For this task, we are asked to write by hand. As I never write by hand anymore, the topic of my manually written text is a reflection on the times when I used to write by hand often.  Through my reflection, I realize that I have not written manually regularly for almost 20 years. I recall how as an undergrad when computers were still new to me, I used to write all my essay first drafts by hand, transcribing them later into Word. This makes me sound old. Interestingly, I am a millennial, just never had computer access until my adults years.

This was a very challenging activity. I very rarely manually write anymore. I typically have a laptop, tablet, or smartphone with me at all times, so I utilize whatever technology is available to take notes, write reminders, or whatever the need is at the time. The first major challenge I ran into was finding paper and a pen! I had to dig into the deepest recesses of my closet to find the vitals of manual writing technology. And even then, the only paper I could find was graphing paper.

Writing itself was hard. Within minutes my hand began to cramp. By the end of the task, my hand was so sore, it reminded me of the lack of sensation my hands would have after massive 3-4 hour essay exams of my undergrad years. The pain was not a pleasant experience.

When I was preparing for this task, I was expecting myself to make a lot of mistakes, particularly misspelling. Interestingly, it was like riding a bike. My hands seemed to know the shapes it needed to make and words I have seen myself misspell and correct on screen were perfectly written on paper.  That is not to say I did not make mistakes in this writing. As I did in the past when this was the mode of writing, for small mistakes, I wrote over the mistake, blending it into the correct word. For larger mistakes, I scribbled them out. As I was using pen, my options for editing were limited. If I had whiteout that could have helped with correcting mistakes. Pencil would have offered the option of erasing mistakes. The media impacts the options available for editing.

Another challenge I found was tracking word count. With typing, I am so used to having a word counter automatically tick away as I write. Estimating word count in manually writing is much more challenging. For most activities in the world, word count really does not matter, so I am not sure what our obsession with it is.

The editing capabilities, I think, are the biggest differences between computerized and manually writing technologies. It is more than being able to quickly correct mistakes. With computerized writing, you can move sentences, rearrange text, and copy text and media from other documents. This flexibility is not available in manual writing technologies. In some ways, I think this has also given us flexibility in thinking. Back when manual writing was the technology for writing essays, you may think to swap two adjacent sentences. However, it is unlikely that you would think to swap sentences that appear on separate pages. This flexibility is the reasons I prefer computerized writing. I would hate to give up copy and paste technology.

In this task, I experimented with the voice to text transcription software https://www.speechtexter.com/. I dictated a story about my dog to see what this program’s output would be. Here is the output:

In 2008 I fell in love with a Boston Terrier Elizabeth strange because prior to this actually don’t like dogs I have cats I thought dogs were a bit too high maintenance didn’t really have a choice in the matter though the moment I met Mathis dog I fell in love but that’s not to say that it wasn’t hard her Boston Terriers are very active creatures and she was probably one of the worst the moments girls from morning till night she was bouncing off the walls doing anything she could come into contact with walking her down the streets was tricky because she would find me little piece of garbage and just to on it like it was bubble gum and then you will fall asleep I want to slap she love hard and she snored was the cutest thing ever this day she’s a really good sleeper whenever she went to the dog parks she would just take over it was all the dogs would just like bow down under to her energy cuz it was a joke boundless she pissed a lot of people off though humans don’t seem to like her maybe just because she was so energetic and it seemed like she was about dog can you she wasn’t a bad dog the mission was the sweetest thing that ever existed I turn off you know got mad at her and pissed off at her organic ways on that type of thing but and you’re right that she was sweeper smell turn when you have a energetic puppy like that because everyone thinks that you’re a bad trainer you’re not training your dog right you’re letting up to all kinds of things really it was just that she was energetic when she got home she was so tired she fell asleep it was great I remember one time I used to keep her in the crate while I went to work and eventually you don’t even need to close the door they just kind of stay there but one day she got bored and I came home and I have the keys molding all around my apartment for some rides to every inch of that molding even though it was a terrible thing to come home too and a very expensive fix it was really funny because very few dogs are that determined to destroy entire apartment of molding the dog and other people started to notice that I remember that particularly my mom she didn’t really get along with my dog and thought she was too energetic and everything like that but right around that time when she was about five everyone started to take notice and wanted to hang out with her even to this day every time I take her to a dog park though all the dogs pay attention for some reason they think she’s a queen I’m so many pictures of like packs of dogs surrounding her and just admiring her and touching her feet and all kinds of things like that it it’s really cute at one point ahead roommates Elsa hot dogs do dogs have no personalities whatsoever boring pop song and they didn’t like my dog picture of personality tool actually really scared a lot couple things but my dog really needs and one of them is cuddles and the other one is she loves to I don’t like it at all times and my roommates didn’t seem to know that she’s already trying to one of my roommates but the other roommate would never came to her it’s funny because she does turning people she can just sit there and shiver and you know right away than what she wants is a blanket she does all the time she’s pretty much under a blanket from October to from October to me and it’s interesting because she doesn’t like the cold winter looks the winter winter means blankets he’s going to put your balls up this year she had her 11th birthday very mellow these days server time sleeping she was slower be quiet quiet whenever there’s a fire alarm she will scares her so much she just turn on like loud noises fireworks or a challenge Halloween coming up I’m not looking for that one bit there’s always someone in the neighbourhood who have some fireworks I can sometimes convince her that they are pretty what you think something’s pretty she comes down a bit it’s an interesting thing I can never answer a lot of things a dog after all but you don’t listen to me she’s almost 12 she’s definitely senior she definitely doesn’t look. She definitely doesn’t play her Aid

Using the voice to text was an interesting experience. As I spoke, I could actually see the words being typed (incorrectly) in front of my eyes. One thing that strikes me is that we pack a lot of words into speech. I would never have imagined that my short story is almost 800 words. As I look at the text, I can see that some of the words are filler–others just mistakes in the transcription.

