Using a Computer in Biblical and Theological Studies

2. Writing Tools

Dr. Harry Hahne, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto

Copyright © 1996-1999 Harry Hahne

Introduction:

This lesson focuses on tools and techniques for writing with a computer. The suggestions will help you use your computer as more than a typewriter. It includes a discussion of how to include Greek and Hebrew in your papers.

Some Helpful Tools for Writers:

Idea processor or outliner

This is a special type of word processor which is used for outlining. It is valuable for planning the structure of a paper or sermon.

It is especially excellent for writing the rough draft. You can try various orders of sections. If you move a section, the subsections move with it.

An idea processor is more powerful for manipulating changes than the automatic outline feature in most word processors. A word processor outliner is fine if you do not move things around too much. A word processor does not carry subtopics with higher level topics when you move them, unless you mark the whole section as a block.

PC Outline is a good DOS shareware idea processor (shareware $29 US; available via FTP from ftp://oak/oakland/edu/SimTel. Brown Bag Software, 2105 S. Bascom, Suite 164, Campbell, CA, 95008; 800-523- 0764; 408-559-4545). It is simple and effective, although it has not been enhanced in several years. Press here to download a copy of PC Outline.

WordPerfect for Windows has a very good ouitline function that is better than Microsoft Word. But neither are as convenient as dedicated idea processors for reorganizing the outline, hiding outline levels and other manipulations of the outline.

Bibliography formatting software

A personal bibliographic database manager saves students and scholarly writers time and ensures accurately formatted references.

These programs format the citations and bibliography in your document in any style, such as APA, MLA, Turabian or Chicago. They know such details as when to underline or quote a title, the order of citation elements, the different citation styles for different types of materials. Only Library Master also automatically formats the footnotes, including handling details such as differing styles of first and succeeding citations and the proper use of Ibid.

Library Master is the most flexible bibliographic database manager available, particularly for the humanities. It is currently only available for IBM PC computers. ($199.95 US for professors, $124.95 students; Balboa Software, 5845 Yonge St., PO Box 69539, Toronto, Ontario M2M 4K3 Canada 800- 763-8542; 905-763-8484 http://www.balboa-software.com).

Endnote is less powerful, but is available for Macintosh and IBM PC ($250 US, plus $100 for Endlink import utility).

CD-ROM writer's reference books

There are CD-ROM versions of reference books, such as dictionaries, manuals of writing style, books of famous quotations (e.g. Microsoft Bookshelf).

Encyclopedias are also available on CD-ROM. The ones bundled with a CD-ROM are aimed at the elementary school level, although they still contain useful information. The Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM is a more autoritative standard.

Sermon illustration databases

These allow you to store and organize sermon illustrations, examples, newspaper clippings, quotations and other illustrative material for sermons and articles. Each item can be cataloged under multiple subjects and, with some programs, Scripture passages.

A textual database can be used for storing sermon illustrations. Library Master includes a sample database for this purpose.

There are also dedicated illustration databases, which generally include several thousand illustrations to get you started. You can purchase additional sets of illustrations or even subscribe to periodic updates. The InfoSearch series from NavPress offers a database of humor and an update service that catalogs relevant current events by subjects and scripture passages (NavPress Software, PO Box 35006, Colorado Springs, CO 80936; 800-366-7788; 719-260-0404). See Jeffrey Hsu, Computer Bible Study, chapter 6 for a discussion of several programs. Many of these are available for DOS.

Helpful Word Processor Writing Features:

There are many underutilized word processor features that can help your writing. These easy-to-use features will save you time and help you write better.

Style Sheets

A style sheet lets you specify formatting characteristics of a document once for the entire document (e.g. main font, margins, table font, paragraph spacing, level of indentation for quotations).

The advantage is that you can change the format of the whole document by changing it in only one place. Without a style sheet, if you decide to change the spacing between paragraphs or use a smaller font for a table, you must search for every table or the end of every end of paragraph and change the settings.

In a two volume book with 650 pages, I was able to experiment with font sizes, margin settings, tab settings until it fit the required space and the appearance looked the way I wanted. Simply by changing one style sheet, I was able to change all 50 chapters, each in a separate file. H3>FootnotesMost modern high end word processors will automatically number footnotes, place them at the bottom of the page (or as endnotes at the end of document) and split long footnotes between pages.

