ABSTRACT
In chapter 4 (this volume), we saw how computer technologies can affect thinking processes. In the study presented there, writers using word processing planned less, and planned at a more local level, than when they used pen and paper for writing. This chapter examines writers’ text sense problems and argues that writers’ representations of meaning for their own texts are materially based. It also examines what writers mean when they speak of “having a sense of the text” and what circumstances lead to the construction of text sense (and what circumstances seem to impede it). Finally, this chapter also presents an empirical study of writers’ sense of the text and a detailed description of writers’ physical interactions with text which may contribute to text sense.
