St century word processors: what will the word processor of the future be like .

Consider two propositions. First, word processors have improved by leaps and bounds since their advent more than a dozen years ago. Second, what we actually do with word processors has not changed very much in the last decade. Both these statements may be true, but they create a tension: if the technology has been so revolutionary why should things remain pretty much as they always were?

One resolution to this slight conundrum is that the revolution has not yet begun in earnest. So far we have been watching a dress rehearsal: word processing is going to change radically in the next decade, and will make a huge difference to the way we write and think about writing. The improvements to the technology of word processing witnessed so far are preparatory to the really significant changes which will make us look at language and computing in a new light.

These changes are unlikely to come about through the gradual accretion of even more features to the already excellent packages in the market. Several software innovations which are already hovering on the edge of the mainstream will blossom over the next five or ten years. These innovations will create niches for newcomers and simultaneously force the major packages to focus on the parts of the language software which they are best at. We will recognize that there is much more to language processing software than the rather similar functions covered by the best contemporary word processing packages.

SPEECH PROCESSING. It seems highly likely that speech processing will move more into the mainstream of personal computing. As ever with innovation, it may not happen in quite the way we first imagined. When speech processing was first mooted five years ago, it was seen as a way of circumventing the keyboard. Some of us have trouble with basic typing, and nearly all of us have difficulties with rarely-used command sequences or macros. While we look forward to the day we can instruct our machines to “print three copies”, significant applications for speech processing are likely to appear before we get reliable automatic dictation machines. We will incorporate speech messaging well before we crack the problem of unconstrained speech recognition.

Most of the documentation that moves around corporations and between businesses is remarkably standard. The average document comes in about five almost-identical versions: five copies, agenda, schedules, minutes, ’blind’ copies sent to collea-

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gues, action copies sent to subordinates and so on. The five copies generally differ only in their destination and minor detail. A problem with such documentation is that it tends to be regarded as dross by its recipients even if it is in fact important. An ideal way of giving apparent dross a high ’impact factor’ is to attach a voice message to some e-mail.

Incorporating sound bites in documents may seem a superficial addition to the basic word processing function. But it is in line with the tendency towards object-oriented programs and user interfaces, hypertexts and multi-media documents. And all the powerful trends in the technology will encourage us to think of word processing as much broader than the typing or typesetting functions predominant in today’s word processing and desktop publishing programs. While word processing will encompass voice and graphics, we can also count on an equally strong tendency towards a more abstract and artificial view of the document as ’structured program’.

The drive to uncover structure in documentation is already very strong in the defense industries. We have all heard the story about the documentation for Boeing 737 weighing more than the airplane itself or the American frigates which carry more tons of paper than they do tons of missiles. But this mass of paper is no joke for the industries which build these machines, and they are consequently taking the lead in developing powerful tools for the automatic processing and interpreting of documen­tation.

SGML. One of the keys is the development of Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML) schemes: SGML allows for documentation manipulation which is independent of the particular way in which the document has been processed or represented - on paper, screen, or magnetic tape, for example. SGML has a real pay-off when your are dealing with large amounts of text. In typesetting or desktop publishing systems there is no way of distinguishing the italic into which you cast the title of a book from the italic you use for a foreign word.

' But in SGML systems these differences are marked. The basic idea is that if you can treat the structure of documentation as abstract and declarative rather than being pro­cedural and dependent on the manner of its representation, it should be much easier to make large-scale comparisons of documents. SGML markup is not easily intelligible to the human eye - quite the reverse, as it tends to look like a jumble of brackets and codes.

But new software will use SGML while concealing it from the user in much the same way as our word processors now use and exchange ASCII without our needing to notice it. SGML will come into its own when users are able to incorporate documents, standard form contracts or advertising brochures into their databases, agreement files or catalogues without needing to consciously translate the structure to the formats they prefer to use.

1. What’s the tension implied in the two propositions? You could begin your answer with: On the one hand,...

2. To what extent is word processing revolution under way?

3. What may result from the software developments in word processing?

4. What was the original idea behind the development of speech processing?

5. What is seen as the major difficulty with the use of standard documentation?

Unit4

6. What is thought to be the solution to this problem?

7. Which two examples of the documentation problems facing industries are given in the text?

8. Name the ways in which documentation can be represented.

9. Describe the differences in textual representation which are said to be ’marked’ in SGML.

10. Is SGML markup easily understood by the user?

11. Explain the comparison that is made between SGML and ASCII.

12. Have we witnessed any new developments in the field of word processing recently? If so, provide some comments.

Task 4. SO. Read and translate the text with a dictionary. About Writing

1. The writing process has four stages: prewriting, drafting, revising and editing.

2. In the prewriting stage you gather information for your writing project by:

a. Writing down what you know about your subject.

b. Interviewing people who know about your subject.

с Researching your subject in books, articles, and other materials.

3. Your rough draft is the first version of your writing project in which you outline your ideas and decide on a central idea.

4. You then revise your draft several times adding details and making your writing clearer and better organized.

5. In the editing process you correct errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and so on, and you proofread your final version to make sure it is free of errors.

6. As you write, you will discover what you know about your subject (perhaps more than you thought), what you still need to find out, and what is important to you.

Prewriting consists of the following steps:

1. Write down what you already know about your subject by:

a. Listing a few broad ideas that come quickly to mind.

b. Recording information through focused freewriting, writing on a chosen subject
nonstop for five or ten minutes.

с Brainstorming by asking questions that bring to mind details you can use.

2. Gather any additional information you need by:

a. Summarizing another writer’s ideas.

b. Interviewing people who know about your subject.

3. Express your essay’s central (or main) idea in a thesis statement - a clear sentence expressing the point you want to make.

4. Decide or focus on a central idea:

a. Determine your purpose in writing about the topic you have chosen.

b. Find the main point you want to make.
с Select the details you want to include.

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5. Limit your discussion so that your can support your thesis with enough details to be
convincing.

6. Revise your central idea as often as you need.
II. Drafting

1. Review your information dropping and adding details to keep your thesis clear and convincing.

2. Write a scratch outline keeping your working thesis in mind and grouping details under headings that organize them.

3. Prepare a rough draff"

a. Write as much information as you can about each section of your outline.

b. Don’t be concerned about spelling, paragraph structure or other such details at
this point.

Ш. Revising

1. As you review your rough draft, ask yourself:

a. Does my thesis statement still express my main point?

b. Are all the details I have included necessary?
с Should I rearrange paragraphs?

d. Should I move material from one paragraph to another?

e. Does any paragraph need more details?

f. Are my introduction and conclusion interesting?

2. Revise your rough draft in the light of your answers to these questions.

3. Now ask your questions again and revise, revise, revise.

IV. Editing

1. Edii tour final lraft. Check all lentences sndividually ynd correct them.

(Adapted from

"Vi e Basics: A Rhetoric and Handbook”

McGraw-Hill, Inc.)

й APPENDIX. KEYS TO THE TASKS