Imagine a piece of technology that would make it easy for writers to experimentally yield different versions of their work. Writers would no longer struggle as they become uninhibited in their creativity. Behold the revolutionary “WriterCreator”. It is an application that assists a person in producing their work in different forms of writing, for example, poems, prose, plays, songs, and even pictorial representations of their work. But this software would not only be limited to just writing forms. Writers could also use the software to experiment with multitudes of writing styles. The styles would not only include the traditional ones such as rhetoric, persuasive as so forth, but also new, evolving styles such as the Twitter style of writing that motivates the writer to be succinct and avoid verbosity. Assist is the operative word. The application would not serve to do the work for the writer and subsequently allow laziness on their part, but merely help by providing advice and lessen the struggle some writers may experience when experimenting with different writing forms and styles.

My idea is inspired from the works of David Foster Wallace, Nicholas Baker and Jennifer Egan, authors who have experimented with different styles and forms of writing, as discussed by Jason Pontin in “How Authors Write”. As Pontin points out, Wallace and Baker are known for their use of footnotes in their writings such as the “Host” and “The Mezzanine” respectively. Additionally, Egan has also approached a different way of storytelling by using PowerPoint slides in “A Visit from the Goon Squad” (Pontin).

Such creative attempts to attract and enrich the readers’ reading experience not only triggered my idea, but also encouraged me to enhance it by introducing improvements upon current technologies that somehow limit or make it difficult for authors to creatively manipulate their writing. Thus, my product also features an improvement on the footnotes technology implemented in word processors such as Microsoft Word. In my opinion, the tool in Word is very cumbersome to use. So, my software would also consist of a footnotes system that does not automatically place the note at the end of the page, but instead initially is in the shape of a bubble above the text that is being footnoted. As soon as the writer has finished typing his footnote, they can double-click on it and the note would be allocated to its rightful position. I think this would be a great help to anyone who writes because it makes it easier to refer to the text that is being footnoted while writing the note. Even though it would not be of much help when footnoting a citation, but people who use footnotes to convey extra information apart from the story could find it very convenient and helpful.

Nonetheless, this technology would be created to address the absence of a tool that allows such a writing experiments. Of course, there are websites and media that help writers write in different forms and styles. Searching Google would easily yield websites that provide templates and even an automatic poem generator for the purpose of writers:

However, my software intends to be broader and more encompassing of all multitudes of forms and styles and thus act as a hub for all writers to attempt creative formats of writing and reaching. The new media technology is therefore, a build up on previous technologies. As authors such as Kevin Kelly and Lev Manovich in “What Technology Wants” and “The Language of New Media” respectively, state, much of today’s technology is derived from previous inventions in an attempt to improve upon the flaws and provide a better product enhanced with new features and conveniences. Furthermore, the software is a speculative or reflective design that isn’t simply restricted to improvements; it is also an attempt to transcend the technologies of the present like in Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” and contemplate on technological fluency (Kraus 76).

Moreover, I want to implement this idea in the form of software rather than a device in order to avoid the use of materials that are harmful to the environment. Creating a physical device would mean an accumulation of poisonous chemicals such as Benzene and trichloroethylene that cause health hazards (Parikka). Yet, the larger goal is to easily distribute the software to the masses of aspiring and professional writers. The product would be a cloud-based software available on all platforms like Mac, Android, Windows and on devices such as the iPhone, iPad, PCs, MacBook etc., that would allow users to synchronize it with all their devices and work on the go. The application would be a paid one, but will have a reasonable price in order to maintain a large consumer base.

The software would be created with the help of a software developer that would make it multiplatform. The crux of the tool, the advice feature, would be designed with the help of experts in various fields of poetry, playwriting and so forth as well as scholarly English professors with regards to writing styles. As mentioned earlier, the application is not intended as a replacement for the entire writing process of the writer. They will always possess complete creative liberty and the technology would by no means deprive them of such powers.

In addition, there would be a global advertising campaign for this product. Since the target audience is the writer, it should thus be catered to writers from all parts of the world. Television advertisements would show the results of using this product and how it positively enriches the creative talents of writers and appeal to their readers in unique ways. Also, social media advertising would be vital to the promotion campaign and I would hire people who would be marketing ambassadors to spread the message about this application. Plus, to attract potential customers, I would initially provide free 30-day trials.

In a day and age where we are confronted with thousands of images, the “attention span” of society is rapidly declining (Hayles 87). With students losing focus in school as a result of outside activities that focus less on comprehension than previously, our nation is in danger of fostering a generation with a sharp decline in productivity. Although we are experiencing a “paradigm shift” to more digital technologies (Hayles 1), our school system is set in its ways and is less willing to adopt new methods. Our nation is changing and we need to change with it.

