allaboutmusic

I've just read a great article on this subject and it really got me thinking about the way we record our thoughts on paper... or perhaps not on paper.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Why typewriters beat computers

I'm the kind of guy who likes to have a notebook and pen nearby all the time to write my thoughts down. I love to write on paper, and have several fountain pens (and a stack of high-quality writing paper) for the sheer pleasure of writing.

I've never owned a typewriter though. Computers, sure... in fact at this present moment I have five in the house (an iMac, an old Dell laptop, a Samsung netbook, my work laptop and a tower PC I haven't switched on in a year) and as some of you will have noticed, I am actually considering the purchase of a Macbook. These are all efficient machines, advanced communication devices with easy-to-use keyboards, video conferencing, you name it. We live in an age where it's all easy.

But there's something about the romance of a typewriter. Maybe it's a movie thing, but the image of a writer sitting by the light in a dark room, with a steaming beverage mug, arranging words out loud before committing them to paper just resonates with the side of me that enjoys using words to express myself.

Do you own or use a typewriter, or have you owned one? Do you find yourself using different words or turn of phrase when sat at one, compared to a pen and paper, or a word processor? Or are you perhaps a pen-and-paper person?

Grancey

I had a typewriter when I was in college taking creative writing classes. With a typewriter you could write in longhand and then type your final copy, or you could compose on the typewriter which forced you to think about each word and each phrase, etc. White out and correction tape was a pain to deal with and not used unless absolutely necessary. There was much more thinking about what you wanted to say before putting it down. With computers writing is almost too easy. With a click you can do away with words, pages and entire documents. Who needs to think about it? Why bother spending a lot of time considering what you want to say when it is so easy to undo? However, the downside of this is not having your edited copies to refer to unless you save everything, like I do. And how many crooked pages came out of my typewriter????

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genuinegirly

I learned to type on a typewriter.
A friend gave me one, but I had to pass it along when I learned the cost of replacing its ribbon and replacing stuck keys. I prefer the dark, bold type and the lack of options for fonts. There is one in the computer lab on campus, which I could use if I really wanted. Sometimes it's easier than figuring out the settings on a computer/printer when you want to type an address on a single envelope.

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Charlatan

I took a grade nine typing course when I was in grade 12 (this was back in 1986). I was one of the few people I knew using computers. I was using them to type my essays because my hand writing was so terrible (lefty!). I recognized that I was going to need to learn how to type.

In first year University, I didn't have my own computer and so I used my housemate's electric typewriter to type all of my papers. I didn't use a typewriter after that because I was able to use my girlfriend's (now wife) computer (it was a DOS beast running Word Perfect - reveal codes).

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Cynthetiq

I learned how to type on a manual typewriter. One had to learn how to depress the keys with some force so that the punch was even for each letter, this was even more important if you had to use carbon for copies. I loved the ding and a known set of characters before the reach for the carriage return lever and SLAM! you pushed the carriage back to the other side.

Crooked pages? That's why you had extensive line guides and a way to open the pinch roller enough to slide the paper to even it out.

I still know 66 lines to a page from top to bottom.

My first electric typewriter I typed even faster than I could on the manual. I almost tripled my speed if not doubled it for long papers. Sprint typing, it was just about triple to 90+ wpm.

I miss typing in that fashion . I made a good amount of cash typing people's papers and reports. When I got a word processor, I was able to do a couple of things, which was do multiple papers at the same time with little organizational skills but keeping them on separate disks.

We have manual typewriters at the office, IBM Selectrics. I hear them from time to time.

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SecretMethod70

When I Was a kid, I wrote my school reports on a typewriter. It was a pimpin' typewriter too. Electronic, and even had a back key to erase mistakes! I wonder if it's still around somewhere...

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Lucifer

I always say that typing was the most useful thing I learned in high school! I took 2 years of it, Grade 9 first on a manual typewriter and Grade 10 on an electric. My parent's had an old Remington manual typewriter from about 1940 which they used for all their typing needs. My first resumes were done on that old beast. I don't miss fumbling for the correctape and the backspace key, but I miss that satisfying "THWACK" of the keys hitting the paper and leaving a little impression.

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yournamehere

Typing was the only class in high school that I didn't have to take the final exam for - no matter how badly I would have done, I still would have received an A. Probably the wisest decision I ever made, as far as choosing an elective course.
My HS graduation gift from my parents was a typewriter - a great gift, considering how many college term papers were awaiting me.

I, too, learned on a manual typewriter, and old habits die hard. I once had a boss joke that she was going to buy me a set of oven mitts so she could hear phone conversations in her office while I was working on my computer in the other room. I must admit that compared to younger workers, I do bang the keys a bit.

I'm all for nostalgia, but I don't miss erasing type or using white-out even a little bit. I miss my slide rule more than my typewriter.

It finally got left behind during a move ten years ago. I never even considered trying to sell it at the garage sale - it went straight into the trash, along with my 386 computer and dot-matrix printer.

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IdeoFunk

I prefer to type my thoughts, but I definitely also write down different budding ideas and thoughts I get into notebooks.

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grumpyolddude

Back in school, I used to write my papers on the typewriter. No notes, just stream of consciousness-like. Most of my teachers loved to read them.

Later, at the college newspaper, I'd write my articles long-hand, and let QW type them out for me, except my editorials, which flowed straight through the old IBM Selectric. I recall that I rather enjoyed it.

We don't even own a typewriter just now. Pity.

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ring

My Hermes. (of past)
Dyslexia is a funny thing. As soon as I would reach about
30 words a minute, my brain would switch the hands. The left hand would then
try to type the right hand letters, etc.

Currently, I use a fairly fast hunt and peck system that works well enough.

ZombieSquirrel

My parents bought me an old typewriter from the 60's when I was a kid. I think my dad found it at a garage sale or flea market. I absolutely LOVED it. It made the best sound. Clickity Clickity Clickity clack CHING!

My mom taught me how to type on it, because it was similar to the ones she used at her jobs out of high school. (She graduated in 65) I typed papers for school on it. I had really strong fingers because it was so hard to push the keys down.

I wish I still had it or could find another one like it.

Daniel_

I went on a typing course during the last term of Secondary School, on the advice of my mother who pointed out that if I wanted to do a research degree of any sort, I'd need to type a thesis.

As others have said, it was one of the better courses I went on, and I can still touch type pretty fast.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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Xerxys

I was almost taught how to type on a type writer. After seeing all the trouble ti was worth I gave up and up to today, with four 'typing tutor' programs installed on my computer, I still don't know how to type.

Prince

I have a couple of PCs, but a typewriter as well. I've used many in my life... I love them. I find that they work better for me than computers when trying to work through a writer's block. When typing on a computer, it's too easy to erase what I've written, so I am constantly editing what I write, which distracts the train of thought. I'd rather just write and do the editing later, and a typewriter helps me stick to that. And yeah, there's the nostalgic, romantic part to it, that is true as well.

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snowy

I used to really enjoy playing around with the various typewriters around my dad's office when I was a kid. His secretaries all had super fancy electronic typewriters. We also had two older manual typewriters at home. I didn't learn to type until I was in sixth grade, though, and I learned on a Mac with Mario Teaches Typing. I type about 80 wpm accurately; I had to learn to type fast because I wanted my fingers to be able to keep up with my thoughts. And Grancey, I actually have the exact opposite problem with writing longhand versus typing; writing longhand I write in a more journalistic, spare style, whereas with the computer I flesh out my writing more. Knowing this about myself, I try to use it to my advantage, sometimes choosing to write some things longhand, sometimes electing to use the computer.

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