It has been argued that handwriting is slowly becoming less important in favour of typing. This is because handwriting seems to take up more time and effort than typing does. The underlying...Show moreIt has been argued that handwriting is slowly becoming less important in favour of typing. This is because handwriting seems to take up more time and effort than typing does. The underlying objective of this study is to examine the importance of handwriting. The aim of this study is to determine what factors are important to take into consideration when it comes to handwriting and to provide further evidence for the importance of handwriting as opposed to typing. This study covered four main topics in order to examine the importance of handwriting. This was done by looking at whether handwriting practice and the teaching of handwriting was decreasing in schools, then by looking at the differences between handwriting and typing, before establishing the importance of handwriting by examining the movement involved. Finally it drew a connection between handwriting and literacy. In order to examine these topics, a multitude of sources were examined and consulted. These ranged from neurological research articles, where the results were achieved by test subjects, to organizations testing the literacy of people, to websites that described concerns voiced by educators. This dissertation aimed to give an accurate representation of these sources by citing them appropriately. Taken together, these sources provided an overview into the main topic of the importance of handwriting. From this study it became clear that cursive handwriting is no longer an obligatory part of school curriculum in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and that there is a decrease in proper handwriting. In addition it also identified that bad handwriting can have disastrous consequences in professional fields. In regards to the differences between handwriting and typing, it has become clear that handwriting has a significant influence on the recognition of characters that typing lacks. Furthermore, handwriting aids people in their memory retention, helps build more complicated sentences than with typing, and leads to a better composition of a written text. Finally it described that handwriting and literacy were connected and a better handwriting performance lead to a better reading performance. It was concluded in the dissertation that handwriting continues to take up an important position in education, and should therefore not be given a secondary place next to typing. Handwriting attributes to academic success and higher literacy rates and bad handwriting would soon lead to a worse literacy rate. The study has indicated that a further education in handwriting should always be present in order to sustain the future for literacy, readability of text, and memorization of characters.Show less
This thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part...Show moreThis thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part authorship is investigated. The development of the word ‘author’ is given and several philosophers is given some attention to come to the final definition of ‘authorship’. Along the way the findings will be coupled with Te Winkel’s work and life. This will eventually lead to a definition of Te Winkel’s poetical activities. Was it authorship or recreational writing? In the second part of this thesis a full edition of Te Winkel’s book Lycoris: Bundel minnedichten 1864 - 1874 is given.Show less
The Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, has become the primary source of information for a substantial number of people in the world. In many libraries, computers have taken over the...Show moreThe Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, has become the primary source of information for a substantial number of people in the world. In many libraries, computers have taken over the main task of access to information and have pushed books to the periphery. But ever since its beginnings in 1990, the Web has changed and so have the ways we use it. An analysis of the Web's (cyber)space through graph theory can help identify how these changes have come about, and in what direction they are expected to push the Web in the future. The modern search engine, the Web 2.0 revolution, cloud computing and the shift to mobile devices have shifted the nodal structure and nodal features of the Web, which is expressed in a shift from exploration to information-retrieval, and from informational to largely social uses. Increasingly, the dynamic nature of websites has decoupled the content from the form, resulting in a lack of accountability of authors towards their web pages, which are claimed to be the result of “objective” algorithms. This supposed objectivity obscures the process of centralisation on the Web, in which the hubs are getting stronger and absorb traffic. As a result, there is a loss of associative data between non-hub web pages. The growing schism between form and content also makes it harder to spatially reify the information on the Web, since content is not necessarily fixed in its location and presentation. This spatiality matters, because it greatly benefits associative understanding and memorisation of information. The realness of the virtual space of the Web is analysed and is found to be real in the sense that it has real consequences. Moreover, the application of the spatial metaphor to the inherently non-spatial digital data is shown to be vital to effective use of the Web. Several strategies and tactics are proposed to stop this reduction of space and associativity in the Web.Show less
