“Writing as Technology” introduce two of the key terms we will be discussing this module: writing spaces and remediation. For this post, please identify three of the writing spaces you use most frequently, discuss their characteristics, and what makes them unique. Then, choose two of those spaces, and using Bolter’s definition of remediation, discuss how one remediates the other (or how they remediate themselves).
The three writing spaces that I use most often are Microsoft Word, a pen and paper, and the World Wide Web. Microsoft word includes features such as spell check, word count, and there is always backspace. These come in handy because if you are writing with just a pen and paper, and you make a mistake, there is not anything that will automatically make you aware of this mistake. Also, backspace is a whole lot easier than using an eraser. Microsoft word looks like just a plain piece of paper and that is comforting for some people because it is what they are used to. But, I do also use just a pen and paper. Although it is very basic, it is what I am used to. The World Wide Web is an extremely useful tool. Instead of going to the library and getting a book every time I need information, I can simply type what I am looking for into Google and I will be provided with more information than I know what to do with.
According to Bolter, remediation is “in the sense that a newer medium takes the place of an older one, borrowing and reorganizing the characteristics of writing in the older medium and reforming its cultural space”(23). Back before computers, if someone needed information, they would have to go to the library and take out a book on whatever it was they were looking for. Now, the World Wide Web does that very quickly and easily. Microsoft word, or just the computer itself, killed off writing using a pen and paper. Now, someone could just sit done at the computer and type; it’s much easier than writing with a pen and paper.