As this was an unscripted story, there are many things I would change if I scripted it. First, without a script, I often go off on tangents and move away from the point I am trying to make. This definitely happened in my telling of this story.  However, I think that is one of the lovely aspects of oral story-telling–it evolves each time you tell the story. Reading these tangents in a text makes very little sense. However, in oral speech the connection to the broader story may be in the non-verbal communication and gestures.

There are a lot of mistakes in this text output–almost to a point where the text is unreadable.  Most of the mistakes seem to be from saying groups of words too fast.  While there are limitations in what the voice to text transcription program can pick up and distinguish unique words, it also makes me wonder if others perceive this blending of groups of words in my speech. Do I mumble? Do I speak too fast? Would new learners of English understand me? It may very well be the case that this is not that noticeable in speech, but I will definitely be watching out for it now.

Another ‘mistake’ is the lack of punctuation. In speech, we do not use punctuation in the same sense. Some of the pauses and silences are part of the oral ‘punctuation’. However, the speech to text transcription does not pick up the pauses and silences. These are not really mistakes, but rather differences between speech and text. Without punctuation, it makes the story incredibly difficult to read, as it is hard to see where ideas begin, end, and relate to other ideas.

The difficulties of transcribing my oral story illustrate the differences between oral and text-based storytelling. When you tell an oral story, grammar is less important, as timing, non-verbal gestures andexpressions also give meaning. However, with text, grammar is needed to show connection between ideas and starts and ends in speech.  

There is rarely a moment of any day when I do not have my purse in reach. What makes this bag so critical to living that I need to be near it at all times? Let’s take a look!

Itemized list of its contents:

• Keyring containing car key and fob, apartment building fob/remote for parking, apartment door key, mail key, file cabinet keys, and save-on-more points card.
• Parking ticket received September 5, 2019
• Bottle of Pepcid Complete antacids
• Bottle of Advil
• Pair of red Bluetooth headphones
• Cardholder containing drivers licence, health card, and various debit and credit cards
• $287 US cash
• 2 Canadian quarters
• Badge card and lanyard for my place of employment
• Print out from Ticketmaster for tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway June 15, 2019
• Not in photo: my smartphone, as it lives in my purse when not in use (it was needed to take this photo)

The contents of my purse weave an interesting story of who I am, what I do, where I live, and where I’ve been. The keyring indicates that I most likely live in an apartment complex due to the number of keys and fobs. The newness and branding on the car key fob indicate that I drive a newer model Volkswagen. You might question my driving skills due to the recent parking ticket, but I assure you this ticket is 100% a mistake. I have a monthly parking pass at work, but it appears Impark did not receive my licence plate information from the building manager. The parking ticket itself is text, as it tells a narrative of where I was at a specific point in time.

Antacids and Advil might indicate some health issues. Really, they are just necessary products for a busy life. Working full-time along with graduate studies lack of sleep and forgetting breakfast sometimes leads to a need for Advil or antacids.

Probably the most interesting contents of my bag are the juxtaposition of US and Canadian cash. The fact that there is more US cash would seem to indicate that I spend more time in the US. This would be incorrect, as I rarely use cash. Instead, I use the debit and credit cards in the cardholder. The US cash is a leftover from a trip I took to New York in June. The tickets to Hamilton also have not been cleared from the purse since the trip. Both the cash and the ticket are texts. I consider cash a text, as they have authority in how they signify value in most cultures around the world. The ticket is a text, as it tells a narrative of where I was at a specific point of time. Interestingly, the Hamilton tickets could also be seen as a text of a text, as the ticket is a text, but so is the play.

The sparsity of the content of my purse is a result of a digitally intensive lifestyle. Most of what I do, read, write is digital. Many of the items in the picture are part of the technological system of my life. My keyring contains two fobs, which use radio signals to unlock my apartment building door, garage, and car. The parking ticket, while not directly digital, was issued from a computer used by Impark to verify parking fees paid. My cards are printed using computerized technologies, and when I use them to pay, computers use encrypted digital text protocols to communicate with payment processors and banks to verify identity and adequate financial funds. My badge card for work  contains an RFID chip that when tapped on the reader in the building elevator, gives me access to my floor and secure office area. The cash money is designed and printed with machines. I consider both my badge card and cards a text technology, as they are designed to communicate encrypted text to machines designed to read the text. The fibres of the money contain a unique mixture of plastics, colours, and metals—a text technology implemented to prevent fraud. Finally, my headphones use Bluetooth technology. Typically, my headphones are used to listen to music, online videos, and various other audio texts—this too, would be a text technology, as it is designed to read certain kinds of text.