The Computer and the Page by James Kalmbach

Part One reviewed by Patricia Ericsson

My review of the first part of The Computer and the Page by James Kalmbach is designed for readers who have not read the text. Since this review takes the place of a class presentation of the book, I will attempt to give you a sense of the book through my own synthesis, supported by excerpts from the text. Hopefully, this review, Linda's review of the second part, and the two other reviews that we found online will give you a good idea of the book itself and how it relates to the work we have done in our class. Hopefully, reading these reviews will encourag you to comment on the book via our Net Forum.

Introduction to Part One

James Kalmbach begins by defining publishing as a social act, commenting that he has taught publishing courses "always with a focus on publishing as a rhetorical and social act rather than as a collection of techniques or technologies or as a commercial process" (5). This approach to publishing is a "social view of publishing" (5). The first three chapters of the book work to define publishing as social theory.

In the introduction to Part One, Kalmbach expresses concern that some readers may believe that publishing is not a concern to composition teachers, but makes an argument (which is carried further in Parts 2 and 3) that publishing is of concern to that audience as well. In light of our class readings and our recent discussion with Anne Wysocki about her Kairos piece, "Monitoring Order: Visual desire, the Organization of web pages, and Teaching the rules of design," Kalmbach's claim may meet a more receptive audience in HU 520 than it would in other circles. Wysocki's conscious design intent when she writes and her push to make students aware of a text's design as a communicative part of their compositions lends weight to Kalmbach's claim that publishing concerns belong in the composition classroom.

Chapter 1 What is Publishing?

In Chapter 1, Kalmbach's purpose is to define publishing. He maintains that "publishing" is an idea defined by the assumption that, "everyone knows what publishing is" (7). He then works against that inaccurate assumption by explaining what publishing is not: "In short, a writer is not the same thing as a publisher, a text is not the same thing as a document, and a reader is not the same thing as the person or group of persons who receives and acts on a copy of a document. Publishing is not writing; publishing is not reading" (8).

To situate publishing as a social act, Kalmbach calls upon Marilyn Cooper's idea that "Writing is one of the activities by which we locate ourselves in the enmeshed systems that make up the social world. It is not simply a way of thinking but more fundamentally a way of acting" (11). He uses Cooper's viewpoint of writing as social action and situates publishing this way:

I suggest that we similarly approach publishing from this perspective of social action. The production and distribution of a document is the written equivalent of an oral speech act. When a text is published, copies are produced and distributed to achieve a specific purpose or purposes. The people who get those documents either take or fail to take action.

With publishing approached this way, Kalmbach can then divide and discuss the social roles of publishing as a speech act. He creates four roles: the publisher, the document, the processes of reproduction and distribution, and the user (which eventually acquires a sub-section of action).

At the end of Chapter 1, Kalmbach completes his definition of publishing by moving to the process of publishing. If publishing is a social act, it cannot be a singular or discrete event. "Publishing is a discontinuous process that unfolds in discrete, often circular steps over time" (21).

By the end of Chapter 1, Kalmbach's careful definition of "publishing" has allowed the reader a much richer understanding of the complications of publishing and its unique social impact. The four roles give us not only a better understanding of the process of publishing, but also more sophisticated insights when we analyze the changes that are taking place as we move from print to digital publishing. The groundwork he lays in Chapter 1 is important for the rest of his book, but has value for a reader who goes no further than the first chapter. An understanding of the social nature of publishing and a breakdown of the social roles entailed in it can provide useful analytical lenses for examining the changing nature of publishing.

Chapter 2 The Continuum of Publishers

In this chapter, Kalmbach narrows his discussion from a workable definition of publishing to focus more particularly on the publisher. He notes that

a wide range of collaborative groups work on the production of various document masters. At one extreme of this continuum is the individual publisher, one person who does all (or most) of the various tasks involved in planning, writing, and designing a document. At the other extreme are teams of professionals who work together to produce a document. (25)

Once this range is established, Kalmbach moves to the publication's purpose. Again his discussion divides the topic of purpose into two elements: commercial and organizational publications. By combining collaboration and purpose, he can set up a continuum of publishers that fits into a four-cell grid (33). This grid provides useful categories for pegging some types of publications, but as Kalmbach is quick to point out, a grid suggests "an absolute division between commercial/organizational and individual/collaborative publishing when in fact documents are often published to meet complex, overlapping commercial and organizational purposes" (32).

