PL0BALF@vm.tcs.tulane.edu (Graeme Forbes) (02/24/90)
My posting last week of a precis of Marcia Peoples Halio's article in Academic Computing, "Can the Machine Maim the Message?", prompted many people to write to me. Probably I should have suggested replying to the digest, but I'll try to summarize the main themes of the responses. Just about everyone who wrote felt that Halio's conclusions were vitiated by the fact that students were allowed to select which machine they used. If they all start out with equal writing ability and the PC students produce consistently better writing, that's a reason to think that there may be a problem with the Mac environment (tho' there are other possible explanations e.g. the Mac instructors are doing a bad job - but let's be charitable). However, the reason Halio gives for saying the students start with roughly the same writing abilities is that they fall within the same range of SAT scores. But this turns out to mean that (a) they weren't good enough to get into the Honors Program, and (b) weren't bad enough to be put in a remedial section. As many people pointed out, that still leaves a lot of room for variation. So the question that then arises, to quote Bill Wing, is "Did the studious ones choose PCs and the tube-bunnies choose Macs?" And according to Ross Koning, just about all the differences Halio observed can be explained by such an effect. Computer-phobes choose Macs, and computer-phobes are likely to spend less time working on their computers, so they'll produce inferior work. Science majors will choose Macs because science is visually oriented, and science majors are taught to write short sentences and use the passive voice. Prelaw students, on the other hand, will write longer sentences with subordinate clauses, and Halio doesn't seem to have investigated whether such students typically choose the PC. And so on. Finally, a number of people pointed out that if we project Halio's claim that the harder-to-use writing tool produces better writing, we should start giving out clay tablets. In Kurt Godden's words: "the best writers must carve out their thoughts on stone. The difficulty of erasing must make them think more clearly and refine their thoughts before committing them to the rock." Thanks to all who responded, especially Stuart Moulthrup for sending me a sample of messages from an English-teachers' conference, some of which raised some doubts about Halio's interpretation of the results she got from the text-analysis programs she used. Graeme Forbes ------------------------------