The Enduring Importance of Handwriting
The ability to write by hand evolved at the same time as language, and involves a conjunct work of visual, mental and physical activity, similar to painting and yet with its own particular connections to language, understanding, reasoning and even memory.
Non-Western cultures, specially the Japanese and Arabic, bestow great importance to good handwriting skills, and fine calligraphy is even considered a work of art in itself.
The Art of Zen Calligraphy, Hitsuzendo, requires a state of serenity and self-control, so that the brushstrokes flow without hesitation, stressing a connection between the brush and the calligrapher’s inner world.
And being a form of non-figurative art, Islamic calligraphy is found in mesquites, museums and even household items as a form of ornamental decoration.
However, in the West calligraphy is seen as something old-fashioned, perhaps only used in wedding invitations, and handwriting has been losing ground for centuries.
The first threat to handwriting came with the introduction of Guttenberg’s print. This invention meant that scores of scribes went out of jobs, replaced by the machine. The handwritten word, however, did not disappear, and instead seemed to gain ground as new wealth and education spread.
The next blow to longhand came in the XIX century, with the invention of the typewriter. Surely slow and ornate calligraphy was no longer needed when one could type quickly and clearly with a machine. And yet, longhand continued to be used and taught, modified to a simpler style : the Palmer Method of Penmanship, developed by Austin Palmer in 1849.
The latest coup to handwriting came with the introduction of the personal computer, in the late 1970's, which has later evolved into laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc. And yet, for all the forecasting on its disappearance, handwriting still refuses to die off completely. Why? And should we allow it to disappear?
In the last decade, a series of studies and clinical experiments conducted by psychologists and neurologists have studied the influence of handwriting in our cognitive process. And their findings are, at least, thought-provoking.
According to neuropsychologist Stanislas Dehaene, writing longhand activates a specific neural circuit in the brain, one which may help our learning abilities.
A 2012 study conducted by psychologist Karin James, of University of Indiana, supported Dehaene’s conclusion. In her research, Dr. James found that when pre-school children reproduced letters by hand, they exhibited neuronal activity similar to that of adult readers. This activity was significantly lower in those children who traced the letters or used the type form.
Another study, carried out by Dr. Virginia Berninger of the University of Washington, found that each form of writing (cursive, type and typing) are associated to different brain patterns, each resulting in a different product.
When writing with pen and paper, the participants composed longer and more complete sentences than those who typed. Also, those with the best calligraphy exhibited more neural activation in areas associated to functional memory, and a higher activation in areas associated to reading and writing.
In 2014, Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer published a research, ("The Pen is Mightier Than They Keyboard - Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking" ) in which they contrasted results from two groups of students: ones taking lecture notes by hand, and another typing them.
They found out that, although students who typed wrote significantly faster and took more notes than their longhand peers, students who wrote by hand performed better on conceptual questions than their typing peers.
They repeated these experiments with two other variables: conditioning (asking typing students to write their own versions of what they heard in the lectures instead of verbatim) and time (testing them weeks after the lecture was given, as in real circumstances), but the results yielded remained unchanged: the students who used longhand outperformed their typing peers in recall and understanding of the material presented.
The explanation seems to be in the mechanics of writing longhand, which requires a mental engagement not used when typing. In fact, the brief distraction of looking for the letters on the keyboard, even for a minimal fraction of a second, may reduce our attention span.
Perhaps, as a result of thousands of years of evolution, our brains are ‘wired’ to process the information of complex hand movements better than of simply pulsating buttons.
Mueller and Oppenheimer concluded that, the time required to write things down is used by the brain to process ideas and concepts. Thus, by slowing down the process of writing, you are actually accelerating the process of learning.
(An Abstract of their research can be found at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581 )
Also in 2014, Steve Graham from Vanderbilt University, and Tanya Santangelo, from Arcadia University, published a study in which they concluded that teaching handwriting improves the quality of the writing, both in the clarity of the letters and the quality of the composition. All of which mirrors the results obtained by Dr. Berninger’s research. (An Abstract of this research can be found at: https://www.hw21summit.com/biographies-and-abstracts#santangelo )
But not all forms of handwriting are equally beneficial for cognitive development.
In 2015, Dr. William Klemm, Professor of Neuroscience at Texas A&M University, concluded that compared to printing, cursive writing is more beneficial because it requires a more demanding brain work to produce and process, thus training the brain to integrate visual information and motor skills.
Indeed, being able to recognize handwritten letters and characters in spite of the different sizes, strokes and pressures used by each individual requires a specialized level of discernment, connecting the visual and cognitive areas of our brain in ways that reading type can't.
However, beyond scientific findings, there are several other reasons why writing longhand is important.
For instance, when taking handwritten notes I usually include little drawings, graphics and icons to encapsulate entire meanings, which act as mnemonics. When checking my notes, simply by seeing the drawing I can recall the entire explanation given. Doing this on a keyboard would be impossible and at best impractical.
As individual as our fingerprints or the map of our irises, handwriting is a distinctive expression of our being.
No two handwritten words are the same, even if they may look similar to casual readers.
Handwriting is so personal and imbedded with our own distinct characteristics, that there’s even a branch of psychology that studies it and its link to our emotions: graphology.
Although some consider it a ‘pseudo-science’, over the centuries graphology has asserted itself as a form of collecting personal information about an individual, to the extent that is widely used as a recruiting tool to evaluate job candidates.
Moreover, handwriting is a perfect blend of the left brain (language, orthography, composition, concepts, logic, grammar, etc) and the right brain (motor skills, visual recognition, artistry and aesthetics). Few activities this complete are as accessible to all as handwriting.
The importance of handwriting can’t be assumed only from the standpoint of our current technology. As anyone who’ve been in a blackout knows, technology fails, and when it does, we must have the tools in order to survive in spite of its lack.
Being absolutely dependent on technology makes us weak and limited, more helpless and defenceless.
If you think of it, in spite of the existence of calculators - and the abacus before it -, we still require children to memorize math tables and learn the basic arithmetic functions. Simply because it’s an essential skill to the development of mental functions that form the fundamental pillars of our knowledge. The same can be said about handwriting.
Besides, nothing can replace the pleasure of tracing, scribbling or doodling on paper.
There is something primeval and intrinsically human in grabbing a writing instrument to express ourselves, something that connects us to our most ancient ancestors, the ones who first painted the caves, or who penned the words of "The Aeneid".
Shunning off handwriting completely from our lives would sever this connection from our global human heritage.
Against those who predicted the death of vinyl when CDs came out, and the death of the printed book when e-books became available, people have continued to gravitate towards analog. And not as a mere fad.
Perhaps because, as humans, we are analog.
That also may explain why, amidst this ‘death of handwriting’ controversy, lettering has made such a strong comeback in posters, book covers, ads and all kinds of visual products, both printed and online.
If we are to believe in the curves of history, we may still have longhand as we know it for many years to come.
January 23rd is the unofficial National Handwriting Day, to celebrate the art of handwriting. (Make sure to hashtag it! #NationalHandwritingDay )
If you’re interested in how handwriting is linked to human cognition, you may want to read Stanislas Dehaene’s book "Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention", an in-depth study on how we process language and the brain circuits involved in its production and processing, across cultures and ages. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6719017-reading-in-the-brain. )
Sources: Scientific American, The New York Times, Cursive Logic
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