For my own work, this chapter has minor significance, but for a project more concerned with a more detailed analysis of publishers, this chapter could be helpful.

Chapter 3 Evaluation and the Role of Visible Text

For the work our class has focused on and discussed, Chapter 3 is the most instructive. Kalmbach begins this chapter by noting that "Evaluation as a part of publishing has been little studied, in large part because publishing has not been viewed as a social process" (37). It stands to reason that a book that begins by defining publishing as a social process would spend considerable ink on evaluation. The author adds that rather than being viewed as "convenience," evaluation "is a strategy for survival" (38).

Kalmbach's subdivisions in this chapter begin with "Establishing a Social Context" and "Connection." More important for readers coming from a class concerned with print/digital rhetorics, is the authors definition and discussion of "visible texts." Curiously, the definition of "visible text" takes the form of a footnote, but is an invaluable beginning to his discussion:

Visible text refers to all the devices that make text and textual relationships visible on a page. These devices include different typefaces . . ., different type styles . . . , and different sizes of type. Visible text also includes various devices (often grouped together under the heading of "typographic color") that communicate textual structure by visually organizing elements on a page such as rules under headlines, borders around sidebars, dingbats to distinguish items in a list, and white space. (42)

In the same footnote, Kalmbach makes the claim that

Mastering the vocabulary of type and the strategies for effectively managing type and typographic color is the single most important visual skill that writers need now that typography is built into the operating systems of our computers. (42)

The subdivisions set up in this chapter follow the pattern established in the previous two. Visible text is broken into two divisions: "Visible Text and the Container," and Visible Text and Community." The container consists of elements like the typeface and size, the display space, how the container is to be reproduced and distributed, and the interface between the text and the display space.

In his definition and discussion of "Visible Text and Community" Kalmbach further emphasizes the social process of publishing. The appearance of a published document and the language that document uses can make an appeal to a particular discourse community.

The idea of a discourse community in composition as the larger audience for writing seems to correspond to this notion of a speech community in documents. A discourse community can be thought of as a group of publishers and users who share verbal and visual values. These values are expressed in the documents they create and share. (46)

The idea of a discourse community for published documents may help us understand the level of discomfort that many traditional academics find while reading hypertext documents. The academic world has been one heavily influenced by "words only, and words in a row" publications. Other discourse communities (like those of TV aficionados or those who regularly play videos games) may adapt to the multiple images and non-linear presentations of publications in digital form more quickly and with less annoyance.

The final section of Chapter 3, "Evaluation and Electronic Texts," effectively illustrates problems with the turtle's pace of print publishing and the accelerated pace brought about by digital publishing. The first clue is a parenthetical disclosure Kalmbach makes while commenting on the ways users locate electronic texts in the social matrix: "(at least electronic publishing in 1995)" (48). Support for this section of the chapter comes from publications dated 1993 and 1994. Obviously these sources were up-to-date when the book was publised just two short years ago, but seem "old" in a technologically impacted publishing world. This is no fault of the author, but a clear illustration of how the evaluation of published texts is being impacted by the availability of timely publication on the WWW.

In regards to the evaluation of electronic publishing, both technology and mindsets have changed appreciably since 1995. In the Net Forum, I hope to further this discussion and consider some perspectives on these changes with the author's participation.

I strongly agree with Kalmbach's assertion at the end of Chapter 3: "A new technology like the World Wide Web may change how we evaluate documents, but it does not change the need for evaluation" (50). Evaluation becomes even more critical in the WWW because of the sheer number of documents available to users in that realm. Those interested in publishing in the WWW can benefit greatly from the insight and understanding gained from a view of publishing a social process.