The death of handwriting?

Jay Mandal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7907888.stm

The dea(r)th of handwriting? BBC article. Remind me to read it later.

Jay Mandal

I've said it before, but that's not going to stop me saying it again ...

I write my stories by hand, then type - sorry, word process - them. My handwriting is reasonably legible, albeit with shades of dyslexia (no offence intended to those who are dyslexic).

So, if children are doing so much by computer, why aren't they teaching typing - sorry, keyboard skills?

And at least my handwritten stories - and the printed-off copies - will be legible &/or readable when my computer is obsolete. I keep wondering how biographers will cope when they don't have handwritten letters to look at. How will they access information on obsolete and broken computers? And what happens if there's no power supply?

Island Girl

Wow, in one of your philosophical phases at the moment, Jay? :)

Jay Mandal

I've wondered if we could wire up our fingers to 'type' with. 'A' would be the index finger of the right hand unless your were left-handed; 'Z' would be the little finger of the left hand (I've always hated having 'A' on the little finger of the left hand.) But we'd probably all end up with RSI.

Drat. Half my post disappeared because I pressed the wrong keys.

Perhaps the computer should keep a 'most often used' list of words for its users.

Jay Mandal

Hi, IG. Just waiting to wake up, really. When I edited my stories last week, I took too much out of one and now it reads rather strangely/abruptly. Luckily I put the major cuts at the end of each document, so all I have to do now is work out what I should put back. Oh, and I need to buy some food.

Jay Mandal

Sorry. The 'wake-up' bit - once I've woken up, I hope to be able to sort out my short story. Anyone following this? Anyone followed the 'je pense donc je suis' line of thinking? Actually, perhaps I should have studied Russian instead of Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Then at least I'd have an idea what all these blasted e-mails are saying. Why do they think I'm going to reply to something I can't understand?

Jay Mandal

Not even sure it's Russian, actually.

Island Girl

:D Whew! Slow down, boy, you're making me dizzy. I'm still trying to work out what 'je pense donc je suis' means. Is it 'I think I am' ?

Jay Mandal

Nearly. Donc = therefore. But suis can also mean follow. Just think of the disreputable things you could be following! I'm not sure if there's a way of clarifying which meaning you mean. Or perhaps I've just discovered a French joke.

Lou Treleaven

Why is Jay having a philosophical discussion with himself?

It sounds like procrastination to me. Jay, get on with it!!!

Jay Mandal

Let them eat cake! I have, so I'm off to work out what to do with my short story. It starts like this:

"Get your skates on," AAA yelled. "You're playing football in half an hour." A grunt came from upstairs.

(I wonder if I should clarify the word 'grunt' for my American readers.)

Claudia

If you don't need to know urgently, Jay I'll ask my American friends next time I see them.
Enjoyed your stream of consciousness.
:)

Lou Treleaven

I'm sure you've used that pun about skates and football somewhere else recently..!

Oh dear, now I am procrastinating. I really should order that wardrobe from Argos and write some more of 'Letter to Pluto' before I go to the pub. FOR A MEETING!

Jay Mandal

Claudia, probably a rhetorical question. Not urgent. If they misinterpret it, then it's funny. Thanks.

Lou, I make have quoted the same thing before. You're not thinking of Zola and football, or French goalkeepers with literary thoughts, are you?

Jay Mandal

Oh, and I've put some bits I edited out back into the story. Got very confused trying to do it. Now I'm thinking of having another doze.

Tessadragon

brrrr, the idea of wiring our fingers to a keyboard is actually rather creepy Jay!

Jay Mandal

I meant you touch thumb and forefinger together for the letter 'A' - hadn't really thought how it would get onto paper/the screen. But obviously your hand/fingers would have to be receptive somehow.

Tessadragon

Thinking on it, I love my fountain pen, it gives me a lovely feeling, to write with anything like a quill for some reason (or perhaps because throughout my years of writing, a fountain pen has almost always been my writing tool.) I wouldn't give that up.

Jay Mandal

Biro. Light and doesn't smudge easily - although wasn't too bad for me at school, even though I'm left-handed.

SilentTony

I disagree that handwriting is dying out. On the back of my left hand right now I can see the words BREAD, SUGAR, MILK scribbled in black ink.

I suppose you could also say I know my way around the local Tesco like the back of my hand.

Emma B

Jay you should go on dragons den :-)

I think there are still alot of advances that will eventually take place with writing/typing. Have you seen thouse laser keyboards??

Jay Mandal

A laser keyboard? Speed of light or what?

There's the musical-sounding keyboard - Dvorjak or something - which has the keys in a more logical position for English speakers (more common keys in the middle, I think). I wonder if I can find a link ...

