Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

I'm constantly bewildered by this notion that writing by hand is slow and thus bad, and that typing is fast and consequently good.

In my daily routine work as a programmer I find most of my work consists of thinking rather than writing. Or to twist the words a little: I don't think my typing impairs my creative ability, because the hard part of my job is thinking out the right solution. If you can't hold that thought in your head without typing the solution into your program quick enough to run and test it, perhaps you're not seeing patterns clearly.

As I work I constantly scribble notes on paper as I find it helps me think. When debugging a concrete problem, I find myself jotting down elements of the stack trace on paper so I can more easily retrace my steps. Concurrently I write down interesting things I come across that needs checking which I can return to when I'm done with my current line of thought.

Yet I'm fully aware I'm moving against the tide. I occasionally write longer pieces by hand several times a week, such as theories and findings. This helps me internalise patterns, solutions, and conclusions to interesting problems. Occasionally there are patterns and I can correlate good solutions to a problem to one I've solved in the past. But foremost it helps me _think_ better about the types of problems I'm trying to solve.

Programming is a creative discipline and not always about reapplying the same old patterns others have used before you. It's about craftsmanship and about learning the trade; about recognising those patterns and seeing new opportunity.

More to the point, my limitation isn't the speed at which I type things into my computer. The limitation is my brain not thinking fast enough.

The most crucial distinction where paper wins is that writing is a "nonlinear" process whereas typing with the tools we have today is "linear". You could use something like a mindmapping tool, but you're again constrained to a fairly rigid format rather than giving you the ease of switching. Eg: you can write down a bunch of things and draw arrows between them. Or draw a graph/sketch. Or draw a link between the thing you had on the first line and something related that came up towards the end of the page, etc. To me, that means that thinking on paper is much more free than typing, and one has available a space of a larger dimensionality, to represent one's ideas.

However fast one can type, the rigidity of typing is the biggest obstacle, imho. I do not think speed of typing-vs-writing ought to be a significant factor; I can think while I write, but not while I type (but that may be because I've written a lot, over decades, as a student growing up in India -- and nowhere near as much typing).

I've tried typing(laptop, phone, tablet), writing on a convertible tablet (Lenovo X230T and Xournal/linux) and paper is still the most usable, by far. Once I have something worked out on paper, I transfer the notes to the computer for storage -- either typed-up using markdown/Pandoc (since I use a lot of LaTeX math) or handwritten. Of late, I also occasionally use Google Keep for jotting down small things.

A quote from the article: "...a paper published in April in the journal Psychological Science... claim that note-taking with a pen, rather than a laptop, gives students a better grasp of the subject."

I find it odd that when some praise handwriting as a great mental tool, others obviously consider this as a some sort of ... ailment?

I assure you, handwriting is not a symptom of slow typing speed, and it does not need to be remedied by typing faster.

With Vim I can touch type quite fast enough. But the typing speed is useless unless I can understand what I am supposed to write.

Writing on paper improves my thinking to a point where I'm obviously partially incapacitated when implementing algorithms if I don't have a pen and paper at hand. And this is no exaggeration, I've tried in the past to go long periods without paper.

There is a threshold in algorithmic complexity after which I cannot hold all the variables in my head that I need to work out the solution.

The paper and pen feels like giving me 3x amount the working memory and increased reasoning skills.

Maybe the act of handwriting stimulates more areas of the brain, thus creating more associations along the way?

Funny, just got an email from my 4y/o's montessori school explaining why they start with cursive!

"It is commonly asked why children learn cursive writing instead of print in Montessori classrooms. From a practical point of view, it is thought that very young children's scribbles and early drawings are flowing and circular, more like cursive writing; making it more natural to learn first. At the Casa level, children love to repeat things making it a good time to practice penmanship. Given the distinct shape of each cursive letter, there is less confusion and less tendency to reverse letters such as b, d, p, and q. In printing there can be a tendency to mix upper and lower case letters together (e.g. CaNada,) which does not usually happen with cursive letters. Cursive also seems to be a more efficient way of writing since the letters are joined together.

