Handwriting or typing?

Which do you find yourself doing more of?

[Propools]

I used to handwrite all the time. Now, I don't hardly ever. I type fast, thus I will tend to write fast, which makes my handwriting a bit hard to read.
Kind of looks like a "doctor's note".

Would it not be a general consesus that there's been a paradigm shift from handwriting to typing? I know I would much rather type to someone than write......Well, except for my children. I like to write and do video messages.

Your thoughts?

[digitalghost]

Any serious writing I do is always done with a handwritten draft first. I write slower, so I have more time to think. Then as I put the draft into an electronic format I make revisions.

Then I leave it sit for a few hours, sometimes a day or more before I come back to it for some more rewrites. Any thoughts I have during that time are jotted down on paper. I keep a notebook by the bed.

I take my first final draft and start editing. Looking for phrases like "paradigm shift " that may have crept in so I can get rid of it. ; ) Also time to get rid of those lazy words or anything else that doesn't move the reader forward.

[Propools]

I hear ya ;)

[vincevincevince]

I write slower, so I have more time to think.

I write slower, so I lose track of what I'm saying and how I wanted to structure it.

Typing all the way. I got in trouble a few times even in primary school for typing everything possible. Can't stand handwriting.

As an act of rebellion against handwriting I've adopted a very old-fashioned style of handwriting. Unreadable by many people under the age of forty and most people under the age of twenty-five.

[Rosalind]

I still do a lot of handwriting, even though I type faster. I think it helps me organise my thoughts, because I can see by how messy a piece of writing is just what stage it is at.

Plus, I'm still very attached to having my writing as hard copy at all times, so there's always something there in case of disaster. I only type something up directly if it's trivial and short. So I do rough notes, followed by a neater handwritten draft, and finally a typed version.

[Propools]

I write slower, so I lose track of what I'm saying

I've got the same problem too. But maybe I'd be a better contextual writer if I did handwrite. I think it's because I think so fast that my handwriting can't keep up with my brain. But I know my typing can. :)

I type, let it sit, re-type, edit, print, trash, pull it out of the trash can. Recover deleted file, then make final edits.

I couldn't begin to tell you how many times in WebmasterWorld that I'm posting a Reply or New Thread and Preview, Change, Preview, Change.

OK.............prior to posting this, I Previewed and edited 6 times. Either I can't get my words right the first time or I'm just particular.

[Gibble]

I type. I can't write fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. And if I do, it's completely illegible...though, that's pretty much the case when I write slowly :p

I recall highschool, the teachers complaining about my handwriting, insisting things be typed so they could actually grade it.

And it's only gotten worse. I can barely read my writing, sometimes I can't.

It does come in handy having messy writing though, when a form needs to filled out, you can hand it off to someone else to do, since if I do it, you may as well leave it blank...they'll get the same information from it.

[vincevincevince]

Thinking about it, the only documents I handwrite on a regular basis are cheques and envelopes.

[Propools]

Thinking about it, the only documents I handwrite on a regular basis are cheques and envelopes.

Ya know, Online banking can help resolve that for you. Well at least if you bank with Nation's Bank here in the U.S. :)

[Habtom]

Thinking about it, the only documents I handwrite on a regular basis are cheques and envelopes.

ok

Ya know, Online banking can help resolve that for you.

If that is the only time you write, keep on doing it. When are you going to use your handwriting skills? :)

In many ways, emails have created many problems.

[grandpa]

Call me old-fashioned, but there is nothing more effective than a number two with eraser and a fresh pad of paper. Ideas get noted, modified, erased. When I'm finished, I am ready to type. Well, almost. See, I also prefer to give my notes another 24 hours, just in case the process isn't as complete as I believed. While this process isn't perfect, it often does help to prevent ending a question with a preposition ;-)

[Marshall]

In many ways, emails have created many problems.

Especially if you hit the submit button before you had time to think about what you are sending. You know the ones when you really say what you want and not what you should ;) . At least with a handwritten letter, you can pause and ask yourself "good idea? bad idea?"

Marshall

[vincevincevince]

a number two with (...) a fresh pad of paper

Shouldn't that be 'roll'? Or is that a British thing?

At least with a handwritten letter, you can pause and ask yourself "good idea? bad idea?"

Emails let you send things whilst you're still keeping your cool. Time you've written a proper letter the angry hormones will be raging and poison will flow from your pen: "Dear Sir, Further to your.... (...) So you can kindly take your *@#*$ and shove it into your $*#$*$(, Yours Faithfully, Vincevincevince"

[Propools]

One note I might add from reading the posts and also talking with someone, this past Friday. We were talking about how his father writes letters to manufactuers, etc. And most importantly, how before he types a letter, he first writes it out. Wait, that's not all.

Awesomelly enough before he starts writing his letter on a pad (or roll) of paper, he outlines the things he wants to say in the letter. Wow, I was taken for a loop. I hadn't thought about that since my middle school english/writing class days.

Outlines or (target points), then working from the outline, do a rough the draft, then critique, edit and then let it onto the keyboard.

This is exactly how my Grandfather writes. I guess it just further goes to show, at least me, that we still have things we can learn or learn to remember from previous generations. :) I Love my Grandfather and am very thankful that I had this discussion w/ my dad.

I will add though; that I did not use what I remembered I had learned, in writing this reply to the post. :o

[edited by: Propools at 3:47 pm (utc) on Sep. 24, 2007]

[King_Fisher]

I guess I am double handicapped, I cant write worth a damn and am a slow typer.

Given the chance I will phone (land line, cell phone or Skype). It runs up the
bills but I am very verbal and love the social aspect of talking directly to
people.

If I need the records I type an email...KF

[RandomDot]

There was an amateur artist who made an exhibition which also contained handwritten documents under the title "Before the Internet.." around where I live. Everybody agreed on it at the end of the exhibition. Not that anybody could actually read the documents anyways.

Perhaps it'll be an archaeological find of dimensions in a few thousand years when our civilization is just a memory, and a scientist suddenly finds a handwritten document from the end of the "WWW-ERA" - "this is impossible -" like finding a hand held camera in a pharaohs tomb today -

[davec]

I don't really write a lot anymore. I sometimes jot down figures and the like, but never wordy stuff.

Slightly embarassingly, when I was forced to write a few paragraphs the other week it felt strange almost to the point of being difficult. Guess you lose muscle memory after a while.

[Propools]

Guess you lose muscle memory after a while.

Yeah, but I think it's a lot like riding a bike. Sometimes it takes a while to get your balance back, then the next thing you know you're off-roading it. ;)