RE-MEMBERING IDENTITY

Consider “Hutchins’ notion of distributed cognition . . . with media including the human mind and body.”

“As individuals engage in cultural practices, they are involved in apprenticeship, learning, and development.”

Yet, despite (or perhaps because of) the importance of this memory work in the office, advice texts urged women not to rely on their own memories, but to make use of external memory aids.

By far the most-commented-upon type of memory aid involved writing things down. Citing the fallibility of internal memory, advice texts stressed the importance of using paper technologies like memos and calendars to remember. A particularly pointed example of this appears in this scene from The Secretary's Day (Coronet, at left).

In the film, we see that one of Jean's very first tasks of the day involves a series of interconnected memory acts: she refers to her calendar pad—"a good secretary doesn't rely on memory"-- and uses it to type up a record of the day's schedule and reminders to her employer. This text will help "organize the day for herself and her employer." Later, when she meets with Mr. Williams (her employer) to take the day's dictation, she reminds him to do things like sign checks that need to be sent out (another task that she will remember to complete).

Muscle memory, and the physical discipline it entailed, was important for making sure that work was done as efficiently as possible. Time-motion studies were used to discover the "best" method or sequence of motions. When performed correctly, experts promised that these techniques would reduce worker fatigue, improve efficiency, and increase output.

These efficiency-driven principles were applied to many office tasks, including two kinds of "automatic" writing that defined secretarial work: transcription and typing.

The following two clips are from a WWII Navy recruitment film that urged viewers to take up typing, and to model their technique after that of an expert.

Despite the practice that needed to be invested to achieve acceptable levels of speed and accuracy, and despite the expectations that typists would bring literacy skills to their work (with, minimally, the ability to read, write, and spell—as well as type), their work was often characterized as "mechanical." Workers' acquisition of an automatic, physical skill—the muscle memory needed to type efficiently—paired with the use of a machine, made it easier to classify their work as work requiring little thought or skill.