🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <66437@aerospace.AERO.ORG> lubofsky@aerospace.aero.org (Nick Lubofsky) writes:
>Any comments on this hypothesis?  (I'm reserving judgement.)

[He then quotes an article about a writing class at the University of
Delaware using Macintoshes; that the writing was worse than the
writing from the IBM version of the course.]



The key point here seems to be that the students were given the choice
between Macintoshes and PCs.  

It appears that at the University of Delaware's writing program, good
writers preferred IBMs and poor writers preferred the Macintosh.  Why?
Maybe because the poor writers had not done any writing and the good
writers had.

Where had those good writers likely done all that writing?  More
likely on IBMs than on Macs because there are so many more IBMs in the
world.  Which computer do people choose?  The one they know.  What if
they don't know any computers?  I suggest that they tend to choose
Macintoshes--if they can afford one and are really presented with the
choice.

Want to read something truly terrible?  Force those same bad writers
to use an IBM and *then* see what they hand you.  Frightening thought.

Alternative explanation: Maybe the Macintosh users were having too
much fun playing with the machine to really spend much time writing.
I wonder how well they would be writing a year later, once the novelty
wore off.  I know that the mechanics of writing with a pen or a
typewriter were always such a barrier for me that I was nearly
helpless in print before I bought my Macintosh.  Now I can write a
million times better than I could before before.  (How well that is, I
leave to you.)

Third explanation: The bad writers knew they couldn't write and were
looking for every easy way out, and the Mac, being easier to use, was
their preference.  Does that make the Mac bad for writing?  No, just
easier.

Realize that what I am writing here (at a Macintosh, but using emacs
running on a Sun) are guesses about what the anecdotal report really
means.  To know what is going on there, the two groups need to be
matched for other factors.  Controls are needed.

-- 
Kent Borg                lloyd!kent@husc6.harvard.edu  or  ...!husc6!lloyd!kent
MacNet: kentborg                              H:(617) 776-6899  W:(617)426-3577
"Thumper!  Don't let them kill Thumper!"  --Zippy, 15 January, 1990