Reflection
Here is my handwritten reflection. Please click on the interactive elements below for full image and typed text.
Commentary
Do you normally write by hand or type? Did you find this task difficult or easy? Explain.
I do not normally write by hand these days. I used to be a handwriting person; I took notes by hand during university even though my laptop was with me all the time. Choosing and buying lovely notebooks and colorful pens for the incoming semester was exciting and enjoyable. Nowadays, it is hard to even find a piece of paper in my apartment, but I still sometimes write by hand using my iPad. I did not find this task too difficult because of the muscle memory I developed when learning to write. Even though I have not written by hand for a while, my finger muscles can quickly recall the writing movements when I start writing again. Also, I practiced Italian handwriting during high school, so I am confident and motivated to write this task by hand.
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?
When I made the first mistake, I got confused for a second because I did not find the “delete” key. I am so used to being able to go back and delete after making mistakes when typing on laptops, making editing a handwriting note challenging for me. I could only cross out the mistake and rewrite it correctly for this handwritten text. Also, it is not easy to produce error-free text when writing by hand since I do not have the aid of editing and auto-correction tools. So, I decided to write a draft, edit it by fixing grammatical or structural mistakes, and rewrite it on another paper. My choice of media played a part in how I edited my work. Paper and pen made editing more troublesome than an iPad, which provides convenient functions such as selecting and moving, copying and pasting, and erasing.
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 the most significant difference is the editing and corrections. Making edits in handwritten text is more cumbersome because it often involves crossing out words or starting over. Directly producing an error-free work seems impossible. In comparison, mechanized forms of writing can be easily produced using digital tools, which allows users to delete, cut, copy, and paste text with ease. Also, I had to think more about spelling when writing by hand and still made spelling mistakes, which can easily be auto-corrected when typing.
Bolter (2001) claimed that “when in the history of writing a new technology appears, it may supplement an established technology or replace it” (p.22). From my observation, phones, laptops, computers, and other developing technological products are gradually replacing paper and pen. I personally prefer typing on a keyboard because it provides various advantages. Typing is less physically demanding than handwriting, which leads to hand fatigue after writing for a while. Also, typing allows for faster and more efficient writing, assisting me to finish tasks with speed and accuracy. Digital documents can be stored and retrieved quickly, making information management more efficient. Moreover, as Bolter (2001) mentioned, web spaces contain multimedia features (audio, video, interactive elements, etc.) that paper does not.
References
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.