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author | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
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committer | Norbert Preining <norbert@preining.info> | 2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900 |
commit | e0c6872cf40896c7be36b11dcc744620f10adf1d (patch) | |
tree | 60335e10d2f4354b0674ec22d7b53f0f8abee672 /usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/reese.tex |
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diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/reese.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/reese.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..3dfda19028 --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/reese.tex @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ +\title{Reflections on Writing and Computers 8 (London 7--9 September 1995)} +\author[R. Allan Reese\\ +Email: \texttt{r.a.reese@ucc.hull.ac.uk}]{R. Allan Reese} +\begin{Article} + +Did you know Shakespeare's plot in {\it Romeo \& Juliet\/} extends over six +days, from a Friday morning to Wednesday? Just one of the useful titbits I +picked up at the conference. Writing and Computers conferences attract a +different class of computer users from \TeX{} conferences; less oriented +or sympathetic to computer science, possibly more interested in the human +user. To someone like myself, running a general purpose computing service, +both groups are very interesting. + +These writers' conferences are dominated by people who teach writing or +who study other writers, rather than by people who live by selling their +own words. Also noticeably absent were publishers --- possibly a good thing, +as writers and publishers are necessarily protagonists. The hilarity +amongst the publishers at seeing so many missed deadlines might have been +unsettling. The knock-on of missed deadlines was a dynamic hypertext +timetable, in the genre of an adventure game. The very-packed, constantly +changing programme led to a feeling of mild panic (cf the Lentillas in +Douglas Adams {\it Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy}) as we yo-yoed +between rooms on several floors of the Institute. + +Writing about writing generates its own pressure. The monkey on your +shoulder screams, ``those that can do, those that can't teach.'' One +telling comment to an academic editor, that I overheard during breakfast +was: ``Since you told us and the publisher that this would be {\em the} new +definitive book, for the first time ever I've had writer's block.'' + +The exact instructions on the presentation of abstracts were apparently +ignored by most of the authors, including several of the organizers. +There's a lot to be said for authors providing text and editors imposing +format. As indicated above, many of the participants did not themselves +appear to be sophisticated computer users, and talk of imposed stylesheets +or enforcement of style through SGML would have left them cold. + +And yet none of this detracted from an enjoyable and productive +conference. The organization came together in a weighty and informative +book of abstracts provided on arrival. Our next problem was finding time +to scan the abstracts and make difficult choices. What follows therefore +is a personal and partly-random selection. + +In the gaps between the whirling social programme, great ideas were +exchanged. One paper concluded that `better' student writers devoted more +time to structure and planning because they were so comfortable with +grammar and vocabulary that these were handled automatically. Maybe +`obvious', but at another conference this year I saw a speaker howled down +for suggesting that grammar should be taught more explicitly in UK +schools. My own interests include software tools for supporting the +various stages of writing; text formatting is one, but the words still +have to be chosen and put in order. The starting point of \LaTeX{} was +supposedly the idea that the author would be relieved of the need to +consider the physical appearance while the text was being written. + +Another paper compared structured and `free-text' abstracts of scientific +papers. While strict quantitative measures of use and recall in the +standard convenience sample of students showed no noticeable improvement, +the consensus in the subsequent discussion was that the structure would be +a helpful support and checklist for writers. The difficulty is always to +extrapolate from volunteer groups in short-term studies to a general +population developing and applying life-skills with diverse motivations. +Structured abstracts ought to make comprehension easier and searching more +consistent. This becomes increasingly important as we rely more on +computer searches to trawl for information. + +Sally Tweddle's keynote opening was well-pitched in relegating technology +to `appropriate' use, but no one picked up on her mention of a New York +school{\em girl} who started an account of a group project with ``I'll +show you Joe's picture. {\em He}'s our best artist.'' What a stereotype of +male domination of technology, and female subordination to an auxillary +supportive role! \TeX-group meetings certainly don't reflect a 50:50 +sex ratio, but I wouldn't have called them male-dominated. What do other +people think? Is \TeX{} a minority sport partly because it's seen as +a boys' computer-science toy? + +Michael Barnett's keynote carried on in a way from Sally's: the interplay +of technology and the use to which it's put. It struck a chord: a typical +helpdesk interaction in the university: ``Why did you do that?'' --- ``Well, +it was in the program so I just clicked on it'' Technology makes things +possible but must not be allowed to take over and control the task --- what +would {\em you} do if ``The Machine Stops'' and the technology ceases to +work? [cry] + +Multimedia CD technology was perhaps the dominant topic of the whole +conference. We agonized about the lack of imaginative use of a `new' +medium, but maybe we do not need a {\em Shakespeare} of software --- we need +a Pasolini, or even a Tarantino. In the same way that sticking a camera +into a theatre seat would not produce a `film', just putting text on a +disk and automating the index doesn't make it exciting. The BBC/Harper +team were clear as to the amount of work they had needed to put into +creating a multimedia study guide to R \& J, despite starting with a +complete and unrevisable text. + +Does hypertext have a role for other than reference material? The +overwhelming majority of readers don't want to write a story of their own; +they want to be {\em told} one (as we were, held entranced over lunch by a +storyteller). PC/CD hardware is still too slow by an order of magnitude, +though since the conference I've read that CD capacity will soon increase +by up to 20-fold. When you open a book, you don't stare at the title page +for several minutes while the rest of the book prepares itself to be read. +`The medium is the message.' In the area of design and communication, +if the technology become intrusive, then {\em it} becomes the message, and +the meaning you intended is lost. That's one reason I advise against +on-line presentations at conferences using, say, PowerPoint --- the +audience is either amazed how slickly it works, or bored at how tackily +it doesn't. + +Next year's W\&C meeting will take place in Barcelona. Do they need +another meeting? My conclusion from the conference (and email discussion +lists set up to preface and complement the conference) is that there are +many themes in writing and computers being actively considered and far +from worked out. Were the technology and its application fully understood, +there would still be themes in education and dissemination. At some time +the theme will become an anachronism; everyone will grow up as comfortable +with computers as we are with pens --- or do I ``talk of dreams, which are +but children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy''? +\end{Article} +\endinput +R. Allan Reese Email: r.a.reese@ucc.hull.ac.uk +Head of Applications, Computer Centre Direct voice: +44 1482 465296 +Hull University Voice messages: +44 1482 465685 +Hull HU6 7RX, U.K. Fax: +44 1482 466441 |