Task 4: Manual Text
Do you normally write by hand or type? Did you find this task difficult or easy? Explain.
I do a mix of both writing by hand and typing. If I need to make a quick note, I am more likely to write it down on a post-it or on a “To-Do” list. However, my Day Plan for work is a typed and printed template, that I fill in, in a pen that stands out; green, red, orange, etc. Overall, I found this task easy. I enjoy journaling and even though I do not do it nearly enough, I find peace in taking time to write; evening using my Bullet Journal for the task to “get in the zone”. However, the one part I found hard was trying to figure out what to write about.
What did you do when you made a mistake or wanted to change your writing? How did you edit your work? Did your choice of media play a part in how you edited your work?
I continued to write when I made a mistake. I think, in part, due to personality and experience with journaling. I generally do not have any issues with making mistakes. When writing in a journal, I am mostly writing for myself and not for an audience, so mistakes are not something I worry about. That being said, I only realized now that I spelled “journaling” incorrectly all throughout my script.
What do you feel is the most significant difference between writing by hand and using mechanized forms of writing? Which do you prefer and why?
I feel time and stamina is the significant difference. I was very aware how quickly my hand started to feel sore from writing. Although, I also I tend to write swiftly and press hard. I think other forms of manual writing, such as calligraphy, contribute to this idea of time and stamina being a factor. However, even if a mechanized form of writing, such as typing, is meant to speed up the process, I think it depends on the person engaging with it. In comparison to my parents; I prefer typing over writing by hand for some tasks, while my mother would almost always prefer writing by hand, then typing it only out of necessity – clarity, work, etc.
References
Bullet Journal. (2021). Learn. Retrieved from https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn
Clarissa! It is so nice to have another class with you. 🙂
Your hand writing is beautiful and I love that you have spoken here about the soreness of your hand and the pressure of writing. I am connecting this with how my students feel about a large ink project like a Zentangle verses a detailed drawing project with a lot of pencil shading. I think that the instrument we use, how we hold it and the gestures that we make repetitively must be much of the issue. In sketching and drawing in graphite, my students never complain about hand cramping or soreness. However, with rollerball ink pens, they always do after about a half hour. We end up giving our hands a break, a stretch and a light massage.
On this note, I think about mom who worked as a typesetter for a newspaper, and then as a secretary and a library technician. With the advent of the computer, she suffered in later years from tendonitis in her wrists. She wore braces and even bought a special keyboard to help. I notice now that I wake up with stiff fingers after working late at night on papers for UBC, but that staying up all night painting in my studio only affects my shoulder and not my fingers.
I wonder, especially with voice to text softwares increasing in popularity, how the future of “writing” will change to better accommodate or physical needs and limitations?