Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Write, Type, or Speak?

I think differently when I write longhand, no question. I could say that typing on a keyboard, whether a computer's or typewriter's, is more efficient and accurate because my handwriting grows more and more difficult to read as I get older. More thoughtfully, I say that writing longhand is more emotional, evocative, painterly, while pecking keys is more logical, literal, geometric.

Speaking text is the great mystery, though, for me. Like all of us, I certainly say things in a different grammar and cadence than I write them, and with voice recognition technology I can say anything I wish to write--and the version resulting is more different than what I would have typed or handwritten are different from each other.

Specifically:

when writing specs or final drafts I type
when writing poetry or journaling I write longhand
when writing dialogue or musings I use speech recognition

I'm sure there's fascinating psychology / neurology underpinning our various methods of communication.