Throughout the country, the “face of the classroom” has vastly changed in recent years. No longer do you find stacks and stacks of spiral notebooks and textbooks on students’ desks. The learning process now typically unfolds through electronic tablets. In addition to reading everything on a screen, students also type their work rather than writing by hand.
The writing process hasn’t changed only for students. Published authors and those aspiring to such goals also type more than write by hand nowadays. Many studies have been done comparing the two forms of getting thoughts from one’s brain onto paper or, at least, into a digital document that you can print out at will. If it’s been a while since you’ve picked up an actual pencil or pen to write, you might want to renew the habit because there appears to be numerous benefits to writing versus typing your words.
Back to the tablets-versus-textbooks issues for a moment
Whether using tablets over textbooks and spiral notebooks in class benefits or impedes the learning process is a highly debatable topic. There are proponents and naysayers on both sides and pros and cons to each option. For instance, studies show that learning a specific objective is often a faster process via tablet or another electronic device. However, there are numerous adverse health issues, including eye strain, headaches and blurred vision that frequently occur when the majority of learning takes place on a computer screen.
The pen-and-paper process of writing boosts brain health more than typing
If you’re a member of the Baby Boomer generation or older, you may have had a typing class in school at some point. The generations that immediately came after the Baby Boomers were also accustomed to having keyboarding lessons in school, as computers came to be common fixtures in the classroom.
In both settings (pre-Baby Boomer and post) when typewriters or keyboards were available, teachers almost always insisted that the rough draft of an essay be hand-written. After revisions, students were allowed (or required) to type a final copy. Writing by hand is at risk of becoming obsolete. Cursive writing is no longer taught in most schools. Unfortunately, while typing everything has become the primary means of writing (in the name of progress) people who rarely (or never) write by hand are missing out on several neurological benefits.
Benefits of writing over typing
Typing is a faster process than writing by hand, to be sure. However, the following list shows numerous neurological benefits to using pen and paper as opposed to typing:
- Improved short-term and long-term memory recall
- Sharpened critical thinking skills
- Improved ability to read and write
- Improved reading comprehension
- Expanded creativity
Hand-writing ignites an encoding process in the brain that directly affects the ability to store and retrieve information. Studies consistently show that students who take notes by hand rather than type have better memory recall than those who never take notes by hand. There is also ample evidence to show that the process of longhand inspires creativity, which is, of course, a key issue for writers.
Writing by hand forces you to slow down and think through the words you’re writing more than when you type. Even the type of writing tool you use (I.e., ballpoint pen, fine tip marker, etc.) and color of ink have numerous (potentially beneficial) effects on your brain, but that’s a topic for another post!
