The End of the Writing As We Know It

[Ayaan]

I enjoy writing things out by hand at times. It helps me organize the flow of my thoughts. Also, I found out that you can impress the heck out so someone by sending them a hand written letter.

[klr]

The real value of language is in the content of the words and the use of syntax and vocabulary. Aesthetic emphasis should only be added for personal preference. Content is more important than form.

Wise you are, my young padawan.

[Chinaski]

The real value of language is in the content of the words and the use of syntax and vocabulary. Aesthetic emphasis should only be added for personal preference. Content is more important than form.

Wise you are, my young padawan.

It's what I hated about the Italian attitude to writing. Points were deducted for bad handwriting or for going out of the margins. Asshole, my essay was brilliant, much better than anyone else's in the class. But the Italian obsession for meaningless aesthetic fluff fucked me in the ass.

[klr]

The real value of language is in the content of the words and the use of syntax and vocabulary. Aesthetic emphasis should only be added for personal preference. Content is more important than form.

Wise you are, my young padawan.

It's what I hated about the Italian attitude to writing. Points were deducted for bad handwriting or for going out of the margins. Asshole, my essay was brilliant, much better than anyone else's in the class. But the Italian obsession for meaningless aesthetic fluff fucked me in the ass.

... no, I'm actually being serious . Being a student of military hardware, I know all about the Italian tendency for producing very pretty but not always very effective hardware. I guess some traits run very deep indeed.

[Chinaski]

It's for that same reason that I can't stomach Italian poetry (most of it, at least). Lots of big, look-at-me-and-my-big-vocabulary words and phrasing, but they don't mean anything. "Oh, look at this wonderful choice of word! Or this beautiful description!" But what the fuck does it mean? Usually, nothing. Just elitist self-indulgence.

[starr]

I always hated cursive handwriting. As soon as it was permissable (in year 7 I think) I completely gave it up and just "printed" everything. I first started typing my assignments in first year of Uni and I haven't looked back. I used one of those 'teach yourself to touch type' programs at the start of my Masters and it's fabulous to not even have to look at the keyboard when typing.

I try to avoid handwriting whenever I can.

[Thinking Aloud]

I taught myself to type (on a typewriter) at age 11, I think, and used it to write stories (in script form). My handwriting was never very neat, unless I wrote very slowly. Once the teachers' obsession with cursive lifted a little (by age 13 or so in school) I modified my writing to be more legible (cursive capitals were awful things) ending up with a sort of hybrid "lazy" text that varied between cursive and print.

One thing I never was able to do was write quickly. Well - not as quickly as everyone else, apparently. End of year University exams would come along, and we'd have a couple of hours to do an exam paper, with maybe an hour to do a long written piece at the end. I'd be lucky if I could fill three pages in the time available, and yet some would come out saying, "I only wrote 10 pages - I don't think I'm going to do very well." I had two issues with this: how could you write 10 A4 sides in an hour; what the hell did it take you 10 pages to explain, that I managed in three ?!

So having been used to typing, when computers came along I was very quick to adapt (though I still hit the keys too hard).

Interestingly though, if I sit down to write a song, or a story (a long one) these days I'll write it all out on bits of folded up A4 paper by hand first, complete with crossings out, tiny text shoved in the gaps where I've changed my mind, and generally illegible. I guess I like to do that away from technology, and have that hard-copy that can come in the bath or on a bus with me, in the way a laptop would probably be a little cumbersome.