Why Writing By Hand First Can Help You Write Better
Writing by hand (longhand) or direct to computer? I’ll choose pen and paper first. Every time.
I love it.
It all began once upon a time when I was a child in Enugu, Nigeria. My dad used to bring home long sheets of engineering draft paper — unlined white crinkly paper, which we, the kids would spread out on the cool tile floors in our bedrooms and then proceed to lie on the floor writing and illustrating our stories with pencils and crayons.
Writing by hand was a perfect way to spend hours of time.
What bliss!
Later in life as I sat in university lecture halls during microbiology, parasitology, organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology and a host of other classes, I’d write copious notes by hand and developed the skill of writing down the essential information I needed to know.
I noticed that I remembered and retained the knowledge I had written by hand, more clearly than just by reading the textbook. In fact, I supplemented textbook reading with my own notes.
I ran across a 2014 Study that indicated what I had noticed all along. You learn and remember more, conceptually, when you take notes by hand. Needless to say, I did quite well in those courses. I really enjoyed…
