Task 4: Manual Scripts
Manual Script:
Reflection:
I found the manual production of this text to be quite challenging. While I did not encounter too much trouble crafting the words of the text, it was the physical process of writing by hand that gave me difficulties. Clearly, my finger, hand and wrist muscles for this particular fine-motor activity are now vastly underdeveloped. It reminded me of being back in school and spending the first couple of weeks at the start of the year getting my handwriting stamina back to par. This activity made me realize how much of my daily text production is done through mechanized methods of texting and typing. Beyond jotting quick notes on Post-its, writing shopping lists and occasionally brainstorming on whiteboards, I almost exclusively use phone and laptop keyboards to write.
I wrote this text as a free-flowing journal of sorts, detailing a recent development of a particular hobby. And while I did not have many moments where I wanted to rephrase passages, I did have a couple of instances of misspellings. For the most part, I largely left them as is, but in at least one case I crossed out and word and wrote the intended word above. I realized that editing was not really a part of my process for this activity, as is common when I am typing and texting. I found myself trusting my inner narration more with my handwriting, likely due largely to the fact that if I wanted to change something it would require a much greater effort than simply doing so digitally.
I would say that, without a doubt, I prefer using mechanized forms of writing, specifically typing, over handwriting. I believe that digitally typed text has many advantages over manually written text. Namely, speed and efficiency. When I type a text I can produce the actual letters at a greater pace. Over time, this means that I could produce much longer pieces in comparison, without suffering from hand fatigue or the need to get more writing supplies, like paper. In terms of efficiency, digitally produced text allows me to delete or even move around words or whole chunks of text. This makes the editing process much less tedious than handwritten texts. Beyond that, in digital text writing, there are now built-in functions that assist even further such as spelling/grammar check, word count check, Grammarly and more.
The single greatest advantage, for me, of mechanical text production over manual text production is the tidiness of the text. I have always been somewhat insecure about the look of my printing and cursive writing. I went through school with my teacher always pointing out my “chicken scratch” or asking me to write more legibly. Mechanized writing has given me much more confidence in my writing as the focus can be directed toward the content and not the aesthetic.