Beliefs about writing.

What superstitions or strong beliefs do you have about writing and writing technologies?

This is new to me, typing up a journal entry for a class on the computer.

The last time I had a journal for a class, it was in fifth grade and we wrote on a little steno notepad. We were required to fill one page, front and back, but I always went over because my handwriting is big and I never know when to stop. Normally when writing on paper, you sit and think about what you are going to write to prevent having to erase your words so often, and while everyone started typing up this blog immediately, I still found myself thinking about what I was going to write. I guess it is a bit unnecessary now, seeing as how the backspace bar takes care of mistakes far more quickly than an eraser (and it's much cleaner, from the perspective of someone who dislikes pencil marks messing up a perfect sheet of white paper).

When you asked us about how we would feel if teachers started teaching children to write through the computer instead of on paper, I immediately though of my newspaper, Broadside. We are a weekly print paper, just recently having merged our website with a great Student Media website. Our website used to be the place where we would send all of our articles so that readers could access them online and make comments about the stories. Nowadays, the newspaper business is quickly heading to the online world, leaving the print side of journalism in the dust--but not necessarily for college students. When we have student journalists visit our offices looking to publish their work, they are looking to have their work printed on hard copy; the thought of publishing the stories online and not in print is very upsetting to them. I wonder if this is because the print newspaper is such a great tradition, and such a big part of history.

I prefer the print edition, too.