Writing with a Computer

When I first started writing with a computer in the Pleistocene era era of the late 1980s, it immediately became apparent to me that here was a complex and sophisticated writing tool which offered hitherto unforeseen possibilities for the process of composition. Unforeseen by me, anyway.

I ditched the Olivetti portable I had been using for the previous twenty-five years and started memorising WordPerfect keyboard commands. However, after several heart-stopping bouts of lost work and DOS-related frenzies, it also seemed obvious that many people would need help with this new medium. I wrote a book for my students explaining how to write essays using word-processors. I was right. They liked it, and asked for more.


Yet even before the ink was metaphorically dry, along came the explosion of the World Wide Web. I had read about hypertext in Ted Nelson's Literary Machines and David J. Bolter's marvellous Writing Space, but the experience of hands-on surfing - not really knowing how it all worked - was truly mind-blowing. But it also meant my book was out of date, so a couple of years later I wrote another on Electronic Writing which attempted to keep up with recent developments.

Mike Palmquist and Donald Zimmerman have now done the same thing in Writing with a Computer, putting their emphasis very much on the practical advantages offered by this technology. They begin by establishing the essentials of interacting productively with a word-processor. This covers generating ideas, planning, drafting, and revising documents. They give useful tips on using outliners, multiple and split windows, and the various features of word-processors which can help in the business of writing - such as SEARCH & REPLACE; SAVE AS; CUT & PASTE; and FIND, which is different than SEARCH.

They also explore the editing process - using spelling and grammar checkers, plus the FIND & REPLACE option for avoiding those boring repeats of the same words. There's a section on the grammatical niceties of dealing with the passive voice, jargon and vagueness, and the complexities of syntax. Although these issues can be ultimately a subjective matter, the advice they offer encourages clarity and conciseness - which so far as student writing is concerned, is a Good Thing.

I was pleased to see that they place clear emphasis on page layout and document design, because this is a sadly neglected part of much writing. They explain fonts and typography, margins, line spacing, and tables - although it would have been useful to see more illustrated examples. My experience on this issue is that unless people have actually seen what is required with good-bad and before-after examples, they are not sure what is required.

The central part of the book deals with gathering online information. They are quite right to point out that the Web is only one of many online sources, and they offer an introduction to searching databases and library resources. They cover Telnet, Gopher, newsgroups, mailing lists, chat channels, and MOOs - though these last two always strike me as dubious.

However, I suspect that most students and beginners will tackle the problem of finding information simply by entering key words in the Search box of Alta Vista or Excite. Fortunately, search strategies using Boolean terms and wildcards are explained, and there's a very useful boxed list of online documents which have been written to help students and professional writers evaluate Web resources. I'm copying this straight into my list of bookmarks. [Is this breaching copyright? Well, I'll risk it.]

The latter part of the book covers interacting with the computer and using it to increase productivity via templates, keyboard shortcuts and context-sensitive right mouse-clicks. They also deal with the more advanced techniques of moving text, customisation of default settings, sorting, and the use of macros.

What else do students and beginners need? Answer, trouble-shooting support and coping with system crashes, the shock of which seem to shorten your life-span when they first occur. These are covered well enough, but there are also chapters explaining topics which many people don't realise they need until it's too late. How to organise your work (and your desktop) for instance. This is something which I suspect most of us approach without much thought - and that's why files get lost, duplicated, and unintentionally saved-as. They even deal with issues of health - for you and your computer - then finish off with a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and a good index.

Ultimately of course, the best way to learn how to write effectively with a computer is via lots of practical experience (so long as you learn from your mistakes). But if you need a written guide, this is an excellent starting point. I'll certainly be putting it onto my bibliography of recommended reading. In fact, I wish I'd written it.

© Roy Johnson 1999     [more WRITING SKILLS books]

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Mike Palmquist and Donald E. Zimmerman, Writing with a Computer, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, pp.269, ISBN 0205274870

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