Thomas Tchistiak

August 31, 2016

Williams, Robert (1990) The Mac is Not a Typewriter

The Mac is Not a Typewriter was written during a major paradigm shift that would go on to affect
many different world wide industries. Typewriting had entered the digital age. The Mac introduced a
vast number of new possibilities for editing. This change was the beginning of limitless editing
possibilities. As people were transitioning to digital publishing they had to adapt to its new typing
standards. This book gives some of the essential standards for word processing that any user can put to
use. Many of these principals are still relevant today, however slight changes have happened in syntax.
This book provides a guide for simple editorial detailing that can make an amateur author look
professional with simple formatting that makes a big difference. The book dedicates a chapter to each of
these principals explaining the correct and incorrect implementation of punctuation, font properties,
paragraph structure and many other functions.
A professional publication appears professional largely due to the careful formatting of its text and
contents. The aesthetic properties of an article posted online or published in a newspaper are just as
important as the words written in it. Having a visually pleasant article helps to improve the quality of
communication to the reader. With the vast amount of blog content being produced every day a
professional appearance is essential to attracting any kind of following or traction online.
Somebody unfamiliar with typography or professional writing may not be familiar with the common
errors they make. This is mostly because a lot of features the Mac is capable of are hidden, or mistaken.
For example, people commonly mistake the ditto marks for foot marks in quotations.
The transition from typewriter to digital publishing on the Mac presented these simple but important
changes in typing methodology. Using a typewriter for word processing can have many limitations. One
limitation for example is having to apply two spaces to after a sentence in order to make a proper
sentence separation. The Mac allows the user to use different kinds of hyphens and dashes. Typewriters
did not have proper hyphenation characters; users would resort to using two imitation dashes to indicate
a hyphen. The mac also allows the user to edit already written content, which is nearly impossible on a
typewriter.
The mac has improved the ability to communicate for people. A lot goes into an effective piece of
writing. The better the readability and legibility of the text, the more the message is effectively
communicated. Choice of font, leading, kerning, and styling like bold, italic or underlined text can have
a big impact on the reading experience. People sometimes abuse capitalization with the purpose of
communicating a strong message, but end up doing the opposite because the text is much harder to read.
The mind uses the variation in lower case letter shape as a guide, this is much harder when the text is in
similar shape and dimension in all caps. Many people improperly quote by using the foot marks, there
are many symbols hidden in the keyboard that allow the user to use proper punctuation, symbols,
superscripts and commands.
The body of text can easily look unprofessional through inappropriate styling choices. Features like
underlining can be executed in better way or avoided completely with italics or bolding. Keeping the
style consistent is goal in any body of writing. For people not too familiar with typography it is advised
to keep it simple and avoid combining typefaces.
Critiqued by: _____________________________________________