Writing Software: Can a Computer Program Teach Me to Write?

-- Terry Boothman

Ask a writer this question. Many will say, "You can't teach someone to write. The best you can do is to inspire and guide the process." This belief is thoughtfully founded. Writers and teachers of writing have witnessed the failure of countless hard-working students and the success of many who have had little formal training. It's reasonable to conclude that success at writing demands more than the ability to pay tuition.

One could debate at length the difference between "teaching a writer" and "helping a writer to learn." This becomes an issue of semantics, but there is a point of agreement: learning does occur. Shakespeare said, "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them," but even the Bard would have to agree that those who were born great didn't offer us the fruits of their endowment while still in bonnets and bibs. Writers, even the most precocious, don't leap from the womb with stories or novels completely formed in their heads. Everyone has to learn something.

Divide the task of writing into two components: "vision" and "craft." Vision is the sum and extension of our life experience and our ability to look within ourselves. Craft is equally necessary and includes the skills we must master in order to convey our vision. For the writer, this amounts to everything from correct spelling and syntax to the ability to structure a story dramatically or to establish a theme. The learning of craft comes from our interaction with certain kinds of information at certain times. Craft, in fact, has to be learned. If I offer you something that accelerates this learning process, a suggestion, an example --anything-- can I call it "teaching?" Let's say I can.

Can a computer teach you to write? Unless you see a real difference between teach and assist in learning, the answer is yes, of course it can -- simply because, under the right circumstances, anything can. It's not a matter of whether a computer has any special powers. It's a matter of whether the methods used by the computer offer a good return on your investment in the program. Does the program offer enough of a learning resource to justify its cost?

What doesn't work?
Many teaching products don't address computer-based learning as precisely that: computer-based. They tend to move information from paper to computer without considering the specific advantages and disadvantages that a computer offers. This paper-to-computer transfer does nothing to increase the product's effectiveness as a learning tool. In fact, it does just the opposite. It's more difficult to navigate through a series of linear computer screens than it is to turn the pages of a book. Computer text is more fatiguing to read and certainly a lot less portable than book text. Whether or not such products offer good advice is irrelevant to the quality of the computer product as such. If such advice can be offered more effectively (and far more cheaply) in book form, it is a disservice to the buyer to market it as computer-based learning.

A second category of products are those that offer "templates" or writing shortcuts. These products generate plots, story ideas, characterization, or other elements from data stored in a program. Such services can be useful, but have a limited objective as learning tools. Consider an analogy to electronic keyboards that supply built-in instrument voices, drum beats, and other preprogrammed musical elements. These prefabricated features allow you to create a musical piece quickly and easily -- if that is your aim. They don't necessarily support learning. They may in fact delay learning by offering seductive shortcuts. Prefabricated plots or story ideas can serve as examples but have little value as teaching tools.

What does work?
This will sound like an artful dodge, but the answer gets somewhat technical. The following is an oversimplification, but a best try at avoiding jargon.

(For the weak of heart, consider this essay now over. Thanks for getting this far.)

It has to do with accessibility of information. And this key concept of "rapid access" addresses more than the speed of your computer. It's not just getting to a bit of information in a hurry. It's also--and more importantly--the result of a computer-based architecture that supports the kind of "cognitive processing" (mental work) that leads to learning. This means a thoughtful integration of curriculum design, learning support system development, and interface. (I warned you.)

The result of all of this is "rapid access," a reduction in the time and effort required to get information (information chosen to create learning). How can this concept of rapid access accelerate learning?

1. By making your search for information more fruitful.
2. By giving you only what you want, not what you don't.
3. By giving you information at the "moment of need," when you are most motivated. This "just in time" acquisition boosts the probability that new information will move into long-term memory.
4. By changing the way you learn. You'll find yourself far more likely to explore, experiment, and profit from incidental learning (advice or ideas that you just "run into") than you would with a linear system.

Can't I Get the Same Benefits from Books?
It's not very likely. When time delays are reduced, we cross "motivational thresholds." We behave differently than we would otherwise. When we bought our first microwave oven, we began to prepare food differently than we did with conventional ovens. It wasn't just a matter of cooking the same things more quickly. Likewise, if we should move to the center of a city, we'd develop different habits than we had when we lived an hour into the country. We'd shop differently, use leisure time differently -- we'd organize our lives differently.

What would happen if all word processors were taken away and we had to rely on typewriters? Would we work the same way, only at a far slower pace? Wouldn't we have to type a lot more carefully once deprived of painless electronic editing? What would happen if we had to surrender our instant foods, our remote controls -- if all speed limits were reduced to 25 miles per hour? Would life simply slow down, or would we rework the way we do things? Savings in time leads to changes in behavior.

Did you ever learn from a reference or "how to" book by reading it one time from beginning to end? Didn't you find yourself re-reading the critical parts, skipping much of the material, maybe even taking notes or highlighting the sections of interest to you? Learning isn't a matter of one-time exposure to information: it's a matter of processing that information in certain ways in order to make it useful. Learning can be helped by a computer that uses strategies to accelerate that processing.

Books are, and will continue to be, critical learning resources. They have many benefits over computers (tradition, readability, portability and cost, to name a few). But books represent time-consuming, linear, non-interactive methods of information delivery.

Conclusion
Yes, a computer program can teach you to write-but not just any computer program. It must be designed to accelerate the learning process enough to justify its cost over a conventional system.

And now the commercial pitch:

Some of the learning-support strategies used by the Writer's Software Companion:

The chosen information is credible, current, and written for easy reading. In fact, part of the program is a series of columns previously published in Writer's Digest magazine. These columns are highly readable and full of examples from published literature.

Information is highly organized and categorized using conventional terminology.

Information is offered on more than a single level of abstraction. Essays are summarized into Key Points, and Key Points are further summarized into Checklists. This process of summarization allows the learner to get the information in three different formats, ranging from in-depth treatment to quickly digestible main points.

Information is "hyper-linked" (electronically cross-referenced) to facilitate experimentation, free association, and discovery learning.

Both scope and depth are offered. Over one-hundred main topics are covered at least briefly. There are sixty-seven essays that offer extensive treatment.

Rapid "one-click" access, bite-size chunking, and multiple indexing makes information easily re-usable. This re-usability supports a learner's need to revisit information as their needs change.

Redundant indexing is used to maximize ease of access and to support a wide variety of learning strategies. (Learners adopt different personal styles of information access.)

The interface is intuitive, highly-visual, and uses consistent navigational rules. For the most part, learners can get from place to place with only a single mouse-click.

Meaningful interactivity is used throughout, allowing learners to engage the system by exploring and by problem-solving.

Multiple search strategies allow learners to find content based on a single word, a phrase, or any entry in a 250-item electronic index.