Reexperiencing the Ordinary: Mapping Technology's Impact on Everyday Life by Catherine Latterell
Reading her article made me think about the tools, times and space in which I write. I am writing about the tools or technology of writing and the ways in which those technologies have an effect on my writing. Correspondence used to be on paper with a pen and now is quickly thought-out responses to another email and usually not that well thought-out. Emails do not continue the personal characteristics of the writer as well as a personal letter. It is possible to change text color but it doesn't have the same feel as purple ink on ivory paper. Email is impersonal and depersonalizes people. Selecting fine stationary is impossible; the tool of the pen becomes the tool of the computer. Where you might get the texture of a fountain pen from a letter you can't tell what kind of keyboard the correspondent is using. Tools in writing define a user and sometimes form their writing. Would Twain’s writings have had the same voice if he had Microsoft Office?
Do we take time to write? John Grisham wrote his novels during his train commute to his job as an attorney. Do we write the same at the end of the day as we do at the beginning? Does speeding up the process of writing improve our writing, so If we are faster writers are we better writers? In a college environment, I can see where speeding up the process of writing and revision helps tune a writer. However, with new tools and technology that speed the writing process do we become better writers, or only faster writers. If we have little time, it is a wonder that we find time to write at all.
The space that I write best in is a quiet, secluded space where I can carry on uninterrupted conversations with my audience. Most of my writing is not done in these spaces, it has usually been accomplished in noisy households or chaotic business environments. This leads to choppy phrasing and thoughts. My difficulty in writing in chaos should cause me to rethink any lesson plans that cause students to complete assignments during class. But if I did have them work in the middle of class, wouldn’t I be helping them write in the real world, where offices contain ringing phones and constant interruption?
I guess I have more questions than I have answers, but the process of reflecting on my own writing style should help me focus on improving the writing styles of the students that I will be teaching in a classroom.
1 comment:
Darn it, Dave, I composed a really fine comment, but I'm wondering if you've got this set up for comments...this time, I'll copy it so I can paste it to you in email if it won't work.
I have to wonder: Does email necessarily make communication "impersonal"? I'm thinking of Stacy's post about her husband taking a computer to Iraq so they can communicate....or the fact that, now that my mother has email, we communicate more and better than we ever have...or that Locke and I "woo-ed" using technology. I think humanists oftensee technology as "other"...but you ought to look at Donna Haraway, for instance, for an alternate view.
RE: time and place to compose--a lot of different writers have different composing processes. I think of Jack Kerouac who typed up everything on...butcher block paper? w/o revising...or Adrienne Rich, who was drilled as a child growing up in the various genres of poetry until she was technically proficient, yet didn't find her real voice until she began writing on her own, for herself, in the wee hours before her children got up. I think people can find a voice on technology, and it doesn't have to be the same or even opposite what happens in more traditional media.
Or not.
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