How MS Word illustrates technology’s effect on writing
Over the past few decades, Microsoft Word became one of the most prominent—if not the most prominent—word processors in the world. Recently, the BBC ran an insightful story about how this dominant word-processing software has affected the way we write. It’s a telling example of technology’s effect on writing, in particular, and on language, more generally.
MS Word’s enduring effects
Here are just a few ways that MS Word shaped our writing and language over the years.
Standardizing templates and formatting
From line breaks, text alignments, and bullet points to bold, italics, and underlined text, MS Word’s many features led people to write business reports, letters, and articles according to specific templates and formats.
An obvious advantage of following these templates and formats is that readers often know what to expect when they look at a report, letter, or article. And when they know what to expect in a given format, they’re able to read the information more easily and efficiently. A clear disadvantage is that more homogenization of templates and formats means less variety in writing.
Which brings us to a related feature of MS Word…
Creating more consistency in writing styles
Thanks to spell check, grammar check, and accessibility check, not to mention word count, auto correct, and readability scores, MS Word has guided writers toward greater consistency in style.
On one hand, this trend toward greater consistency has helped writers make their content clearer for larger audiences. On the other hand, it has also resulted in more uniformity of language use. In other words, there’s less diversity of writing styles.
On a related note, there’s also less diversity with respect to language itself. Which brings us to yet another of MS Word’s lasting effects…
Solidifying American English as the global language of business
Since MS Word was invented in American English, it helped solidify this language as the lingua franca of business.
Of course, MS Word now allows users to write in multiple languages. However, the hegemony of American English continues to be felt by practically everyone in the business world today.
Whether or not these effects may be judged as generally good or bad is difficult to say. Either way, they’re tradeoffs to be mindful of whenever we consider technology’s effect on writing and language. For more details about this topic, feel free to check out the BBC story referenced below.
References
Woollaston, V. (2023, 25th October). The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231025-the-surprisingly-subtle-ways-microsoft-word-has-changed-the-way-we-use-language