Written Communication Oct 1990

Composing in Technological Contexts: A Study of Note-Making

CHRISTINA HAAS

Abstract

This article contrasts writing-as-transcribing and writing-as-composing, arguing that true composing requires conceptual reformulation and speculating that contradictions in studies of composing with computers may be partly explained as a confusion between transcribing and composing. The article also reviews what we know of predraft planning and writing, or note-making, and claims that note-making is at once a monitoring process and a planning strategy and as such may be particularly valuable for composing. Following this, a descriptive study examines the note-making activities of a group of experienced writers and contrasted the same writers' note-making in pen and paper and word processing conditions. A four-part classification scheme accounted for virtually all notes that writers generated; the four kinds of note were content, structure, emphasis, and procedural notes. Early writing sessions and note-making patterns of individual writers are examined in detail, revealing important differences in note-making between writers. Further, individual writers also had distinctly different note-making patterns when writing in different technological contexts—with pen and paper and with word processing. This research shows note-making, and accompanying predraft planning, to be a critical juncture in the composing process and supports the notion that writers' composing, or at least their early composing, may be markedly different when working with traditional and with computer writing tools.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1990-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088390007004004
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
digital rhetoric
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Clayson (2018)
    Distributed writing as a lens for examining writing as embodied practice
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Olive et al. (2017)
    Processing Time and Cognitive Effort of Longhand Note Taking When Reading and S…
    Written Communication
  3. Palmquist (2003)
    A brief history of computer support for writing centers and writing-across-the-…
    Computers and Composition
  4. Slattery et al. (1998)
    On screen: The composing processes of first-year and upper-level college students
    Computers and Composition
  5. Johanyak (1997)
    Analyzing the amalgamated electronic text: Bringing cognitive, social, and cont…
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  1. MEDWAY (1996)
    Virtual and Material Buildings: Construction and Constructivism in Architecture…
    Written Communication
  2. WINSOR (1994)
    Invention and Writing in Technical Work: Representing the Object
    Written Communication
  3. Hill et al. (1991)
    Revising on-line: Computer technologies and the revising process
    Computers and Composition

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CrossRef global citation count: 17 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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