Another reason stems from the fact that in Montessori schools children write before they read. In traditional schools, children in the first years of school are learning to read and write simultaneously and can be confused if they are learning to write in cursive and read in print. In Montessori, when the child is three and four years old, he is learning how to 'write'. He learns the sounds the letters make, learns to recognize them and learns how to form them. Once he knows the sounds, he can put sounds together to write words with the Movable Alphabet (cut out cursive letters that can be moved about freely and combined to make words) and eventually, with pencil and paper. For children who come to school knowing the alphabet names associated to print letters, it helps that the cursive letters look different when they learn the sounds of the letters. As a further step, children learn to read. When this happens they read print letters. Once children know the cursive letters, they are usually able to easily recognize the printed letters. So, they have the advantage over children who have learned to recognize print first and do not necessarily recognize cursive letters."

I can't stand writing. It's slow and it's messy, and I can't read a lot of other people's handwriting. I write about 30 words per minute and I type 167 wpm. Perhaps there are some cognitive benefits but I'm willing to give them up in exchange for the ease of getting my thoughts down quickly.

The only case that I still prefer handwriting is doing math. It's much easier for me to write out equations and "explore" things with pencil and paper over using a program. That said, I normally find that having something like Mathematica or a Julia notebook open in addition to pencil/paper is the best combination. One tool for drafting and thinking, and another tool for testing my ideas out.

Handwriting is only good if you can actually read your own handwriting.

My handwriting is shit. Terrible. Infact it is so bad I almost failed school.

At the age of 5 I was told by various authority figures that I was thick because I couldn't write. I vividly remember being told that some people have dyslexia, and that why they can't write, however I'm just slow, and that I'll have to just try harder.

Fortunately my mother decided that this was bollocks and forced the school to actually try. All through first, middle and high school my handwriting held me back. It is exceeding tedious to have all the correct answers but not be able to express them in a written format, the only format that gets you marks. When I was choosing my GCSEs at the age of 14, I had to weight up my potential career choices for someone who appears illiterate, and had a very high chance of leaving school at 16 with no qualifications. (the standard thing to do in my situation is to only do maths, a single science and English).

Fortunately my school was progressive and decided to try giving me an apple eMate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300). This literally changed my life.

It was the beginning of me realising that perhaps I wasn't a failure, and that I might be able to actually achieve something other than living in the family home.

I have a house, a wife, child and a first class degree. All of which would not have been possible without typing.

So the next time someone says that typing is inferior to hand writing, and that its very simple to write at the speed of thought, have some empathy for the legions of people that cannot write for shit.

> The group that learned to write letters by hand were better at recognising them than the group that learned to type them on a computer.

I have noticed for the physical act of writing with a pen on paper concepts and diagrams helps me internalize and learn them more. There is some kind of an improved feedback mechanism of sorts. Than, say if I do it in an editor, mind mapping software, or some kind of diagram creating app.

When I program and design I always think with paper and pen (or whiteboard if in a group). A lot of it is not really "writing or typing" as in actaully writing code, but mostly it is scribbling blocks, arrows, labels. Maybe an API description.

For price + "user experience" ( here = responsiveness, latency ). Nothing compares to pen, paper or whiteboard and marker.

I hate it that there's such a large dichotomy between typing and handwriting.

I hand-write stuff all the time. Not because I'm a doddering fossil or because I'm a luddite or anything like that...I find that hand-writing notes from class helps me remember them better, and hand-writing letters and cards gives a much more personal touch.

But then I have all these sheafs of dead trees that I have to deal with. I need to make sure I have my notebook if I think I'm going to take notes. And afterwards, if I think "I took a class...maybe three months ago? Four? How far back in this notebook was that? Is this even in the same notebook?" Nothing is searchable.

I've looked into Evernote, modnotebook, and a few other solutions (including a fancy smartpen-and-paper combo that's supposed to read and digitize my writing), none of which actually work for me. Sometimes it's just that my tiny, illegible scribblings are incomprehensible to OCR software, and sometimes it's that the "solution" involves changing my workflow in a way that makes it not work for me anymore.

Microsoft have tried to solve this problem a few times (Windows for Pen Computing, anybody? OneNote?). Others have taken a stab at it too. I'm not at all close to the right answer myself; I only know that everything I've seen so far has not been it.

