Task 4

Manual Scripts

Writing by hand?! Who does that anymore?

This task was extremely interesting to participate in because writing by hand has almost become a foreign task for me. I should clarify- the foreign part is mostly due to the length of the writing. The writing by hand that I do has started to become only one-off situations; for example, a reminder on a small post it note (if for whatever reason my phone is not in my pocket or my computer is not near). This made this task difficult as it is not something I have done for a while. The last time may have been when roles were reversed and I was a student and not the teacher.

I have to admit, I did not know where to start. I thought about many of the examples for a while. I am not a naturally creative writer, so I do not write for pleasure. Therefore, a creative piece was out. If I were a creative writer, I would prefer to type anyways, which would match 99% of my writing tasks these days. My typed writing ranges from, e-mails, MET assignments, report cards, and lesson planning- almost everything I do is typed. Those examples are larger scale, but the extend of my typed writing stretches to small to-do lists (Wunderlist app) and grocery lists. Thinking about the extent of my digital life, I will also often type and print small things such as “out of order,” “please don’t touch,” or “in a meeting” signs, whereas this may not be the case for everyone. I’m interested to know if I am alone with this or not.

For this task, it was difficult to decide exactly what to write. After reflecting, I’ve decided that writing by hand, for me, has become a sentimental task. I will write thank you letters, birthday or celebration cards, and the like, all by hand. Due to the sentimental nature of writing by hand, it is important to me that the writing is relevant. Unfortunately for me, the timing of this task has not coincided with a special event such as a birthday or other celebration. So, for this task, it was timely that my students were participating in a school-wide writing assignment. The topic was “My Favourite Place.” This was presented to me as a great opportunity to provide an example for my students, and to omit the awkwardness and decision making of what to write.

One of the primary differences between typing and writing by hand is editing. When typing, it is almost too easy to hit delete or backspace for quick little mistakes. Unless you are tracking and saving changes on a word document, no one (even the typer) would know that the mistake has been made. In my experience, at times, I can type too fast, adding extra letters or misspelling often. The delete key is very helpful here for these small mistakes. Whereas with hand written work, these small mistakes can be crossed out, re written, or written over with white out. For this particular task, I did not do much editing at all, as it was meant as a first draft example for my students. I took my time with this writing piece, planning out sentences in my head before I wrote them down. My careful nature could also be because I did not have any white out handy. Although, I was not concerned with it being “perfect,” I would have been fine to cross a word or two out- this just wasn’t the case with my writing sample. When typing this reflection, editing is quite an easy process. This is not only for small mistakes of a few letters or words. It is simple and seamless to add in a sentence or two, or to move a whole chunk of writing. Another difference is the manual nature of the task. Writing by hand for an extended amount of time can cause some hand discomfort. The difference is that I could type for hours and feel little to no fatigue.