@Jess
I completely mess up quotation marks and punctuation all the time. You’re so right – handwriting does allow people to blur those distinctions/lacks. I hadn’t considered the idea of the additional effort/coordination necessary for caps in typing, either.

@Daniel
Monotasking is in! So far I’m not bored, but it’s only day two…

Who would have thought it was so hard to give up multi-tasking?

So far, I’ve managed to strip back to the idea that if I’m on the computer, that’s it. If I’m reading a book, that’s it. No being on the computer and reading a few paragraphs whilst waiting for responses from friends on facebook or twitter.

And then handwriting could just be better at disguising certain types of mistakes. Like, if someone’s not sure whether the quotation mark is supposed to go before the comma/full stop/etc. or afterwards, they could just write it directly on top, and people will interpret it however is correct.

I am still using the Dvorak keyboard layout, yep. I think I learned this layout the same way I learned QWERTY: practice. I don’t think I would count as a badge-wearing member of the touch-typists’ club, since I glance at the keyboard fairly frequently when I type. It’s to see that I’m oriented correctly rather than to see where the keys are — I know where they are, but if I ever hit the key next to the one I meant to hit, then every key afterwards will also be the one next to the one I meant to hit until I re-orientate myself. I don’t have a “home row” on which I base my fingers so I remember every key relative to every other key. And I’m pretty sure that’s the same way I remembered QWERTY.

I’m glad the DLP took my criticism to heart. Now if only they could do something about their policies!

I love the idea of stopping multi-tasking (she says, having taken a break from typing this to click on a link Tweetdeck popped up…). I’ve made some rules for myself, such as only opening five new tabs at a time from my reader, and reading them and marking them as read before moving on to the next five. I’m going to make January my month of mono-tasking based on your lead. Thanks!

@Jess
The correct punctuation/handwriting link is interesting. Do you think it’s because there are some people who treat written forms as more “formal” and the keyboarded form as “casual”?

The editing thing is key; as you say, white-out is painful, particularly if you have thought of a more elegant way of expressing something and are trying hard not to lose the phrasing as you wait for the liquid paper to dry (and those tapes, whilst overcoming the drying issue, are quite possibly the world’s most frustrating invention after cling wrap). I like to cross out lightly and write the correction/edit above, but that’s only possible when the draft is for my eyes only – it can lead to ambiguity if somebody else tries to read it.

I think the DLP must have taken your criticism to heart! Their site is now “under construction” (it still looks awful, but they’ve subbed Times New Roman for the Comic Sans).

@reality raver
There should be room in the curriculum for keyboard skills. Having said that, I guess our typing lessons are the IT lessons of today and IT teachers focus on things other than this! My first experience of an electric typewriter was one of the IBM golf ball ones. My god – watching that thing moving around was mesmerising!

(On that, @Jess, are you still using the Dvorak keyboard? Do you touch-type, and – if so – how did you relearn that from qwerty?)

@teacoffeetea
I’m clearly more self-absorbed than you are! Whenever I see a new gadget I just assume it’s been developed for me and get frustrated when I can’t see how it will fit into my life…

Writer’s cramp is one of my enduring memories from uni. God, all those notes! And did we ever refer to them after the lectures? Of course, I think that writing the key points helps to embed them in your memory, so that would be the key benefit.

Anyway, it’s 2010 already, so where are our tablets? Shouldn’t they have arrived by now?

The last time I tried my hand hurt so I gave up. Writer’s fatigue (WF). It’s a killer. I’m not much of a gadget person and still struggle using a computer yet am writing the old fashioned way less and less. So what to do? That Microsoft Journal thing does look beautiful. It may be my answer…easy to use, you think? Hope so.

I learnt on the old manual, and I thought it was fantastic when I finally got onto an electric typewriter. Feeling old now.

Daniel – I admire you resolution not to multi task online, I would like to know how you go.
.-= reality raver´s last blog ..Sylvania Waters – Remember Noelene Donahue? =-.

As for me, I guess there are aspects in which each is better. Generally I prefer to type, because when I type, I can go back and easily edit what I wrote (with handwritten things there’s no going back — or only a limited amount of going back, anyway. White-out can only do so much, and even if you use it you have to wait for it to dry and I inevitably get impatient and end up carving into the white-out instead… not my idea of fun). Also if for some reason one of either typing or handwriting would be outlawed, I would prefer everyone typed, because some people have IMPOSSIBLE handwriting to decipher (like my unit 4 Revs teacher…). But obviously that’s not going to happen. Handwriting has its merits too, of course, because sometimes it’s actually desirable not to be able to go back (like when you want to write something fast and are liable to procrastinate for half on hour on the best way to phrase a sentence… as I occasionally am). Also, when typing you’re kind of forced to be linear… when I handwrite, I can draw arrows all over the place and things going up the side of the page and not everything has to be linear. Especially when brainstorming stuff, that’s good.

And I agree about Comic Sans. A couple of years ago I was looking at the website of the Democratic Labor Party, and the entire thing was in Comic Sans. It made their fearmongering rants about communism just that extra bit more hilarious.

On a more general level, I’m trying to get away from multi-tasking. IT’s the issue of having a number of windows open on your computer as you check your facebook, twitter, read an article, music in the background, keeping an eye on the cooking, and have an online conversastion with someone. I’m trying to get back to doing one thing at a time and appreciating the task for what it is.