I bet this is one of those problems that, if you could solve it in the right way, you would legitimately change the world.

I definitely think more freely with pen and paper than when I'm sitting at a keyboard. I have no idea if this is innate, or because I grew up in the 70's and 80's and learned to write by hand. I do feel fortunate to have learned to write by hand at an early age, but also to feel totally at home in front of a keyboard.

I'm just about to finish writing my first book, and it's been really interesting to see which mode I use the most. I'd love to be able to write my initial draft at the keyboard, because it would make my work a lot easier. But often times I need to put my computer aside, take a stack of blank paper, and write out my initial draft by hand. I kept a journal for many years, including the year I spent living on a bicycle. I slept in a tent every night, and wrote in a journal by headlamp or candlelight every night for a year. I don't know if that's what cemented my dependence on writing by hand to express my thoughts clearly, or if it's human nature to think more clearly when writing by hand.

The same holds true for revising and editing. I do my best revision work by printing out a copy of what I'm working on, and marking it up with a pen and then entering those revisions. I can't edit well working on a screen.

This article was really interesting to me because I have a son who'll be four soon. I'd been assuming that I need to write by hand because that's how I learned to put my thoughts into writing. This article makes me want to teach him handwriting so he'll be able to choose between the two modes as well.

As a lefty who was forced to write with my right hand because of some superstitions, I won't look back. Never. I will always prefer the key before the pen.

Using a pen to write caused a trauma I tried to turn into something useful by learning to write with my left hand. It ended up nice. I have two different styles now but I'll never be as fast as with my right hand because there are not enough chances to train it in real life (and no, I'll never fill sheets of paper with pointless words just for the sake of it again!).

I think (and hope) we'll pass the point where we'll have to write at all and I see the touch screen example not really as a development. I haven't seen anybody use that feature. Most will just pop up the keyboard and type using their trained routine that is so much faster. And everybody can read it...The possibility to write on a touch pad is a salute to pen & paper. Signing is the only really advantage we get from it and that can be solved also. I think the future is in talk (how about eye tracking?) and further on in brain interfaces. Moving a pen will of course still be there then. Like people riding horses today. Maybe my semi-readable writing style will become art then...

> Operating a keyboard is not the same at all: all you have to do is press the right key.

Well, that's quite a biased notion. I could as well just say that operating a pen is just pressing it against the paper, while using a keyboard means a lot more: proper alignment of fingers on the home row, learning which finger should be used for which keys, etc.

I've got two points to consider with this:

1) On a proper keyboard, I'm faster typing than writing. But on a "soft" keyboard like a tablet/phone (which I'm more likely to have with me), I'm much slower. This is probably due to a combination of inherent response times in the screen, and some increased degree of lag between keystrokes to aid touch detection.

2) When writing, I can easily jot down things like rough graphs to accompany data. Or rough layouts of a webpage to accompany the copy. I can quickly circle a block of text and draw an arrow to another block with a note about why they are linked. Whilst typing is faster for block text, I have yet to find an app that can even come remotely close to the ease of pen and paper for these quick sketches.

EXTRA: Not to mention the ease with which you can pass a sheet of paper to a colleague for them to read, markup edits, etc...

EXTRA 2: Plus it all works during a power cut ;)

I use handwriting a lot, on tablets.

Handwriting lets you express in an artistic way, in some ways it is like voice, as it let's you use nuances.

We use mindmaps a lot, and graphs and drawings, storyboards. They are very powerful tools for communicating with other humans.

Text alone is so rigid, rational, absent of emotions.

(normal)Keyboards are very slow, if what you want is velocity, learn stenography.

Phasing out cursive in favor of typing reflects an unfortunate reality in which the ability to bang out TPS reports is more important than writing a nice card to Grandma. But while I spend most waking hours at the keyboard, any creative process that involves translating thoughts into symbols is unsatisfying to me if keyboard is my _only_ input device.

I am excited about the shift to mobile computing partly because it forces us to come up with input paradigms that are more appropriate to the digital medium. My pipe dream is for inking on phones and tables to become ubiquitous. Between Samsung and Microsoft hardware, we are slowly inching in that direction. Now if I could only get off my ass and port Xournal to Android (I find myself living in a bizarro world where I fire up Linux mostly to take handwritten notes.)

