Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4404 comp.cog-eng:1054 sci.psychology:1719
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!gatech!itcatl!jonathan
From: jonathan@itcatl.UUCP (Jonathan Peterson)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Effects of poor writing? (Long)
Summary: Future Literacy
Message-ID: <357@itcatl.UUCP>
Date: 29 Apr 89 20:38:19 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM> <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com> <2947@tank.uchicago.edu> <2970@tank.uchicago.edu>
Lines: 30

In article <17158@mimsy.UUCP> folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta) writes:
>IMHO, a general rule is: one's knowledge, intelligence, and curiosity are
>*usually* reflected in the breadth and depth of one's reading and the breadth
>and depth of one's reading is usually reflected in one's grammar and
>spelling.

	Spelling and grammar checkers coming into more common use will make 
writting easier, in much the same way calculators and spreadsheets have made
personal accounting easier.  Human-Machine interfaces are continually moving
away from text and towards speech and/or icons.
	I think traditional "literacy" is falling more and more by the wayside 
as it becomes less important to human communication.  One can only assume
that natural language, speech recognition, and higher resolution communication
media (HDTV, ISDN) technologies will make literacy less important in the
workplace of the future.  Literacy is already outdated by TV, film and radio
for entertainment.  The industrial revolution made literacy a prerequisite for
success, the information revolution just beginning may well make literacy
unneeded again.
	Then again, an age of word-processors, spell-checkers, grammar correctors,
on-line thesauruses, dictionaries and encyclopedias may make for a new age of
literacy in which people are less constrained by their ability to write than
by the quality of their thoughts.

	Any errors in logic or grammar are my own, any errors in spelling are my
spell-checkers...
	
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