jhansen@unitec.ac.nz
Fri, 7 May 1999 12:14:46 +1200
From: <jhansen@unitec.ac.nz> Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 12:14:46 +1200 Subject: Re: Dyslexia
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Sorry for putting threepence worth in but what does DNA stand for? The answer I'm told,
is the National Dyslexic Association!
Be that as it may, as Martin Owen notes, it IS correct that we use a range of registers
when we write and how we write is also technologically determined to a certain extent.
That is, we write differently when we use simple technology such as pen and paper compared
with how we write when we use a computer. I think that whenever we write by using pen and
paper, or even by means of using a (now old fashioned) typewriter, we tend to avoid
providing huge detail. We adopt, if you like, a sort of holophrastic writing style.
Attention to spelling, grammar, etc., therefore, seems to be in keeping with the
simplicity of such technology and also with the parsimony of the messages produced. We
are, I suggest, less likely to engage in wholesale revision because to do so is
problematic; who can remember not changing a sentence at the end of a page for to do so
would have meant retyping the entire paper? By contrast, when we engage the more the
flexible writing capacity which technology such as a computer affords, we tend to generate
more detail if only because the computer readily enables revision. But in each case, the
technology is merely a medium for capturing, or recapturing, human thoughts.
It can be argued, therefore, that correction to spelling and grammar is to a greater or
lesser extent contingent upon the kind of writing technology being used which in turn
shapes the nature of the final written product, and of course, this to a certain degree,
also depends upon the nature of the register that the writer has adopted.
However, irrespective of these factors, I would contend that in the case of computer aided
writing, corrections tend to unfold in one or both of two ways. Either, whether we are
writing or typing, we operate on a "get it all down" basis and we then correct the work
later on, or alternatively, we correct discerned errors as as we proceed. Indeed, the
reality is that we actually engage each of these pathways.
I suspect that the delete key has increasingly become one of the most used keys on the
keyboard and it seems to be an almost universal trait to over use it - we do so when we
unecessarily delete additional words or letters as we move all the way back to the actual
source error.
For myself, I find that if a matter is really important, I just "go for it" and seek to
get it all down, irrespective of typos. However, the tendancy to self-correct as I go
remains powerfully ingrained and I find that I'm quite likely to abandon that ca
thartic
procedure part-way through writing. This 'abandonment' seems mainly to be triggered by
the conscious decision to revise wording at which point I unconsciously seem to revert to
self-correcting spelling and grammar as well.
So is it reasonable to argue (as does Jamie Love) that how we present ourselves in writing
provides clues about the sort of person that we are or is it more reasonable to propose
that how we write merely provides data about our capacity to think and write on that
particular occassion. Perhaps ...
I remember some sound advice given to a community education writing group in the eighties
by the late Helen Paske, who was then editor of The New Zealand Listener. She said, "if
you want to write easy, use little words." And then she added, "but remember, quality
writing is always hard work." She then, over a few fascinating hours, taught her class
about the contruction of stories and about the importance of final presentation. She also
noted that typos are almost impossible to eliminate entirely.
As Lewis Carroll had written many years before (in Alice in Wonderland) "take care of the
sense and the words will take care of themselves." Perhaps, therefore, we should indeed
seek to present ourselves simply and carefully but we should not be too distraught if the
DNA factor strikes our writing.
cheers,
Jens
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