Simply press a key and a footnote shell is created for you to fill in.

You can use a bibliographic formatting program, such as Library Master, to format the actual content of the footnotes.

Cross references

This feature allows you to create and automatically update cross-references (e.g., see footnote 2, page 23). When you move footnotes and main text, the cross reference numbers change.

A cross-reference is created by using a reference code instead of a reference number (e.g. placing a code where the 2 and 23 appear in the above example). Then insert a target code to mark the location of the item to which you are referring.

Thesaurus

A thesaurus lists synonyms for words. You can highlight a word and the program will suggest several alternatives. It is faster to look up than a printed thesaurus and automatically inserts the new word for you.

This can improve your writing by reducing the repetition of a word and it can help you find a more precise word to say exactly what you mean.

Remember that synonyms rarely mean exactly the same thing. Consult a CD-ROM dictionary or a printed dictionary to verify exact word meanings. Another useful tool is Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms. It is similar to a thesaurus, but it tells you the subtle differences between words so you can pick an appropriate word for the context.

Spell checker

A spell checker will automatically do a first pass proof read of your paper.

Most modern word processors come with spell checkers with large dictionaries (at least 100,000 words). They will also suggest alternate words, which vary in accuracy depending on how close you are to the real spelling of the desired word.

Tip: Create a custom dictionary of words you use a lot. You can add new words to the spell checker dictionary, such as theological words like "eschatology".

Do not assume that the spell checker is always right. It is easy to accidently misspell a word and create a word which really exists, but is not right for the context.

Grammar checker

Many word processors include an integrated grammar checker. There are also standalone programs such as Grammatik.

Editor was developed by the Modern Language Association for teaching writing. (MLA is the major academic society for English and modern language professors.) It finds 22,000 style and usage problems, including misused homonyms (sound-alike words like "their" and "there", "its" and "it's"). It looks for commonly confused words like "affect" and "effect", errors in plurals, possessives and hyphens. (The Academic Software Library, Box 8202, North Carolina State University, raleigh, NC, 27695-8202 800-955-8275, 212-614-6302)

Technically these program should be called style checkers. They are better at analyzing writing style than actual sentence grammar, although they catch some grammatical errors:

They can help find common errors of writing style, such as split infinitives or overusing a word.
They are also good at finding improper capitalization and punctuation problems.
They can estimate the readability or basic level of education required to understand a document. If your writing is too hard to understand, people will misunderstand or simply stop reading it.

Readability is based on a factors such as average sentence length, word length and use of more advanced words and jargon.
For term papers and published articles, aim for grade 8-12 level of writing, rather than a university level. For popular articles aim for grade 6-10.

Grammar checkers are far from perfect, because they really do not understand the content of the writing. They are even less useful for specialized writing with its own vocabulary. You can assume that many assessments made by a grammar checker will be wrong, just as a spell checker sometimes wrongly flags correctly spelled words.

When in doubt, consult a good guide to writing style. Time spent with a style guide will improve your writing more than a style checker. William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, New York, Macmillan, 1972, is a small paperback which suggests improvements for common writing errors. Another helpful book is Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Readable Writing, New York: Collier, 1962.

Automatic index and table of contents

Many high end word processors will let you mark words and phrases to include in a multilevel table of contents and index.

This is a great time saver for larger reports, such as a church position paper.

Automatic redlining

Redlining shows the differences between two versions of a document by marking additions and deletions.

This is useful when you are working on a writing project with a committee and want to highlight the changes of one revision to the next.

Drawing and charting programs

Many high end Windows and Macintosh word processing programs include a drawing program for creating simple graphics. Some include the ability to create charts, such as pie charts based on data. Standalone graphics programs are available for all platforms, including DOS.

Many word processors include a collection of clipart which can be inserted into your document. Public domain and commercial sets of clipart are available, including sets designed specifically for churches.

These graphics tools are useful for creating handouts and transparencies for Sunday School and conference messages.

