Writing through time: longitudinal studies of the effects of new technology on writing

Abstract

This paper contributes to the discussion about the effects of new technology on writing by assessing whether or not people's writing styles and ways of thinking change when new technologies are introduced. The writing styles of the three authors, prolific writers in their own fields, were assessed by comparing materials written by each author over a thirty-year period. During this time there were, for each author, great changes in the ways that they used new technology to help them to write. Nonetheless, the results indicated that, although the writing styles of each author differed from each other, their individual styles were remarkably consistent over time. These results thus suggest that although the new technologies may change the ways that individual writers work, they do not alter the styles of their resulting products. IntroductionThere is an ongoing debate in the field of writing research about whether or not computer-aided writing programs change the ways that people write and think. Undoubtedly, the new technology has-and will continue to-change the methods by which people write. But is this change only a cosmetic one? Is what we do with new technology basically much the same as what we did with the old technology? Or are the changes more fundamental than this?

Speaking versus typing: a case‐study of the effects of using voice‐recognition software on academic correspondence

“…These conclusions are in line with those reported in an earlier study by Hartley, Howe and McKeachie (2001). These authors traced the effects of changes in technology on selected publications from three academics over a thirty-year period.…”

“…With the above rider in mind, the findings of this study support the general notion that, after practice, using a new technology makes writing physically easier for an experienced writer, but appears to have little effect on his or her actual productions. These conclusions are in line with those reported in an earlier study by Hartley, Howe and McKeachie (2001). These authors traced the effects of changes in technology on selected publications from three academics over a thirty-year period.…”

Teaching, learning and new technology: a review for teachers

“…Others argue that new technology facilitates the skills of writing—making it easier—but that this does not necessarily change the nature of the finished product. Hartley, Howe and McKeachie (2001) for instance, assessed the outputs of three well‐known academic writers over a period of 30 years. They showed that, although each one had changed the technologies with which they wrote over this time period, the actual products did not vary much in terms of measures like average sentence lengths, use of passives and readability scores.…”

A study of the usability of handwriting recognition for text entry by children

“…The effects of the use of technology on the writing process have not been especially well researched. One of the most interesting studies is from (Hartley et al, 2001) which investigated how writing changed over time when constructed in the early days with a pen, later with a QWERTY keyboard and eventually (30 years later) with a speech recognition system. Regrettably, this work looked only at adult writing with writers that were accomplished at the craft of writing and had therefore only to deal with the changing demands of the different technologies whereas children would have had to also deal with the complexity of the writing task.…”