Reflection
As a teacher, I originally thought that this task would be easy as I often write by hand to write jot notes, provide feedback on student assignments and state directions or notes on the classroom whiteboard. However, once I got started on the task, I almost immediately found it to be arduous and was surprised to find that my hand was cramping up not even 50 words into my writing.
After comparing the experience of writing by hand, and typing this reflection, I can definitely conclude that typography is my preferred method of written communication. This is likely because I type for a good portion of my working days as a result of the technological world we operate in. A large portion of professional and personal communication happens largely through emails and various forms of social media.
The primary reason that I prefer typing is that it is significantly faster. For example, I have written 200 words of this 300-word reflection in a fraction of the time it took me to manually write the same amount of words. Secondly, it leaves significantly more space for modifications and corrections. I actually made a lot more mistakes while composing this reflection than I did while writing by hand, but was able to fix them a lot more easily. Perhaps because of this, my thoughts seem to flow more smoothly on a keyboard than with a pen in my hand.
With that said, I would not say that writing by hand is completely without its benefits; it does provide a more personal and unique experience, it caused me to reflect more deeply about my words before I wrote them, and ultimately feels more like what I wrote ‘belongs’ to me.
References
Hitler, A., 1974. Mein Kampf; with an introduction by D.C. Watt, tr. by Ralph Manheim. London: Hutchinson.
Lamb, R., & McCormick, J. (Hosts). (2020, May 26). From the vault: Invention of the book, part 1 [Audio podcast episode]. In Stuff to blow your mind. iHeart Radio.
Hi Amy,
Your handwriting is beautiful!
I can relate to your preference for typing rather than writing. Especially as a teacher, so many of my notes and day to day are typing and if I do write something at work it’s a quick note.
However, when I am in meetings or I really want to digest and remember something. I find writing allows me to remember better. In several courses and workshops I have taken I have also been advised that, often writing allows you to remember better too. I found this article:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210319080820.htm
That may be some interest to you.
However, I do wonder if it would be the same for students who are growing up and learning to “wrote” via typography?
Thanks for sharing your post.
🙂 Dana
Thanks for your reply Dana. It’s funny you say that because when I am lecturing and expecting my students to take notes, I often remind them that writing notes will help them to better remember concepts. Maybe this makes me a hypocrite since I don’t like taking notes myself, particularly by hand.
I think for my students, though they do spend a lot of time on their phones and on computers, I would say that they mostly still complete academic work (apart from essays) by hand and so this science should apply to them.
I wonder though, as you have, if this applies to people like ourselves who have become incredibly accustomed to writing by method of typing.
Amy,
I am struck by how neat your printing is and also how it remains neat throughout. I struggle with keeping my printing neat as I continue writing. I agree that typing is so much faster and I feel that my train of thought is able to work faster with typing. When printing, my mind can be racing with ideas and not all will make them onto the page.
Hey Sonia,
Thanks for the compliment! Amazing a fairly neat handwriting style can be maintained despite so rarely using it.
Strange that when you are forced to write more slowly, that it’s like your hand can’t keep up with the thoughts in your head making it more difficult to get your thoughts down. I would think that a slower process would make writing more coherent, but in my experience that is certainly not the case!
Hi Amy,
I skipped this exercise because of the need to write by hand. Over the years, my penmanship has become so attrocious that only a handful on my team at work could decifer what I wrote and it was preferred for me to email.. 🙂
Regarding writing, I love to scribble, make notes in margins and leave symbols by passages I want to return to. Going to school during the 70s-90s, almost everything was done by hand. I know that writing or note-taking helps me remember and recall to the point that I can visualize the page I wrote something. It took me a couple of semesters in MET to find a program I could utilize as if writing by hand for our readings. However, when it comes to blogging or writing articles, I much prefer to type in part due to the ability to delete or move sections around as you edit or identify a better way to get a story across.
Nicole