What a false dichotomy. Nobody's saying we should stop teaching kids to write. We're just not teaching them cursive. If writing by hand helps kids learn to read, they will still receive these benefits as they learn to write in print.

Does anyone know of a school that doesn't teach print anymore?

Typing just adds another level to writing. For me it's like a check function that spots flow inconsistencies or brings up better choices of words, whereas the handwriting feels "organic". There is a more archaic, immediate, sensual sensori-motor connection between the ideas and the output. That's the type of connection that cursive consolidates (which is why I think it's priceless to teach kids cursive vs. script). Having learned to type on a typewriter (!) I see a huge difference in the way ideas flow due to the way word-processors have evolved. Maybe speed has something to do with this but I'm not sure. Using both definitely enriches writing.

This article is full of bogus arguments about the limitations and rigid nature of word processors. Nobody stops you from using Inkscape, iPython Notebooks, or some other app for your scripts and get creative with your notes.

Certainly handwriting notes helps memorization but so does any other active participation. Personally I found coding little models and simulations about the subject matter far superior to handwriting notes. Maybe latter is not always compatible with the pace of the curriculum but this may only suggest the curriculum is designed for students handwriting along.

I personally find the act of handwriting something helps me recall it later. I barely even read-back my handwritten notes because they become irrelevant almost the moment I write them down.

Haven't heard anyone mention taking notes on a voice recorder. I have never done it, but wonder if this is efficient or not.

As for pen vs keyboard, I'm definitely for the pen, specially when thinking. On a small page, I can start with words, switch to a diagram, putting few arrows here and there linking parts , put a formula easily, it's basically too hard to do that much on a computer (as quickly).

Although, after scribbling things, I usually put a clean version on file somewhere.

One is not replaceable with the other. For typing out pure English text typing could be faster. However for writing equations even with the maddest LaTeX skills you are far behind from handwriting. Also it's quite impossible for me to replace pen and throwaway papers for thinking (I know, poor forests) with anything computer related. Even for consulting with my supervisor a blackboard and handwriting is essential.

I learned cursive many years ago, and Handwriting was a reliable C- (or maybe D) for me during most of the primary grades. I can write a legible hand now, but find that I use cursive for Christmas cards and notes of condolence. I do take notes with pen and notebook, but generally not in cursive. If a genie showed up offering only one of clearer cursive or better typing, I'd choose the latter.

If you want to challenge yourself, I highly recommend learning visual note taking. The goal is not to do it at a level where you can show off - but to learn how to visually capture the themes and some details of what is being said.

http://www.danroam.com/the-back-of-the-napkin/

> “cursive” writing – in which the pen is not raised between each character – has been dropped from the Common Core Curriculum Standards, shared by all states. Since 2013 American children have been required to learn how to use a keyboard and write in print.

I'm sorry. This is so ludicrous. If you can't write legibly unless you're using a computer, how can you be called literate?

And don't come back and say, "it's perfectly fine for them to use print." I attended public school myself, learned to write cursive in the 3rd grade, and never used it again. I thought my natural printing style was good enough, to the point where, to this day, I still sign my name in the jagged, chopped-up, pseudo-cursive printing style that I invented in 4th grade, and only I can read.

Now, I'm a person who loves to listen to classes and take notes with a pen. About 6 months ago, I looked at the piles of jumbled-up notebooks in my closet and was horrified at the chicken scratch on it. I could barely make sense of it. I might as well have not even been taking notes. So I decided to try cursive again. Now, I refuse to print anything unless I have to. Cursive is so much easier, so much faster, so much more legible, so much neater. I simply can't believe I didn't use it for 20 years of my life. People always tell me how good my handwriting is now.

Maybe some people came out of grade school with a neater printing style than I did, but I really, really doubt they can keep that neatness while writing as quickly as they WOULD be if they were using cursive. I would really like to know what the standards people were thinking when they made this decision.

Some things I wish:

- I could write on paper and have that sent to a document on the computer as if it was typed out. Something like those digital pens do, but actually ocr the text.

