Why I Write Longhand
Read the next two selections and answer the questions that follow. Why I Write Longhand by Jordan Mechner
1 As a writer and game designer, I’ve spent a good chunk of the past 30 years trying to do various types of creative work while sitting, standing, or slouching at a computer keyboard (and, more recently, a touchscreen). The power of those devices has grown exponentially, enabling me with a tap or a keystroke to accomplish marvels that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. (“Upload PDF to Dropbox”; “Open Scrivener file.”)
2 And yet I’ve been increasingly bemused to realize that by realworld measures of productivity—words written, problems solved, good ideas crystallized—my output has not only not multiplied along with the power of my tools, it hasn’t increased one bit.
3 Not only that: I’ve had for some time the gnawing feeling that my best ideas—the ones that really make a difference—tend to come while I’m walking in the park, or showering after a workout, or talking a problem through with a friend, or writing in a notebook; i.e., almost anywhere but in front of a screen.
4 For a long time I tried to talk myself out of this. I figured that if my computer time wasn’t maximally productive, it was because I didn’t have the right software, or wasn’t using it right. I tried configuring panels and preferences differently. I created keyboard shortcuts. I downloaded apps to track time I spent using other apps, apps to make it easier to switch between multiple apps. Nothing changed the basic observed fact: There was an inverse relationship between my screen time and my productivity on a given day.
5 I started mentioning this to people. Cautiously at first. For someone who makes his living by putting stuff on screens, to question the fundamental symbiotic bond of user and machine could seem perverse, even a sort of heresy. But to my surprise, the more I brought it up, the more I discovered I wasn’t alone.
6 It turns out that some of the most productive and successful people I know still write longhand.1 Screenwriters write on index cards and big rolls of paper, the way I did in elementary school. One dictates his first drafts out loud and has an assistant transcribe them. Game designers and directors scribble on whiteboards and in notebooks. And some of these people were born after 1980.
7 For myself, I’ve found that I spend the vast majority of my working computer time staring at the screen in a state of mind that falls somewhere within the gray spectrum from “passive/ reactive” to “sporadically/somewhat productive,” and in which a few minutes can stretch unnoticed into a quarter-hour, or a couple of hours, without breaking the seamless self-delusion that because I am at my desk, at my computer, I am therefore working.
8 It’s so easy to move words and sentences around in Word or Scrivener or Final Draft that it feels like writing, even if what I’m actually doing would rate only a 2 on the scale in which 10 is “getting an idea and writing it down.” Writing down an idea, an actual idea, is something I can do as easily with a fifty-cent ballpoint pen as with a thousand-dollar MacBook Air. Only with the ball-point, it’s harder to fool myself. If the page stays blank, I can see it’s blank.
9 Which is why, after years of making progressively heavier use of more apps and more devices to do things I used to do without any devices at all, I’ve thrown that train into reverse. I now keep my project notes and journals in actual notebooks. I’ve even switched to paper for my “to-do lists,” and cross off action items literally, not figuratively. It’s simpler and I get more done this way.
10 As much as I love my tricked-out MacBook Air, I try not to begin workdays automatically by lifting its lid, as if to say “I have arrived at work; now tell me what to do”; just as I try not to reach for my iPhone to fill the silence of a solitary moment. Ideally, I want my screen sessions to begin with a conscious choice, a clear intention of why I’m turning to that device at that moment and what I mean to accomplish.
11 It’s easier said than done. The more I try, the more I realize that what I’m actually doing is fighting an addiction. The Apple II that first enchanted me thirty years ago as a tool to make fun games has evolved, one update and one upgrade at a time, into a multi-tentacled entity so powerful that it takes an ongoing effort of will for me not to be enslaved by it. Used with permission.
Third party trademarks Dropbox®, Scrivener®, Word®, Final Draft®, MacBook Air®, iPhone® and Apple II® were used in these testing materials
Paper Calendars Endure Despite the Digital Age
Paper Calendars Endure Despite the Digital Age by Christopher Mele The New York Times December 29, 2016
1 With the year’s end comes the ritual of many households and offices: getting new appointment books, planners or calendars to hang on walls or put on desks.
2 In an age of smartphones and the Internet, you might think the days of paper calendars are numbered, but data suggest otherwise. Not only have they survived the digital revolution, but sales of some kinds of print calendars have increased.
3 The sales of appointment books and planners grew 10 percent from 2014–15 to 2015–16 to $342.7 million, and decorative and other calendars increased by 8 percent to $65 million in that time, according to figures from the NPD Group, a consumer research firm.
4 Personalization has helped make planners and appointment books popular, Leen Nsouli, an analyst of the office supplies industry at NPD, said in an email.
5 “The consumer can customize a planner to fit his or her style with accessories, colors and even color code events and activities,” she wrote. “That’s not something you can do on the standard phone calendar.”
6 Jerome Roxton, president of Tru Art Advertising Calendars in Iowa City, Iowa, said traditional calendars remain popular because they combine aesthetics with utility. Paper and digital calendars can readily coexist.
7 “What we found is it’s a question of and,” he said. “It’s not a question of or.”
