Typewriting Honor

Vocational Activities

Requirements

1. Show how to clean, type correctly, and change the ribbon on a typewriter.

   Answer: Clean the typebars with a stiff brush + isopropyl alcohol on a cloth. To type: erect posture, fingers curved over the home row (asdf-jklç), firm and short pressure. Change the ribbon: lift the cover, release the spools, position the new ribbon between the guides, and lock it in place. — The Olivetti Lettera 32 and the Remington Travel-Riter were benchmark models. Dirty typebars smudge the letters. Posture: neutral wrist, forearm parallel to the floor, the monitor (paper) at eye level. Ergonomic typewriting is the foundation of modern typing. The ABNT NBR 14724 standard maintains formatting rules.

2. Know the difference between a fabric ribbon and a carbon ribbon.

   Answer: Fabric ribbon: inked nylon, reusable and re-inkable, with less sharp text. Carbon ribbon: single-use plastic film, very sharp and uniform text — the standard for official documents. — The IBM Selectric (1961) standardized the ball-type element. The carbon ribbon gives a laser-quality print but costs 3-5x more. Fabric can be reused dozens of times; carbon, a single pass. Documents certified at notary offices required carbon for its sharpness. Today it is obsolete, replaced by the laser printer.

3. Know the parts of a typewriter and know the function of all its keys.

   Answer: Carriage (paper support), platen (backing), typebars (slugs with letters), ribbon (inked), spools. Keys: shift (uppercase), shift-lock (caps lock), backspace (back up), tab (tabulation), spacebar, carriage return (Enter), and alphanumeric keys. — The QWERTY layout was created in 1873 by Christopher Sholes to avoid the jamming of neighboring typebars. The Brazilian ABNT2 keyboard includes the Ç with a hyphen-accent. The carriage returns to the start of the line with a side lever on mechanical machines. The spacebar counts characters for centering.

4. Know how to set tabs. Type a page using tabulation with at least 4 columns.

   Answer: Calculate the available width and divide it into 4 columns. Mark stops with SET at the positions; use TAB to jump between them. Type the header and data, advancing to the next field with TAB. — An A4 page has 210mm of usable width. A 25mm margin on each side leaves 160mm. Divided into 4 columns = 40mm each. At 10 CPI (characters per inch) = ~16 characters per column. Tabulation is used in spreadsheets, attendance lists, accounting balance sheets. Today TAB is a universal key in text editors.

5. Demonstrate how to center text horizontally and vertically.

   Answer: Horizontal: count the characters of the title, divide by 2, and subtract from the center of the line. Vertical: count the lines of the text, subtract from 60 (A4 lines), and divide by 2 = the blank lines at the top. — An A4 page with Pica font (10 cpi, 6 lpi) fits ~80 characters × 60 lines. To center 'Invitation' (7 characters, in the original) on the 80-character line: 80÷2=40, 7÷2=3.5 → start at 36 (40-3.5 rounds to 4). Vertical: a 20-line text on a 60-line page: (60-20)÷2 = 20 blank lines at the top. Useful for invitations and titles.

6. Demonstrate how to make letters in italics and bold.

   Answer: Bold: strike the same letter twice, slightly shifting the carriage — this thickens the stroke. Italics: only on electric IBM Selectric machines with an interchangeable italic-font ball. — Underlining is an alternative to italics on a mechanical machine: use the underscore key after backspacing over the letters to be emphasized. The IBM Selectric (1961) revolutionized typing with interchangeable balls (Light Italic, Bold, Pica, Elite). Today in digital editors it is Ctrl+B (bold) and Ctrl+I (italics). The ABNT NBR 14724 standard regulates their use in academic works.

7. Operate a typewriter at a speed of 40 words per minute (minimum) on new material, for 5 minutes, with no more than 5 errors.

   Answer: 40 wpm = ~200 characters/min or ~5 keystrokes/sec. Practice 30 min daily with the touch method (typing without looking). Erect posture, fingers curved on the home row (asdf-jklç), returning to the base position after each key. An error = a wrong, missing, or extra letter. — A professional typist reaches 60-80 wpm; an expert, 100+. Popular methods: Henrique Stuart-Lebeis ('Curso de Datilografia') and Olivetti. New material is unmemorized text, to avoid memorization. A real error counts only once per word. Public-service exams accepted 40 wpm as the minimum until 2010.