Ozga (2016) talks about the relationship between governing and knowledge, and advances the thesis that \u201cas governing has changed to become more networked, less bureaucratic, more flexible and interrelated, so too has knowledge changed\u201d. She further explains that this new form of knowledge and expertise involves \u201cnew actors, working in new ways, and often driven by data\u201d. The app I am exploring is, I think, a good example of a new actor that is governing knowledge. As argued by Knox, Williamson & Bayne (2019), these technologies have the power to frame learners\u2019 choices and decisions. In this case, the app governed the process of writing a competent academic text that, as said before, is perhaps the main currency within the capital of academia. Since the text reflects, up to a certain extent, the writer himself, since it exteriorizes a person\u2019s mental states, we can go further and argue with Williamson (2014) that these data-driven technologies also have the power to \u201cmake people up\u201d \u2013 not only by making them visible, but through encouraging them to think of themselves in particular ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With help of the visualization, we can trace at least three concrete ways in which the app, and the knowledge it conveys, shaped my decisions and the way I translated my thinking into text. It is to note that these ways of influencing the text transcend the more classical suggestions focused on grammatical mistakes (made by Microsoft Word, for instance):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- First, the app invited me to be as concise as possible. Even when being wordy is not technically a grammatical mistake, the app encouraged me to always choose the most economical way to express myself.<\/li>
- Second, the app invites me to adopt variations of words according to the rules of the English spoken in the U.S.A (e.g., to use visualization<\/em> instead of visualisation<\/em>). In a similar way, even when this suggestion is not signaling a mistake per se, it is bounding me to a specific geographical location and not others.<\/li>
- Third, the app gives me feedback about the \u201cmood\u201d that I am transmitting through my writing. Again, this feature shows a wider level of influence beyond detecting grammatical mistakes and provides me with tools to control the desired reaction of the readers of my text. In my case, unfortunately, my delivery was conceived by the app as \u201ca bit bland\u201d.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I am not trying to be overly skeptical with regards to the potential benefits that these type of writing-enhancing apps might have. I do think, however, that they change in important ways the relationship between writers (in this case, students, academics, etc), their writing and their thinking. Firstly, they help writers with the \u201cclassical\u201d problems of grammar and spelling. In fact, this final blog post that you are reading was enhanced and embellished by the datafied power of the educational tool in question. On the other hand, however, they seem to promote a type of writing that is close to a sort of optimized writing<\/em>. That is, a type of writing that excludes all vague statements, all long sentences, and every possible nuance within the text. Moreover, this type of writing is aimed at creating a specific mood for the reader. The text should be pleasant to read, the reading should go smoothly, and the main takeaways should be easily identified. It is clear that, in a way, this type of writing optimizes communication and promotes a fast understanding of a text. But can it be that it also reduces the capacity to engage (as a writer and as a reader) with a more complex text? That is, with thoughts that are valuable yet not necessarily easy to understand, at least in a first reading? If this is the case, then it seems that these apps create new types of writing (and thinking, as my claim goes) that promote efficiency at the expense of complexity and variety. Even when this is only speculation, I consider this to be an interesting question to explore in the upcoming years, as text-generating technologies will continue to have a profound impact on student learning and assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, I think that the governing power of this app acquires a whole new level of complexity when analyzing the writing process of speakers of languages different from English. In those cases, the complexity that is sacrificed might be even greater, because the particular words, grammatical formation, word games, etc, of another language, are forced to fit into a very different mold. When a person that thinks in another language engages with optimized writing in English, what of the unique things that can be said only by her, product of her unique circumstances, are left behind? Probably quite a few, as the writer and thinker Nicol\u00e1s G\u00f3mez D\u00e1vila suggest in one of his aphorisms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cS\u00f3lo es interesante el localismo mental que se expresa en l\u00e9xico cosmopolita.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only interesting thing is mental localism which expresses itself in a cosmopolitan vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- Third, the app gives me feedback about the \u201cmood\u201d that I am transmitting through my writing. Again, this feature shows a wider level of influence beyond detecting grammatical mistakes and provides me with tools to control the desired reaction of the readers of my text. In my case, unfortunately, my delivery was conceived by the app as \u201ca bit bland\u201d.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n