5.12 The Digital World And Its Scaffolds

Imaginary worlds offer scaffolds too.

Chapter 5 has presented various physical objects to use as scaffolds. My emphasis on physical objects comes from embodied cognition. Embodied cognition argues we can replace cognition by using physical objects and their affordances. Thinking becomes manipulating physical objects. “The great benefit of experience is that your senses gather information directly and you feel it. No collection of documents is ever as rich in felt detail as experience itself” (Rhodes, 1995, p. 60).

However, modern writing inevitably involves using a different physical object, the digital computer. Even the final step of the Chapter 2 scaffold requires you to transfer information from index cards to a word processing document.

The digital computer scaffolds writing but does so differently than other physical objects discussed in the current book (see Section 5.4.2). We do not physically manipulate a computer as a worldly object on its own. Instead, a computer provides a new, digital, world which offers its own affordances to scaffold writing.

The most obvious digital scaffold: the word processor. Word processors offer new affordances by permitting editing of a virtual document. Books about writing which appeared during the personal computer revolution rave about the new affordances offered by word processors. “The computer is God’s gift, or technology’s gift, to rewriting and reorganizing. It puts your words right in front of your eyes for your instant consideration – and reconsideration; you can play with your sentences until you get them right” (Zinsser, 2006, p. 87).

Word processors offer other affordances by flagging spelling mistakes or poor grammar. I encourage students to pay attention to potential writing problems identified by their word processor. I myself find a word processor’s suggestions useful, even when I disagree with them.

Other computer software can help improve writing by inspecting a digital document. Many of my students recommend using Grammarly to check spelling and grammar. Helen Sword offers a free app to accompany her book The writer’s diet (Sword, 2016). (Sword, 2016). You can use the app directly with Microsoft Word to receive visual feedback about how closely your writing follows Sword’s general suggestions about excellent writing style.

Bibliographic software like EndNote provides another digital scaffold for writing. Such software permits you to cite sources by inserting tags into a word processing document. You can then convert tags into proper in-text citations which populate a complete reference section. Such software removes the drudgery from checking what sources you cite or from adding a reference section by hand. Bibliographic software will also automatically reformat citations to many different standards, which I find handy when I send interdisciplinary research to different journals which use different citation formats.

Bibliographic software can also create a searchable digital library for use during a project’s early stages. For instance, I have an EndNote library which holds over 5,200 different citations. I typically create an EndNote entry by importing information directly from a library database. The import usually includes an abstract along with authors, title, publication, and so on. I also frequently download a source’s PDF which I save on a lab disk drive; I link the PDF to the reference stored in EndNote. As a result, I have a large electronic library on my desktop which I use to search for material when I research a project.

Other software packages scaffold academic writing. Statistical software performs data analysis and provides results to describe. Software generates figures to include in a manuscript. I sometimes use voice recognition software, particularly when dictating index cards into a word processor.

Using various software packages to scaffold writing leads, in turn, to needing an additional scaffold: an archive of files containing documents, data analyses, images, references, and so on. I find such an archive useful because new material often begins by modifying old material. Therefore, you must take pains to transparently organize an archive, so you can quickly find old files when required. Need I remind you (or myself) to back files up?

While speaking about the digital world and its scaffolds, let me return to an issue raised earlier in Section 5.4.2: Given the modern act of writing – including the Chapter 2 scaffold – ultimately aims to move a document into the digital world, why even discuss non-digital scaffolds? I believe physical worlds and digital worlds offer different affordances. According to embodied cognition, different affordances lead to different thinking. Some affordances offered by the physical world aid writing, but software packages may not offer similar affordances.

For example, consider writing by applying pen to paper versus writing by typing on a keyboard. Each offers different affordances which impact writing. For instance, Brenda Ueland preferred typing because she could typewrite nearly as fast as she could think. “This is a help. It makes the involuntary spilling of one’s thinking more possible” (Ueland, 1938, p. 140). In contrast, Julia Cameron recognizes her writing benefits from patience, which she achieves by writing by hand. “Handwriting keeps pace with our thoughts” (Cameron, 2023, p. 95).

Perhaps, if your writing world works, you have no need to defend or change what you do: “What equipment you use for writing doesn’t matter so long as it helps you write” (Rhodes, 1995, p. 33). But a two-dimensional index card display offers vastly different affordances than those offered by a digital text on a screen. Different worlds offer different affordances; you must realize different affordances support different writing and thinking. Such awareness helps you design your writing world, a world which offers you affordances which you need.