Some Common Errors When Using a Word Processor:

Word processors lead to a whole class of writing errors. Here are some of the common ones to watch for:

Partially deleting old text when inserting new text. This can result in grammatical nonsense: e.g. partially change "allows you to read" to "lets you read" and you may end up with "lets you to read"; partially change "on the other hand" to "however" and end up with "on the other however".
Misspellings that accidently produce real words: e.g. if you type "rude" when you meant "ride", it will not be flagged as an error (press adjoining key on keyboard); or "sue" instead of "use" (transposition of letters).
Selecting the wrong replacement text with a spell checker: If you accidently choose the wrong choice of several alternative words offered by a spell checker, every occurrence of the word in the document will be changed. This can be a very hard error to find.
Excessive verbosity: Since it is easier to write with a word processor, many people write more words. Conciseness is a virtue.
Assuming that an attractive visual layout compensates for a poorly written paper.
Excessive variety of fonts: Using too many fonts is like a child who uses a different color of crayon for every letter of a word. Keep your font selections simple.

Multilingual Word Processing:

Special needs for academic word processing

Three to five years ago, most mainstream processors were designed primarily for office use and were not very suitable for academic word processing. That has largely changed as high end word processors try to be all things to all people.

Most of the current high end word processors for Windows, DOS and Macintosh are suitable (e.g. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word or Ami Pro). For DOS, Word Perfect 5.1 works very well, even on inexpensive hardware.

Special academic word processor needs include:

Automatic footnotes
Extensible spell checkers with large dictionaries
Online thesaurus
Multiple column creation
Charts
Large multi-file documents
Automatic indexing and table of contents generation
Extensive control of page layout
Multiple language support (e.g. easy entry of accented characters)

Greek and Hebrew word processing

One of the special needs for biblical and theological studies is the ability to write documents that combine Greek and Hebrew with other languages. For scholarly writing, an easy way to include French and German is also essential.

The problem is that it is only possible to display 256 different characters with an 8 bit character set. The ASCII standard only handles English letters. ANSI adds accented Roman characters, but cannot accommodate Greek and Hebrew.

A new standard called Unicode uses 16 bit characters rather than 8 bit characters. This allows for 65535 characters, enough for all characters used in every modern and ancient language, including a substantial number of Chinese characters. The problem is that Unicode is not implemented on most computers and will not work with most software. Windows requires special extensions to handle Unicode. One day hopefully our operating systems will include Unicode support, so all programs can be multilingual.

There are two major ways to handle Greek and Hebrew in a word processor:

Multilingual word processor
Special fonts for conventional word processors.

Multilingual word processors

Advantages and disadvantages of multilingual word processors

General purpose word processors usually do not accommodate multilingual text very well. Special multilingual word processors are designed to create documents with mixed languages.

Multilingual word processors tend to be weaker at general word processing functions found in modern general purpose word processors (e.g. they may lack indexers, column mode, thesaurus, etc.)

Although any Windows or Macintosh word processor can display non-Roman character sets if you have an appropriate font, they may not be easy to enter.

Multilingual word processors map the characters to an easy to remember keyboard layout, can add accents and diacritical marks to letters and properly word wrap right to left languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic. Some include multilingual spell checkers and allow entry of complex chemical and mathematical formulae.

The keyboard layout is changed when you switch languages. You may use either the national language keyboard and a phonetic layout which is easier for English-speaking people to use (e.g. press "S" for sigma).

DOS multilingual word processors

Nota Bene ($495 US, plus $150 for multilingual option; 25% student discount on basic package): One of the fastest and most powerful DOS word processors, with special features aimed at a scholarly audience. It can produce complex multilingual documents with multilevel footnotes, indexes and critical apparatus. It supports several non-Roman character sets, including optional Greek and Hebrew. The built-in textbase is useful for searching and retrieving databases of relatively static text. An optional integrated bibliographic program (Ibid) is available. It works very quickly since it displays non-Roman fonts in text mode. Most commands are entered on a command line. Some major drawbacks are high cost, a difficult command system and isolation from the word processing mainstream. A Windows version is forthcoming. (http://www.notabene.com/)
Chiwriter/Megawriter ($125 U.S, $25 for high resolution screen or printer drivers): An inexpensive multilingual and scientific word processor. It does not have the full formatting and command capabilities of the top word processors, but it is very good at handling Greek and Hebrew. It is easy to learn and use. It works with most graphics monitors and printers, except Postscript laser printers. It is not be under active development. Contact the Gramcord Institute for details (http://www.gramcord.org). Reviewed by Harry Hahne, "Multilingual Graphics- Mode Word Processors: Chiwriter 4.0 and Multilingual Scholar 4.0". ARC, McGill University Journal of Religious Studies 20 (Spring 1992):117-131. Reprinted in Computer-Assisted Research Forum 1 (Fall 1992): 9-13)
Multilingual Scholar ($395 U.S., educational and quantity discounts available): A DOS multilingual word processor for 175 languages, including Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Sanskrit and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. This is one of the best programs for multilingual documents with many languages. It works with most graphics monitors and graphics printers. All fonts are displayed in graphics mode. While more powerful than Megawriter, it lacks many powerful word processing features found in Word Perfect and Nota Bene. Reviewed by Harry Hahne, "Multilingual Graphics-Mode Word Processors")

