Publish, Perish, or Process?

Reviews the book, Scholars and Personal Computers: Microcomputing in the Humanities and Social Sciences by George M. Kren and George Christakes (see record 1988-97238-000). This is a useful book. The best feature of the book, perhaps unintended, is the variety of hypotheses almost parenthetically suggested, many of which could and should be tested empirically. Because many of these are suggested only in passing, the authors forego an opportunity that could set this book apart from the hundreds of others that merely describe "what's out there." My biggest concern about the value of the book lies in the authors' thesis that, first, using a word processor increases the quality of production and, second, that academic word processing is qualitatively different from the type of word processing done in the corporate sector. By making this distinction, they open themselves up to several issues they do not adequately address. Any endeavor such as Scholars and Personal Computers, by the very nature of its contents, has to suffer from being out of date the moment it is published. Although this volume represents an interesting approach to the education of students with learning disabilities, many readers will be disappointed by what is not included in the book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)