Here is another student’s essay about typewriting. (Both students used a Lettera 22 to type a class presentation; this student chose to use the same machine to write about the typing experience.)
Student reflections on typewriting (II)
8 Comments
Submit a Comment
[convertkit form=6824331]
VISIT THE
Contact
Address
Dept. of Philosophy
Xavier University
3800 Victory Pkwy.
Cincinnati, OH. 45207
USA
This must have been quite an experience for your students, not having used a typewriter before. Maybe for an "advance course" you could show them a neat trick, if you work with a machine fitted with polyethylene ribbon: you can erase mistakes placing a small piece of Scotch tape in front of the ribbon and typing the character again. (That's how I fix my mistakes in my IBM Selectric I and the model 196 without the correcting feature).
It's amusing and interesting to read the story of a newbie struggling with the finesses of typewriting. :)
I can see the lazy pinky typing the "a" key. I will say, after a few years, your pinkies do get a heck of a lot stronger. It helps when playing guitar, too!
Another fun introspective to read.
You are going to have to tell the student that you do get faster over time. I think I type pretty close to the same speed on a typewriter as a keyboard, and both are certainly faster than handwriting!
That's a clever idea, I've got to try it!
Funny how they ended up appreciating writing by hand! That is an odd conclusion, but I suppose it is to be expected if it is their first time. You should reassure them that typewriting gets a lot faster than writing by hand; it will just take some getting used to!
Thanks for sharing these perspectives with us; I am always curious to know how others respond to using a typewriter for the first time.
Yes! Down with captcha! How liberating! I just had to comment to try it out for myself (just kidding, I really did like your post :-)). Thanks, Richard ;)
It is so good that the students get to try their hand at typing. The thing is with a keyboard, even if they learned proper keyboarding, is that rythum and correct key pressure are a technique that must be developed for good typing speed and accuracy as well as they need to think to make the 1 and the ! since early machines did not have either.
Thanks for sharing their experiences.
Are you doing a brief tutorial? They keep mentioning pressing hard but they need only press sharply. Interesting reflections.