Editorial Page

By Pamela Beers

Feel free to comment on any topic, but since we are a writing ezine, it would be really cool to have a writing-related angle somewhere in your piece.

Please submit your editorials to editor@writeronline.us

We look forward to reading your submissions.

Pam Beers comments on last week's essay, "Literacy in the Digital Age."

Mary Anne Donovan's article on literacy struck a chord within me. Literacy is an area in which I am also passionate. 

Part of literacy in today's business world includes, not only computer literacy, but the ability to be able to keyboard at a rate that will allow work to flow smoothly and efficiently. The second sentence, second paragraph, "...often with the assistance of a secretary to "clean up" the mess," grabbed my attention.

Having talked with executives, management, and engineers (all of the male gender) they admitted that keyboarding (I used to call it typing) is something they never learned in school or had any desire to learn. Now they wish they had learned. Their college papers were typed professionally. They are at a loss as to the time it takes to get out e-mails, reports, and manuals because they lack keyboarding skills. Secretaries are no longer an option due to downsizing. They have discovered that typing with two fingers is a waste of time and in business, time is money. 

Ms. Donovan's question, "what is the answer to dissolving this digital divide," may be answered, in part, by instructing people how to keyboard, saving valuable time and money for small business owners and major corporations. It's a start and the need is there.

Pamela L. Beers

 M.S. Ed. Literacy