Do you like your handwriting?

To be honest, it doesn’t really matter, because perhaps writing is your brain’s best friend.

Writing with a pen or fountain pen is not only a craft, but also a technique. A technique used for generations to organise thoughts and prioritise, list and conceptualise. We can write exactly how we think.

With the increasing reliance on WhatsApp and the smartphone, writing is something that most of us do less and less of. Instead we tend to type more, whether it be on our computer at work, our smartphones or another device.

The question is: Does it make us question things less?

What effect does this convenience have on our ability to think things through?

Is it making us lazier, more tolerant of what others think and say?

I mean, how many adults do you know that write things down these days?

Written messages are more a matter of  typing, tapping, pinching and squeezing

In the meantime, we are not so much writers as so-called wipers or swipers.

In an age where young staff can keep in touch with each other 24/7, they communicate a lot, but if at all possible, only via WhatsApp, chats, etc..

Analogue is increasingly becoming an invasion of privacy. Real-time communication a necessary evil.

But ironically, at the same time, there is a lot of cult around handwriting. Back to the roots of communication for those moments of solitude that we are beginning to crave, perhaps?

Beautiful, unique writing instruments and gorgeous stationery are both a weakness of mine and there are even so-called “writing coachings” for managers to reprogramme their writing. I wonder whether doctors get a special rate 😉

The calligraphy or renamed hand-lettering is also quite a hype now, particularly in the visually-driven social media channels like Instagram and Pinterest.  Another trend which has been growing steadily is Bullet Journals; sometimes affectionately referred to as BUJOs and Haiku are very handwriting oriented trends that promise to help us to relax or organize but in an individual and creative way. They are often seen as being very rewarding and yet constructive digital time-out.

I myself have a Haiku notebook which is small enough to fit into any handbag which I keep with a fountain pen with colourful ink cartridges for when I have a few moments to spare and feel a poetic moment – it takes me just a few moments to ‘capture the moment’ and take myself to a place of peace. 3 lines, 27 syllables and a few minutes later, I am recharged and ready to go.

Feel free to check out my Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/coco.bytesizedenglish/ for some of those. It’s not about perfectionism, it’s about inner peace for word nerds like me.

Teachers worldwide notice that students’ handwriting is poor, worse than before. Many primary school children in a wide range of cultures find it difficult to develop legible and tidy handwriting. Writing for 30 minutes or more is rare without complaints, excuses and sighs of boredom. The amount of concentration plays a role, but perhaps it is difficult for tomorrow’s leaders and professionals to see the point when all around them, they see more screens than paper.

Pupils often struggle to read their own writing and I too have had to wrinkle up my eyes and struggle to decipher my own scribbled code before now and yet for me what is not written down in my diary is in a perilous place. We must not forget that handwriting is also a reflection of our personality, especially when we sign our names.

Cognitive researchers say the following: When writing by hand, the brain connects the learned letters as the hand moves, which is why more and larger networks are activated in the brain, which is not the case when typing into the smartphone.

Psychologists Pam Müller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University, wanted to find out if we can sort information any better if we write by hand. The results showed that writing requires greater fine motor skills and stronger differentiation, which is why writing by hand is much more challenging than typing. When conducting the experiment, the students were divided into two groups. Both watched video lectures. However, the first group were to take notes by hand and the second group via the laptop.

The result: Both groups were able to present the facts. However, when it came to comprehension questions and identifying complex interrelationships, the group taking notes by hand achieved better results.

When typing into the laptop, less thought is given and it can be more difficult to memorize something.

A fitting quote from Cornelia Funke reads:

“A flowing handwriting makes thoughts fly.”

Anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with a new topic or knowledge, would be advised to grab a pen and paper, because you should definitely write down the information in handwriting in order to memorize it faster and better. Help your brain to help you. Corporate events quite often recognise that not everyone wants to make notes, plus they are juggling a notebook, smartphone, business cards, etc, so graphic recordings are becoming more and more popular.

Typing is admittedly faster and when you don’t need to understand what is being documented then typing is a time-effective method to do so. Ultimately it all depends on what you need the information for. However, the ability to write by hand should not be completely neglected.

Writing is more time consuming too, giving you more thinking time – a valuable asset for the language learner. More time to think, fewer mistakes. More time to think, better vocabulary. Writing emails is a lot easier for most German speakers than speaking in English because when you are writing you have more time to get it right. You can think, delete, try again without anybody knowing.

If you prefer a paper diary than a digital one, if you doodle on the phone or in meetings or you have a thing for nice paper and pens, then use this learning preference to your advantage and make notes, especially to help you learn new language skills. Create pretty double-sided bilingual vocabulary cards and shuffle through them on your commute. It’s your handwriting so you have an affinity to it, use colours if you like, or bubble writing, doodles or symbols/emojis or whatever it is but by writing it down, you have a better chance of remembering and understanding it.

Want to read more about this? Check out this article… https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-confidence/