Remediation and Writing Spaces

Every book I read is usually written in the same writing space. The words are evenly spaced over white paper and printed in clear black ink. The font is usually at least 10 pt. The messages written in these books are always different, but the way they are displayed on the page is inviting.  As a writer, I have many personal writing spaces. The contents of my school notebooks are one, and my personal journals are another. My writing space consists of letters that I’ve formed by carelessly mixing cursive with print. They are usually written in black ink, and they have some sort of doodle around any given word.  My most frequently visited writing space, however, is electronic. It’s where everything I write is finalized. I may structure a piece of writing using the more traditional writing space of a ballpoint pen on a sheet of paper, but when I’m sitting in front of my MacBook, typing something into my word processor, for some reason the piece of writing at hand seems to automatically become more important than something I’ve scribbled on a piece of paper. The Webster’s dictionary definition of the word remediation states that remediation is the process of correcting an error. Bolter and Grusin’s definition is more the idea of taking something and refining it to make it more up to date. Handwriting and electronic writing, I think, are remediated by each other. For example, some handwriting can’t be deciphered at all-so the word processor becomes an instant remedy for poor handwriting. On the other hand, when you look at the different fonts that a word processor has to offer you will find many that imitate handwriting (Bradley Hand ITCTT, and Handwriting- Dakota, just to name a few). The two writing spaces must incorporated some parts of each other in order to build and develop.