- To learn Stenography (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb-dB6g)

Depends on the keyboard?

Screen-input devices like phones and tablets really are lousy keyboards. I get unbelievably better work done with my Note 3 and Shield Tablet then by poking away at a fussy keyboard.

But for sitting at my desk or on my laptop, the keyboard is far superior for most things. So it depends.

I'm kind of surprised that the popularity of tablets hasn't enabled a resurgence of calligraphy. I mean tablets are ideal for practicing calligraphy. You draw your shapes and if they aren't good, don't have rhythm and don't sing; erase and start over.

Yes, partly for this reason I switch to a mixture of voice, drawings and cursive for my personal diary. I also intend to use a variant of quickscript crossed with the phonetic alfabet and shorthand techniques for speed and semi-encryption (currently using the greek alphabet)

What? Are you saying that writing by hand is not taught in US any more?

Are you telling me that American children are cut off from a most basic and easily affordable ability to express their thoughts where only things necessary are pen and paper?

Do I miss something?

Related anecdote: Neil Gaiman writes his stories with a fountain pen (well, at least during the period 1994 - 2012):

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18071830

> In an editorial published on 4 September 2013, the Los Angeles Times hailed a step forward. “States and schools shouldn’t cling to cursive based on the romantic idea that it’s a tradition, an art form or a basic skill whose disappearance would be a cultural tragedy. Of course, everyone needs to be able to write without computers, but longhand printing generally works fine […] Print is clearer and easier to read than script. For many, it’s easier to write and just about as fast.”

Not all hand writing is meant to just express a point. Some hand writing is also—by itself—an art form. I can easily draw a parallel between penmanship skills and something such as creative writing. An easy to write, and fast way of writing is akin to "Jon kills Joe. Jon marries Susan. The end." Easily written, fast, to the point. And entirely worthless unless you only want to convey the absolute minimum. A fluid style in writing can display nuances, such as which side the gradient leans, what letters have a flourish, or how round the letters are (and which ones aren't).

As a programmer, I need to physically draw and write out how an application and its input/output will all come together. Even something stupid such as a simple box with multiple arrows coming in and out of it can have a big meaning. On paper, it looks like a few lines. But it represents what I actually am thinking about; and putting the pen to paper helps create an extension of my own thoughts, and allows me to move on in my head to further down the problem.

I have tried using text files to keep track of this information, but it can not contain the same meaning for me. Lines of text can change, and the visual representation is foreign, compared to something like my own hand writing and drawings. Even tablets aren't the same. The feeling of ink spilling out has an ephemeral high that is given, where a finger or touch-pen to a tablet just doesn't produce the same kind of feeling or relationship.

It may be an upbringing thing, though. I had been taught in a private school that pushed writing and penmanship from a young age. Any rough drafts had to be hand-written, and it wasn't until the final draft that we were allowed to type. Math problems as well had to be worked out by hand on paper, and calculators were not allowed until we reached pre-calc and geometry. I can see the point of view from someone coming up in a computer-only schooling, and how they might be more comfortable in using a keyboard to express their thoughts, though.

When learning a foreign language, I've found actually writing the words and characters out have a tremendous impact in helping me remember them later on. This is especially true for something like Japanese or Chinese, where I retrace which radical starts the character, and the order in which they go. For someone native to these languages, it may not be as big a deal due to the daily usage. However, it also seems some youths in Asia are forgetting the actual writing of some kanji/hanzi due the convenience of computers[1]. So now we can recognize a kanji and know its meaning, but knowing the kanji and being able to write it without aid may be more difficult.

[1] http://www.tofugu.com/2010/08/27/kanji-amnesia-and-why-its-o...

I think it is. Scientists all carry around laboratory notebooks that they write in by hand.

While I can type faster than I can write, if I observe something that I want to record for later consideration, it's a lot quicker for me to whip out my notebook and a pen, than to whip out my computer, log in, launch a text editor then save my document.

On the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, years ago, they had a contest between a ham radio operator using Morse code and a 20-something texting to his friend. Morse code was faster.

Therefore, I propose we all exchange texting for Morse code.