I need help with my homework.... People who have used a typewriter.?

Question

Since i have not used a typewriter i am supposed to ask someone about the differences of writing a essay/report with a typewriter and a word processor like word or wordpad. I have to have 3 comparisons for my essay. I would like opinions from different people if you dont mind answering? Thank you sooo much!

Answer 1

The main difference in my opinion would be that if you were writing an essay or report, you would not just sit at the typewriter and do that because there is no way to edit, rearrange, etc. We used to write out the entire paper as a rough draft. I would usually use index cards because then I could write a paragraph at a time and then sequence them before I went to the typewriter. I hope this gives you one comparison!

Answer 2

Word processor is much easier to use and type faster. It's more user friendly too! You can't type and do the things you do now on an old typewriter. Let's talk about carpel tunnel too! Oh my gosh! The way you'd have to push hard down on those keys...yuck. Now, you can just lightly touch each key and it happens. Also, the extras you get from using Word. There are so many short cuts. You can search on line for these as I don't have time to go into them all but there are lots of short cut things you can do with Word that you couldn't ever do with a typewriter. Also, you've got spell and grammer check - can't do that with a typewriter. Good luck!

Answer 3

I used and old style typewriter when I was a kid- I was more playing around- we had a computer by the time I had to write papers, but it was just something we had in the house. But, if that is close enough- I remember that there were these sheets of correction paper that you had to slide between the paper and where the letter would strike, and line up with the letter you typed wrong, and then you had to type the same wrong letter over again so the "white out" on the little sheet would stick onto the paper and hide your typo. It made typing something much slower and you couldn't change your mind mid sentance since you couldnt just back up and change it. But I guess it was also more acceptable to create something that had all this whiteout on it, where today it would have to look perfect. Of course, writing on a computer is sooooo much better- it even tells you when you make a mistake! You can change the order of your paragraphs, or go back and add as much as you want in the middle of your report. You can cut and paste to move stuff around- much easier!

Good luck!

Answer 4

I am not showing my age with this: I'm only 25 but here goes.

Typewriter: Difficult to make corrections. If you do not have erasing tape in then you can't delete a word or letter. You can't save your document on an older typewriter. When you put the paper in the typewriter you have to line it up to get the type where you want it on the paper. i.e. there is not centering or left and right align like there is on Word. If you want more than one copy you have to type the document up again (unless you use a copy machine). But there weren't any copy machines back then so you'd have to do the typing yourself.

Word: Easy to make changes to documents (delete or backspace). You can save a copy of your document in your computer for future reference/use. Easy to format paper (left, right, center align). Also you can do a print preview before printing a hard copy. With a typewriter, you find out what it looks like after you've typed the entire document. Then if you don't like it you have to type it all over again. Once you like the way your document looks you can print as many copies as you want.

Hope that helps...Word has a lot of things that you can do with it that go above and beyond what a typewriter can do. If you are simply typing an essay and not using the extra things in word, what I said is strictly about "typing" the document.

Answer 5

I'm 43. Took typing in high school. On both electric AND manual typewriters.

You had to MANUALLY set your tabs (formatting) for every application. (Even with electric)

Typewriters DID have a backspace. The more advanced ones even had a "white out" ribbon which was a major improvement from liquid white out. But a mistake was a mistake, and usually very obvious. If you were using anything but white paper, you may as well tear it up and start again.

The pressure required to actuate the keys was more, as well as the amount of travel of the keys (especially with the manuals). That's why 40 - 60 wpm was very good, with a manual typewriter, whereas many employers are looking for 100+ wpm with word processors.

NO SPELL CHECK!!!! (Thank God for spell check).

Ink ribbons. Very messy. No matter how careful you were. Changing a ribbon usually meant dirty hands. And no matter how much you tried to wash them, your hands would likely have ink marks for a few days latter.

Choice of colours. With typewriters you had Black. If you were willing to change ribbons (see above), you may be able to have Red. Later models were able to accommodate a two col or ribbon (black and red). But this was a real waste because you very seldom needed the red.

Answer 6

The difference could be compared to driving a horse and buggy and any vehicle in the last 50 years. I typed my master's thesis on a typewriter. I had to type the original and 3 copies. hahaha...I can't even remember what that nasty purple paper is called that we used to make the copy. (See? I'm so old, that my memory is not the best!) There could be no mistakes. I usually made a mistake on the last word, because even though I was an excellent typist, my nerves were shot by the time. Be very thankful for computers!

Answer 7

A typewriter has LOTS of room for errors. You need correction tape. There is the choice between pica and elite (I always preferred elite since pica was so big). You can't just push a button for that...you have to actually change the type head. Wow...I'm really showing my age!

Also, there is NO cut and paste with a typewriter.

Answer 8

Typewriteres don't have spell check
Typewriters don't have back space, if you make an error, start over
You really had to push hard on the keys to make a typewriter type, keyboards are very easy to use

Answer 9

The older typewriters didn't make corrections. If it was really important and you made a mistake you started over.

You had to hit return at the end of the page, it wouldn't just do it automatically.

They were noisier.

Answer 10

previous answer has made valid points but there is something about hearing all the little keys striking and hearing the ding at the end of the sentence that I miss at times