optional gets moved to the bottom of the To Do list.
In Youra, S. (1990) Computers and student writing: Maiming the Macintosh (a response) and Kaplan, N. and Moulthrop, S. Other ways of seeing the authors present a number of solid points that show Halio’s research to be more of an example of how not to do research. Youra states it very simply: “no computer by itself can teach writing”. Even though these articles are from 1990, they still hold truth for twenty five years later: “…student writers must be shown that polished appearance is not equivalent to polished content” (Youra, 1990). I can see Youra’s suggestion that students ‘move back and forth between versions of the text on the screen and printed page” to ‘gain a clear impression of the entire document, its organization, and the relationship among its parts” might be meet with some resistance in today’s classrooms , but it still has merit which some students may find helpful.
Kaplan and Moulthrop’s opening quote from J. Berger says it all: The way
we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe”. For me this means that we are individuals with our own unique lens on the world around us which provides us with our own unique experiences and therefore our own unique assembly of knowledge. Marcia Peoples Halio publication may also represent an example herself of poor text editing skills on her part and that of her editor who mistakenly left out important data to support her theory.
An aside: In the business world leading up to the 1980s it would have most likely been women taking short hand dictation to be transcribed with the use of a typewriter to produce finished copy. The word processor would have offered a cleaner working /writing experience and better time management options.
Joram, E., Woodruff, E., Lindsay, P., & Bryson, M. (1990) Students’ editing skills and attitudes toward word processing. Computers and composition, 7(3) 55-72.
Kaplan, N. and Moulthrop, S. Other ways of seeing. Computers and composition, 7(3) 89-102.
Youra, S. (1990) Computers and student writing: Maiming the Macintosh (a response). Computers and composition, 7(3) 81-88.
Words: 574
Interesting note about how both staff and students struggle with text editing skills. Now that you mention it, I think I found it surprising how much my grade 6/7 students struggled this year. Even simple things like using the cursor to edit or delete a word had my students holding down the delete key as they wiped out line after line of valuable text just to delete a single word, or hitting enter after every line when I asked them to double space and then having to help them with major formatting errors when they tried to go back and edit their work.
Similar to the Joram, Woodruff, Lindsay and Bryson (1990) article, Kalmbach (1996) also states that students in general tend to get more caught up on the appearance of the page, rather than the content. Kalmbach believes that students are “trying to imitate in their visible texts what they perceive to be the values of literate society. They believe that if they look like they belong in the literacy club, teachers will grade them accordingly” (p. 58).
After reading all these articles, I hate to admit it, but at some point in my teaching career I have probably been guilty of doing just that. Giving a higher mark to a piece of writing that looks well done: typed, neat, professional, but may not have been written all that well, and marking a hand written piece of writing harder because it was not as neat, did not look as professional, was more difficult to read and therefore grade, even though the content may have been better than the typed piece. I guess I am also guilty of (perhaps) placing a greater value on the appearance as opposed to the content.
References
Joram, E., Woodruff, E., Lindsay, P., & Bryson, M. (1990) Students’ editing skills and attitudes toward word processing. Computers and composition, 7(3) 55-72. Retrieved from http://computersandcomposition.candcblog.org/archives/v7/7_3_html/7_3_6_Joram.html
Kalmbach, J. (1996). From liquid paper to typewriters: Some historical perspectives on technology in the classroom. Computers and composition, 13(1), 57-68. doi:10.1016/S8755-4615(96)90035-3
Hi Kara;
I think we do it unintentionally. It is as if we have been conditioned, maybe from the overwhelming amount of marketing in our daily lives, to personally favour the beauty over the brain. We are willing to relax the rules if it is easier to read. So how would we incorporate safeguards against falling for this as I don’t think we can erase it totally from our brains?
Terry,