Technological Advances

 In “Ideology, Technology, and the Future of Writing Instruction,” Nancy Kaplan discusses the impact of computer technology on writing instruction. Admittedly, the essay was published in 1991, so much of the discussion has become irrelevant or even archaic. But she brings up some important points, and makes the reader realize that even twenty years later, some things remain the same.

While Kaplan is examining the role that the computer will play in the writing classroom, she also looks at hypertext and how it might create an interactive writing/reading experience.  She compares how a traditionally published work differs from that of a hypertextually published work, by saying that

As readers interpret or make sense of a printed work, they can, of course, mutter and muse in the margins of the page, can (in memory at least) produce sets of conceptual links that obliquely traverse the whole collection, representing their constructions of the text's meaning, as the theorists would have it, against the strictly linear tug of the work's representation on the page. Readers' annotations and their conceptual representation of the text's meanings comprise the reinscription or understanding of the work. If readers choose, they can photocopy "their" versions, complete with their commentaries, or write, on separate pieces of paper, rejoinders or reinterpretations. And readers can distribute the new document. But the traces that originate with these readers always remain distinct and visually differentiable from the "primary" text. (Kaplan 19)

A hypertext work, on the other hand, has the potential of being revised and edited without creating a distinction between the primary work and the reader’s contributions. Kaplan also says,

The power of these new tools of publication leads to hopeful, even utopian, visions: in a brave new electronic world, anyone with access to the right technology will be able to produce and distribute texts, both in print and in electronic form, which cannot be easily distinguished by visual signs from those which have issued from the keyboards of highly acclaimed authors and which have been privileged by the process of "official" publication. In theory, at least, electronic environments potentially offer a free flow of information and ideas from all to all. (Kaplan 21)

Having the advantage of looking back from a distance of twenty years, readers are reminded that the both situations are still relevant. Pages like Wikipedia demonstrate her claim that hypertext works can be edited without a clear distinction between authors. (Although it should be noted that Wikipedia does track all changes, so this seamless appearance is only on the surface.) But readers are still faced with the traditionally published – static – text, even on the web.

Ironically, while Kaplan discusses Bitnet and its shortcomings, we are reading the unchanged text in a world where it is possible to send large chunks of texts, containing their original formatting, anywhere in the world that has the technology to receive them. Yet, we are still reading the text as it was written, along with the margin notes (presumably those of Dr. Howard), as they were printed on the page.

What does this mean for those of us in RCID 805? Taken with Patricia Sullivan’s article “Taking Control of the Page: Electronic Writing and Word Publishing,” we are reminded of the hope that technology would create a more equal means of text production. For Sullivan, the computer in the classroom was seen as a way to change the writing process, not just as an aid to the writer. When producing a text, the writer in an electronic classroom could move away from a more linear writing process which involved prewriting, writing, then rewriting, and could merge all of the steps into stages of writing. As Sullivan says,

the electronic drafting process could be seen to make the distinction between early and late drafts increasingly seamless and less distinctive. Writers and readers often interact with segments of an emerging draft, a draft that becomes final only in those minutes before it is printed or mailed to the teacher. In this way, the segmented stages that have contributed to our linear writing paradigm of prewriting, writing, and rewriting begin to dissolve in the electronic classroom. (48)

For those of us teaching first-year composition, we can view the writing process in a new light. No longer do we need to require a first draft and a revision if we are aware that much of the revising goes on during the drafting process. For those of us not teaching, we can take these two essays and apply them to the projects we are producing for class, or that we may someday produce for the industry. For many people, the use of the computer and the internet is a natural thing (much like Kaplan’s comparison of the index of a book.) Getting the perspective of what was expected as early as twenty years ago and comparing it to what is available today can help us design for the user. Realizing that much has changed, and much has also stayed the same, can give us new perspective on what is possible in digital publishing, whether we are creating an interactive web page, a forum, or designing a user-experience/marketing product, such as the wine label.