Laptops Down

ABQWerty Type Writer Society Member Shares this Brief Article

Laptops Down: Why One Professor Is Bringing Typewriters Back to Class

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Gone are the days of using a typewriter … or are they? In a classroom at Cornell University, the sound of clickety-clack can be heard as students complete an assignment using only typewriters (and, of course, their brains).

Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at the school, started the “analog” exercise in 2023 after growing frustrated with students using AI and online translation platforms to turn in perfect papers. “What’s the point of me reading it if it’s already correct anyway, and you didn’t write it yourself?” Phelps told the Associated Press. “Could you produce it without your computer?”

To find out, she brought a few dozen thrifted manual typewriters to class, requiring students to complete an assignment on the devices and navigate a world without spell-check, screens, or delete keys. “I was so confused. I had no idea what was happening. I’d seen typewriters in movies, but they don’t tell you how a typewriter works,” said 19-year-old Catherine Mong, a freshman in Phelps’ Intro to German class. “I didn’t know there was a whole science to using a typewriter.”

Another student, Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong, said using a typewriter completely changed how he interacted with his work and his environment. “While writing the essay, I had to talk a lot more, socialize a lot more,” he explained, adding, “This might sound bad, but I was forced to actually think about the problem on my own instead of delegating to AI or Google search.”