8 Bertel King Jr., in a blog post last year for Make Use Of, a technology and productivity site, made the case for paper calendars, noting that he was “inundated with notifications, beeps, alerts and messages.”
9 “Having to open another tab, fire up another piece of software, or launch another app to access my calendar amounts to one more onscreen thing vying for my attention,” he wrote. “Suddenly a paper planner starts to make sense.”
10 It may seem counterintuitive that a print product can thrive in the digital age. But the continued success of some paper calendars mirrors that of printed books, an industry that several years ago was confronting what seemed like the very real possibility that e-books would outsell the printed variety. Instead, a Pew survey this fall found that most readers still preferred their reading material printed on paper.
11 Still, the popularity of some calendars—desk pads and the ones that hang on your wall—has waned.
12 The average number of printed calendars in households was 3.12 in 2011 compared with 3.98 in 1981, according to the most recent study sponsored by the Promotional Products Association International and the Calendar Advertising Council. The kitchen remained the prime display location, with 75 percent of respondents saying they had a calendar there. The average number of printed calendars per business was 2.10, down from 2.56 in 1981, according to the study.
13 A 2008 paper from Virginia Tech, called “An Exploratory Study of Personal Calendar Use,” predicted the march of electronic calendars would be swift and inevitable. “With the increased use of mobile devices, more and more calendaring tasks are performed off the desktop computer,” it said.
14 A bright spot in the industry remains promotional calendars, like those distributed by real estate agents, medical professionals, car repair shops and other businesses. As a percentage of sales of promotional products, those calendars have held steady or increased slightly from 2012 to 2015, according to industry figures.
15 Melissa Ralston, marketing director for BIC Graphic, said in an email that companies have found paper calendars to be an effective advertising vehicle with a mass market appeal.
16 She said studies have found that 82 percent of recipients enjoy getting a calendar as a complimentary gift and 70 percent plan to do business with the company that provided the calendar.
17 As for Ms. Ralston, she practices what she preaches. She said she has three calendars: a planner, a wall calendar and one on her refrigerator.
From The New York Times, December 30, 2016. © 2016 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this content without express written permission is prohibited. Third party trademarks Tru Art Advertising Calendars®, Make Use Of® and BIC Graphic® were used in these testing materials.
Question 1
20. Use “Why I Write Longhand” to answer the following question. Which word best describes the overall tone of the selection “Why I Write Longhand”? (1 point)
Responses
A. Playful
A. Playful
B. Sarcastic
B. Sarcastic
C. Regretful
C. Regretful
D. Reflective
D. Reflective
Question 2
21. Use “Why I Write Longhand” to answer the following question.
In paragraph 4 of the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” the author
supports the idea that he —(1 point)
Responses
A. usually chooses the simplest way to accomplish tasks
A. usually chooses the simplest way to accomplish tasks
B. was proud of his ability to master the use of high-tech tools
B. was proud of his ability to master the use of high-tech tools
C. avoided facing the reality of his work habits
C. avoided facing the reality of his work habits
D. is able to learn new skills and computer programs quickly
D. is able to learn new skills and computer programs quickly
Question 3
22. Use “Why I Write Longhand” to answer the following question. In paragraph 11 of the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” why does the author describe evolving computer tools as “a multitentacled entity”?(1 point)
Responses
A. He embraces the need for writers to multitask.
A. He embraces the need for writers to multitask.
B. His addiction to computer devices has become overwhelming.
B. His addiction to computer devices has become overwhelming.
C. He believes that writers must pay attention to many things at once
C. He believes that writers must pay attention to many things at once
D. His experiences designing computer games impact the way he views the world.
D. His experiences designing computer games impact the way he views the world.
Question 4
23. Use “Why I Write Longhand” to answer the following question. In the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” which word is closest in meaning to exponentially as it is used in paragraph 1?(1 point)
Responses
A. Rapidly
A. Rapidly
B. Silently
B. Silently
C. Unexpectedly
C. Unexpectedly
D. Wonderfully
1 answer
Here are the answers to the questions based on the selection "Why I Write Longhand" by Jordan Mechner:
Question 1: Which word best describes the overall tone of the selection “Why I Write Longhand”?
Response: D. Reflective
The author reflects on his experiences and thoughts about writing longhand versus using technology.
Question 2: In paragraph 4 of the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” the author supports the idea that he —
Response: C. avoided facing the reality of his work habits
In paragraph 4, the author discusses how he tried to convince himself that his lack of productivity was due to not having the right tools or using them correctly, indicating he was not facing the reality of his habits.
Question 3: In paragraph 11 of the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” why does the author describe evolving computer tools as “a multi-tentacled entity”?
Response: B. His addiction to computer devices has become overwhelming.
The phrase suggests that the complexity and numerous functionalities of these devices make them feel overwhelming, akin to being controlled by something with many "tentacles."
Question 4: In the selection “Why I Write Longhand,” which word is closest in meaning to exponentially as it is used in paragraph 1?
Response: A. Rapidly
Exponential growth implies a rapid increase, particularly in relation to the power and capabilities of computer tools.
