kemnitz@postgres.uucp (Greg Kemnitz) (12/08/90)
When I was in high school (in those ancient days when Apple II's were the highest powered PC's available) my writing classes required numerous drafts, big stacks of 3x5 cards for reference, and preparation of term papers involved piles of notes that somehow had to evolve through numerous drafts into term papers. What a collosal pain in the butt that was! I hated writing in those days. But like other posters I was fortunate enough to take a typing class in college, although the ancient manual typewriters I used have left me to this day with a tendency to pound keyboards. When I got to college, I had the opportunity to use a word processor for the first time. Quickly I discovered that the barrier to writing well was more the constraints of pen and paper (and the subsequent fear of drudgery that I experienced whenever confronted with a writing task) than any lack of ideas or ability on my part, and class papers became a relatively trivial task. Hopefully the notions of a "strawman", "tinman", and "ironman" draft that were so closely tied to the inflexibility of pen and paper will go the way of the stone tablet. My younger brother grew up with word processors, and his writing assignments are more interesting, more ambitious, and much longer than anything I had to do in school, but he finishes them in about the same length of time as I did. He doesn't have the anticipation of weeks of boring drudgery that I encountered whenever a long writing assignment was given - rather he appears to enjoy them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Kemnitz | "I ran out of the room - I Postgres Chief Programmer | didn't want to be killed by a pile 278 Cory Hall, UCB | of VMS manuals" :-) (415) 642-7520 | kemnitz@postgres.berkeley.edu | --A friend at DEC Palo Alto in the Quake
brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (12/13/90)
In article <39952@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> kemnitz@postgres.berkeley.edu (Greg Kemnitz) writes: > Hopefully the notions of a "strawman", "tinman", and "ironman" draft that were > so closely tied to the inflexibility of pen and paper will go the way of the > stone tablet. Hopefully not. It is hellishly useful to organize revisions into separate drafts. Your point is that word processors can push writing over the threshold between a pain and a joy. So what? That doesn't diminish the importance of writing well---and good prose requires a brain, not a keyboard. Russell's analogy: An air conditioner can push Texas driving over the threshold between a pain and a joy. So what? That doesn't diminish the importance of driving well---and good driving requires a brake, not an air conditioner. ---Dan