Jay Mandal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard

Well, I assumed it had the popular letters in the middle ...

Carol

Jay, you sound a little hyperactive at the moment.

My boys still have to do a lot of their school work by hand, so there's no problem with handwriting.
I think that some prefer using a keyboard because they can type quickly and writing takes longer!

Lou Treleaven

Handwriting may being dying out, but letter writing (albeit in a new form) is going through the roof! Just think of the amount of emails, text messages, facebook/myspace communications, and forum messages there are pinging their way through hyperspace at any given time. The power of the written word is back. Just so long as we don't allow it to degenerate into txt spk!

Grimmy

I don't think handwriting is dying out. I still had to do Handwriting lessons at school until about Year Five, although we learnt to write cursive and as soon as the lesson was over I switched back to printing...now my handwriting is a werid combonation of the two!!! But all through high school and exams handwriting is still pretty much the go, except for essays which can be typed, but no one brings laptops to class and types up notes on them...at least not yet...wouldn't it be really annoying for the teacher/lecturer if a whole class were clacking away on keyboards all lesson??

Jay Mandal

Claudia - Americans probably wouldn't realize what sort of football I meant, either.

Verica

I tried my hardest to try to introduce keyboard learning/touch typing for the first year of Secondary school (Year 7), but nobody was interested. Of all the things I ever learnt, including foreign languages, music, sciences, etc, I think the most beneficial and useful has been touch typing and, perhaps, shorthand, but I had to learn them at evening classes, not at day school. After my stroke thirty years ago, the first thing I worried about was whether I could still type and, luckily, after three years it I managed it, first of all on an electric typewriter, now on computers. If I had my way, I think nowadays I would make it fun for eight year old children to learn to touch type usinsg music (which, I know is now thought of as very old fashioned).

Piper

My handwriting is terrible. That's why I prefer to type, although when I have a probable cause I will hand write a letter. I love stationary but I hardly use it. My face was a picture when I was told that my creative writing was to be hand written, to be honest, I'd rather type out the essay and hand write it, other than type out the writing and then write it. I could write it in the first place, but typing is SO much easier.

Liz

My son does all homework on the computer, not this one, my laptop. And i am very worried he won't be able to write essays in exams as he won't be able to change his paragraphs round etc and he won't know how to plan. Let alone write, he'll get cramp.

My handwriting is appalling, i can't even read it myelf. I have to write out all poems on computer on the same day or i have no idea what I've written. But I do do the first drafts by hand, i think with poetry you have to...

Piper

I'm not that bad, my writing in essays are good, I just need to include detail in what I write. I still prefer to write on a laptop though. The keys are lovely.... and at least the sapce button works...unlike the one in UD14....

Stan2

What is handrighting?

Piper

A hand that steers to the right that goes 'ting' like Nadine does at the beginning of Revolution In The Head?

lexia

I didn't have a headache before I started reading this thread....

Anyone know if Jay is OK, or has he burnt himself out ;)

Regards the title of this thread - I mostly write/type straight onto the computer these days,but I agree with Liz about first drafts with poetry.
I write with a pencil (which makes it even more difficult to read sometimes) There is something soothing about writing by hand that is not there with a keyboard. But of course, we all need to use the fastest method, on some occasions.

Jay Mandal

I've just had a sleep, and feel much better, thanks.

lexia

Good - thanks for the update.

Stan2

Hi Jay.

Jay Mandal

Hi, Stan. I've just slept a bit more, and feel more with it.

Claudia

[quote=Jay Mandal]Claudia, probably a rhetorical question. Not urgent. If they misinterpret it, then it's funny. Thanks.[/quote]

I haven't caught up with them yet, but I haven't forgotten.

[quote=Jay Mandal]Claudia - Americans probably wouldn't realize what sort of football I meant, either. [/quote]

You're probably right - I'll get confirmation; they're not home right now - will try again later.

Nena

My eldest son was challenged by his computing teacher last year to a speed typing race. The teacher managed 65 words per minute. My son did 120 words per minute - with 100% accuracy. I can't even think that fast!

On the other hand - his handwriting is atrocious!

Piper

Now I can't type THAT fast. My mum says I should learn to type with both hands using all fingers, instead of two fingers. Having said that, I can type faster than my dad, mum and grandad.

Grimmy

It'll come, Probie. As you start using the computer more and more for school you'll be speeding across the keyboard in no time! :)

Piper

I do now but it's only with two fingers, not eight or ten.

Grimmy

yeah, well, whatever works!

Piper

:D

Jay Mandal

I have to say I don't even hand-write the shopping lists any longer. Just cross off stuff we don't need from a list that's on our computer. Still, I suppose I need a pen for that.