I wonder if it would change one's writing to change modes from handwriting to keyboarding or from keyboarding to spoken computer input. I know when I changed from writing things by hand on notepads to typing them into my computer my writing became much less stilted, more fluent and with easier transitions from one idea to another (probably because I can type faster than I can write). It's very close to the way it sounds when I speak. On the other hand, I have developed a tendency to skip logical steps in an argument--the idea is in my head, but I get sidetracked and it never makes its way to the electrons.

I wonder what my Master's Thesis would have looked like if I had been able to write it in Word or WordPerfect? I wrote it out on a yellow legal tablet, often writing in the margins and turning the pages upside down so I could write between the lines. Because I don't think linearly; I think in three dimensions. And to create a linear argument I had to go back and rearrange stuff after it was written. Literally, I would do cut-and-paste or I would insert a letter (A) and then on a back page write what (A) should be.

After all that, I had to type it. On my little portable typewriter. All 50 pages of it. You couldn't make any mistakes and you couldn't use Erasable Bond (remember erasable paper?) Typing the thesis took me forever because when I made any little mistake I had to pull out the page and start over. Sometimes I'd make a mistake and I'd look at it and think 'is there any re-phrasing I can do that will use what I just typed so I don't have to do it over?' Some strange sentences resulted, yes indeed.

When it was done I was quite satisfied with it.