Windows multilingual word processors

UniVerse (Gamma Productions): A windows word processor that handles over 175 languages, with virtually every modern and ancient character set, including Chinese and Japanese. It uses Unicode, the new 16 bit character set standard that accommodates all the characters of the world's languages. It excels at easy entry of non-Roman characters, with automatic keyboard mapping when you change languages. Hebrew and Arabic are entered right to left. Lines wrap around correctly, even when right to left and left to right languages are mixed on the same line. The spell checker automatically switches to a dictionary for the appropriate language (dictionaries must be purchased separately). The languages can be printed on any printer that works with Windows. Screen display is largely WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get"). The program currently lacks many important modern word processing features, such as footnotes, automatic indexing, multiple columns and graphics integration. It is also difficult to exchange files with other word processors that do not include the multiple languages. See the review by Robert Freud, "Gamma's Universe: True Multilingual Word Processing", Computer Assisted Research Forum Fall/Winter 2, 1 (1993-1994):6-8.
Accent Professional: A full featured multilingual word processor for dozens of languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. ($399 US; Accent Worldwide; 800-535-5256; 714-223-0620; http://www.accentsoft.com)
Nota Bene for Windows ($495 US, plus $199 for multilingual option; 25% student discount on basic package). Currently available in prerelease form. (http://www.notabene.com/)

Macintosh multilingual word processors

Nisus ($329 US): A Macintosh word processor developed in Israel, which allows multilingual word processing in Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese and other languages. (Nisus Software, Inc., Solana Beach, CA, 800-922-2993 nisus@weber.ucsd.edu; also Davka Corp., 7074 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60645. 312-465-4070)

Using fonts with conventional word processors

What is a font?

Strictly speaking a font refers to the particular appearance of a character set, such as Helvetica or Times. However, font sets exist for non-Roman characters sets, such as Greek and Hebrew.

If you use a non-Roman font with your word processor you can enter, display and print a language other than English.

Technically "font" should be used for a particular appearance of the characters (such as Helvetica or Times) and "character set" should be used for the actual characters in the set (such as Roman or Greek). However, the terms are often used interchangeably.

Entering accented characters

There are several ways to enter characters that require diacritical marks such as accents, breathing marks and vowel points:

Distinct Characters: Choose a single character which has both the letter and the diacritical mark. This is cumbersome, since you must either know the character number or choose from a chart (as in Word Perfect for Windows).
Overstrike Characters: When a diacritical mark is entered, the cursor backs up and types the diacritical mark over the character. WinGreek uses this method for entering pointed Hebrew.
"Zero-width" Characters: When you enter a diacritical mark, the cursor does not move ("sticky cursor"). Then when you enter another letter the combined character is displayed. Both BibleScript and Silver Fonts employ this technique.

Storing composite characters

There are two ways to internally store composite characters:

Distinct Characters: Assign a distinct value to every character combination. For example, when one types "a)/" in WinGreek's Greek Mode, character 212 is entered and an alpha with a smooth breathing and an acute accent is displayed.
Separate letter and diacritical characters: Insert a separate code for both the letter and the accent and let the software display the combined character on the screen. This places a greater burden on the display software and requires that you delete both the letter and the accent separately. WinGreek uses this method for pointed Hebrew.

Advantages and disadvantages of using fonts

There are several advantages to using non-Roman fonts with a conventional word processor:

Use familiar word processor commands.
General purpose word processors are usually more full featured than multilingual word processors.
Lower cost than dedicated multilingual word processor.

There are also several disadvantages to this approach to multilingual word processing:

No right-to-left word wrap with Hebrew.
Usually no multilingual spell checking (Unitype is an exception).
Editing existing text can pose problems, such as fonts changing inconsistently.

