Story Page 1

Story Page 2

Discussion

These days the majority of my writing is done on a computer keyboard. Whenever I write by hand, it’s either a note to myself or wishing someone a happy birthday on a card. There were multiple challenges in this task. The first one was my lack of practice in handwriting. I have never had great handwriting, but  I had to focus on being legible over a long period. My hand was actually starting to cramp as I wrote because I’m not used to longform writing by hand.

Looking at the first image above, the first problem I encountered is apparent. The pen I chose to start wasn’t working, so I had to find a new pen to continue writing. I also needed to pay attention to the small details when committing text to the page. When I made a mistake, I simply crossed out the word and wrote the intended word above it. When I came to the end of the page, I had to decide whether to cram the next word in or continue it on the next line – something that is automatic on computer word processors.

Another challenge was how I approached the content of the story. Even before pen touched paper, I considered the structure of the story I was about to write and approximately how long it would be. I also paused regularly while writing to reflect on the structure of the next paragraph or sentence. I didn’t start writing a sentence until I had a complete thought in my head because I knew it was difficult to change it. This is quite different from my writing on a computer, where I will sometimes freewrite and then go back and edit, reorganize, and delete text. Handwriting forced me to commit to a thought, so in that way it was more mentally taxing.

I chose to write the first page in printed form and the next page in cursive. I learned both of these writing styles as a child. Printed letters were easy, but I found myself having to stop and think about how to write capital letters when writing the cursive section. My wife is not a native English speaker and did not learn cursive growing up. When I asked her to read the written story, she read the first half easily but struggled in the cursive section. This highlights another important aspect of handwriting – audience. The writing needs to consider the reader when forming words on a paper, as writing in an unconventional way can decrease legibility. This is less of a concern with computer typing, as fonts can easily be changed for different audiences and purposes.

Reflecting on the process, I much prefer typing on a keyboard over manual writing, specifically because it allows me to get down my thoughts in pieces and then go back and edit them. I tend to write in quick short bursts, so being able to write things piece by piece without considerable thought saves time. Writing something by hand requires a great deal more forethought, takes more time, and is sometimes illegible without regular practice.