How Technology Advanced the Way We Write

From the dawn of human evolution, writing has come a very long way. Whether it was etchings on stone, ink on scrolls, or bytes on a word processor file, humans always found ingenious ways of communicating. And although the medium used may have been different for each era, the principle of communication and that idea of getting a message across remained the same. Today however, technology has helped us get the message across more easily and accurately than our ancestors did. Simple tools like autocomplete, autocorrect, and spelling and grammar check have made writing for today's humans more hassle and error free.

Autocomplete Function

Iphone Application

The autocomplete feature is prevalent in many Applications. Web browsers, word processors, integrated Development environments, and search engines all employ some type of autocompletion functionality. The feature basically predicts what the user is intending to type before he/she has actually finished typing it. It uses the currently keyed in characters and calculates the most suitable word to display.

Developing code has also gotten faster with the advent of autocompletion. A coder can simply start typing and prompt an autocomplete using a keyboard shortcut combination. The function either completes the code or presents the user with a list of possible candidates from which the user can select. Search engines offer a similar function where the list is ordered based on how frequently the word or words have been searched.

Autocorrect Function

This feature is similar to the autocomplete feature in that it helps the user finish typing a word quicker. The main difference is it attempts to fix mistakes caused by typographical errors by replacing the typed word with the correct one. The word used for replacement is determined by the vicinity of the keys typed and a dictionary of words matching the sequence. The iPhone uses this feature to speed up typing text messages. For example, say the user typed in "gwkku", autocorrect will see that 'g' is next to 'h', 'w' is next to e, 'k' is next to 'l', and 'u' is next to 'o', thereby deducing that the user was supposed to write "hello" instead, and replace the erroneous word.

Spell and Grammar Check Function

Our writing is also commonly supplemented with a spell checker and grammar checker. Word processors and email clients use this feature to make sure the user writes legibly and error-free. Spelling errors are usually underlined and have an associated right-click context menu listing suitable replacement suggestions. Similarly, the grammar checker underlines phrases that do not have correct sentence structure and suggests possible replacement phrases in a right-click context menu.

How Technology Advanced the Way We Write