Greek and Hebrew fonts for DOS

Word Perfect for DOS has an extensive character set of almost 5000 characters, but it does not have an easy way to enter and display the characters. Utilities have been created to make this easier.
Scripture Fonts (Zondervan) turns Word Perfect 5.0 or 5.1 into a good Greek and Hebrew word processor. When you press a hot key, the keyboard changes to a Greek or Hebrew keyboard layout. Accents, breathing marks, vowel points automatically combine with letters. It works with a wide range of dot matrix and laser printers. (Zondervan Electronic Publishing, 1415 Lake Drive, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506, USA. Tel: 616- 698-3222; Fax: 616-698-3235)

Greek and Hebrew fonts for Windows

See http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/bible/reviews/fonts/ for reviews of several Windows fonts.

Fonts that come with Bible programs with Greek and Hebrew texts

Many Bible programs come with fonts that can be used with other Windows programs. This low cost solution may be all that most seminary students and pastors need.

Bible Windows and Bible works come with attractive fonts, with a nice keyboard layout. They include accents, breathing marks and other diacritical marks that automatically combine with other letters to produce composite characters.

Public domain and Shareware fonts

Scholars Press fonts: Free Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and transliteration TrueType fonts. (ftp://scholar.cc.emory.edu/pub/fonts)
WinGreek ($35 Cnd): Shareware Hebrew, Greek and Coptic fonts. It includes a right-to- left/diacritic utility and macros to make editing easier, such as one that puts a dot under English letters and one that automatically detects the font. (ftp://oak/oakland/edu/SimTel/win3/font/wgreek19.zip. Other fonts are also available on this site.)
Silver Fonts ($20 US). These fonts are used by the Bible Windows program. (Silver Mountain Software, 1029 Tanglewood, Cedar Hill, TX, 75104-3019; (800) 214-2144; (214) 293-2920; http://rampages.onramp.net/~jbaima/)

Commercial fonts

Bible Script ($99 US): Galaxie Software, Garland, TX, 75044; (214) 414-5322; (800) 723- 8965)
UniType ($150-350 US; discounts are available through many Bible software vendors; Gamma Productions): A full Unicode implementation for Windows. UniType enables most font- aware Windows programs to support over 175 modern and ancient languages. It also includes advanced options, which are not available with simple font sets: precise placement of diacritics, automatic reshaping of letters as required by context (such as mem and sigma), right-to-left text entry and optional multilingual spell checkers. Although somewhat slow, it is a clever solution to a complex problem. See the review Robert Freud, "UniType for Windows", http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/bible/reviews/fonts/unitype.html.

Greek and Hebrew fonts for Macintosh

Scholars Press fonts: Free high quality Greek and Hebrew TrueType fonts (ftp://scholar.cc.emory.edu/pub/fonts)
MacGreek and MacHebrew: Very high quality Truetype and Adobe fonts for the Macintosh. Hebrew allows left to right typing. (MacGreek: $79.95; MacHebrew: $79.95 (or both for $129.95 including MacPhonetics; LaserGreek: $99.95; LaserHebrew: $99.95 (or both for $179.95 or with MacPhonetics: $249.95). Linguist's Software, PO. Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580, USA; Tel: 206-775- 1130; Fax: 206-771-5911.)

Reading Assignment:

Required:

Jeffrey Hsu, Computer Bible Study, chapters 5 and 6.

Harry Hahne, "Multilingual Graphics-Mode Word Processors: Chiwriter 4.0 and Multilingual Scholar 4.0". ARC, McGill University Journal of Religious Studies 20 (Spring 1992):117-131; reprinted in Computer-Assisted Research Forum 1 (Fall 1992):9-13.
Glenn Wooden and Harry Hahne, "Greek and Hebrew Fonts for Windows" (http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/bible/fonts/).
Robert Freud, "UniType for Windows", (http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/bible/fonts/unitype.html).
Robert Freud, "Gamma's Universe: True Multilingual Word Processing", Computer Assisted Research Forum Fall/Winter 2, 1 (1993-1994):6-8.
Skim John J. Hughes, Bits, Bytes and Biblical Studies, chapter 2. Although the reviews are out of date, many of the principles about multilingual computing still apply.