Scientists Show Why Writing By Hand is Better than Typing
No matter our age, putting pen to paper provides significant benefits that typing just can’t compete with
During group projects in fourth grade, we voted to bestow the honor of writing on the poster board to the person with the best handwriting — a position I coveted more than anything. I wanted it so much that I started keeping a daily diary, reporting everything I did. I thought my handwriting would improve over time, and I’d finally be selected to write on the poster board. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out, but the journaling habit stuck.
I’ve played with the idea of shifting my journaling from pen and paper to digital, partly because I can type faster than I can write by hand, but I can’t bring myself to do it. There’s something about physically writing my thoughts that’s just better. And now researchers know why. Writing by hand is demonstrably and scientifically better than typing, especially when we’re learning.
Previous Research
In 2014, researchers Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, published a foundational study demonstrating that students who take their notes on paper learn more than those who type them.
