Computerized writing (the digitized word) may affect the utility and meaning of reading and writing in coming generations. The digitized word poses no threat to the technology of literacy; it merely entrenches literacy further into Western culture by making certain operations faster, easier, repeatable, etc. One significant, positive by-product of the digitized word among students is its implicit encouragement toward collaboration among peers and with the instructor. Use of the digitized word facilitates composing, retrieving, recombining, and revising ideas and form, making transcription the least arduous part of the writing task. The videotext created by the digitized word is fluid, interactive, and "soft," thereby creating new metaphors for the process of thinking and composing. While the digitized word actually enhances and enlarges the technology of literacy, it challenges the authority of texts and traditional Western textuality as the dominant noetic in composition classrooms. In the best scenario, digitized writing will democratize knowledge and free writers to discover, understand, and reveal their worlds to themselves and others. However, society still needs wise men and women whose literacy connects them with the orality of the past and brings their present experience to the textuality of the future. (AEW)