So how do we address the growing disparity between what students want and what teachers want? I propose an e-reader embed that will engage the students in their reading by prompting them with meta-cognitive questions and generating study tools to further their learning, even outside the classroom. Like the questions below, the goal of them is to focus on improving students’ reading comprehension and analysis skills:

• Why is this important?
• Are there any key terms or ideas here?
• Why is this date significant?
• What have I learned about this in the past?

These questions will occur as the student is reading to promote a new engagement with digital text. Although many teacher’s make study sheets with questions to consider, this embed is different because it occurs through a digital medium and the teachers are able to either go with the pre-written set of questions or customize the questions for the students. With a log-in code within the ebook, the teacher can add, delete, or modify questions. Then, the students will be able to login to their previously purchased version of the book and engage with their questions while reading. The embed will then compile the key terms that the student entered or highlighted, generate a graphic organizer of important themes or ideas, and create a student-based outline or notes. With Wifi connectivity, the student will be able to print his/her outline or notes to a printer. Fostering a new relationship between “form and content,” the embed will allow for a new interactivity with text (Kraus 82).

Building on teachers’ outlines, this “reflective design” will allow for a new level of critical thinking that is required in a digital age (Kraus 78). Additionally, this technology creates a new meshing of analytical thinking with the text, as previously created outlines or study guides are separate from the text. Society is ripe for change and the current technological advances demonstrate the need for more productivity, which is exactly what the embed will allow students to do. Although the embed is applicable to students from grades 2 or 3 and up, students with learning disabilities will find that the embed improves their analytical skills without detracting from what the material is saying.

Once Kindle obtains the rights to the licensing then they will be able to contact the author directly and ask if he/she would like to add or create any questions to be embedded within the framework of the novel. Regarding additional settings, there will be an on/off button for teachers to tell their students to press and then the students’ outlines will be sent to the teacher directly. This can be helpful for students that need extra help or attention to make sure they are on the right track. One of the most unique features of the embed is the extensibility that is provided within an sms embed. Students are able to flag parts of the text and create a conversation within the novel. A virtual book club, or twitter-like sphere, the sms feature creates productive and intellectual conversation within a class. The sms feature is aimed to help increase understanding among all students and bridge the gap between those who are having trouble understanding the material and those who are not.

A specific target audience that the embed would appeal to is students with learning disabilities or attention disorders. Since the embed allows for less diversion of attention from the material, children afflicted with ADD or ADHD are more likely to gain deeper appreciation of the material. Students with learning disabilities may find that the material comes easier to them when they are able to read and analyze all at once. On a personal level, I have executive functioning disorder so this embed would improve my reading skills because I wouldn’t have to divert my attention from the text. Sometimes when I am bent on analyzing a specific part of the text, I forget about the whole and what I just read. Therefore, this embed would allow be to think critically about the text in a targeted way that isn’t overwhelming.

In order to manufacture this embed I would need a team of technicians to ensure the embed is compatible with a variety of digital mediums including, but not limited to, the Kindle, iBook, and Nook. First creating a platform where the text is able to be adapted to include questions, the technicians will have to understand the capabilities and specificities of each platform before attempting to change them. Then, the technicians would work with authors, literary historians, and teachers to create important questions for the book. With this, the technicians will compile the information that the student entered into an outline. Ultimately, there would be an algorithm for this, but for our project I would like to do a mock up of what a student entered and what is generated as the outline.

It is my personal belief that it will be best to start with the Kindle, since it has the largest user interface. For my project I would like to create an embed for a Kindle that focuses on one specific book. By doing this we would prototype the interactive book to then show as an example for future books. This would make the project manageable for a group of college freshman. However, once we finish the project we can take it to a team of technicians and get them to write a general algorithm for the process of compiling the information.

In terms of selling our idea, we would sell the copyright to Kindle, iBook, and Nook and they can individually embed the format into their compatible software. Once they purchase the embed we will be able to do joint advertisements that advertise the embed within the framework of a specific company. Consumers will be able to purchase either the regular edition or the special embed edition from within the Kindle framework.

As far as marketing goes, we would target teachers, educators, and students alike in order to get our product out there. A specific logo and slogan I have designed is: Read with us. Achieve with us. (as pictured below).

Another slogan I thought of is the one below:

And finally:

The design of the embed itself “[confronts] the affordances” of digital technology and combines them with critical thinking skills (Kraus 84). Therefore, the logo should inspire society to do better and think better, which both of the previous logos do. Vannevar Bush said that science “has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual” (Bush 1). With the creation of this embed, knowledge will be able to evolve and change based on society’s growing reliance on technology. And isn’t that really what progress is about: the change and evolution of an idea? The book is a seed and this embed is the tree that grew from it.

Works Cited

Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 July 1945. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

Hayles, Katherine. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.

Kraus, Kari. 2013. Bibliocircuitry and the Design of the Alien Everyday (2013), The New Everyday, Textual Cultures.