The Technical Writing Teacher . A study by a technical writing teacher at Texas Tech University on how the use of word processors affects the way students think and write. Barker argues that word processors initially were seen as fancy typewriters, useful primarily to help students with revision of their texts. But experience shows that word processing changes the process of invention and writing, in part by collapsing the prewriting and final writing stages into one continuous process. Outlines and early drafts are modified on the screen, allowing them to evolve into final works.
Drafts tend to run together.
Boston 21-23 Mar. 1991. Byard makes the sensible argument that poststructural theory demands a reconsideration of the function of heuristics. Thus, noting the ideological function of heuristics, she argues that different heuristics reveal different knowledges. She analyzes the Pentad and Tagmemics and demonstrates their particular usefulness and weaknesses. The old tactic of teaching a single heuristic for all occasions must, then, be amended.