The Coordination of the Mind and Hand: Typing vs Writing

By Haley F. '30

We are all familiar with teachers’ methods to limit AI usage and online distractions, including the switch to in-class essays and taking notes by hand. Students often complain about “suffering the consequences” of these more tedious learning methods. But are we really suffering? Or is our comprehension and ability to think improved because of our lack of technology while writing?

Of course, on the surface, typing takes much less effort than writing by hand. For most people, typing is faster and the result is much easier to edit. In addition, it is easier for most teachers to read and grade a typed assignment than a handwritten one, especially if the handwriting isn’t particularly neat.

However, from a neurological standpoint, handwriting and typing activate different parts of the brain that may influence quality of learning. According to a 2024 study, handwriting galvanizes language and memory centers in the brain much better than typing does - and surprisingly, cursive allows for even better recollection of material than writing in print. This effect is especially relevant when students take notes. In the study, note-taking students consistently remembered information significantly better than students who typed.

The main reason that taking notes by hand is more effective than typing is because each character that a student writes takes more focus than each character typed. The action encourages those who are writing by hand to think more actively about what they are writing. For instance, a student who is typing may type every word that their teacher says without actually thinking about or retaining any detail. However, a student writing by hand must engage different parts of their brain and consider each word they choose to write down, which develops a better understanding of the topic. This process also explains why writing in cursive is even more effective; learners have to engage their brains more robustly to consider the next letter to write in advance. In addition, because typing involves repetitive finger tapping, it relies more on passive, procedural memory and does not encourage the same recollection of the topic as handwriting. Since writing by hand generates more thorough neural connections in the brain when compared to typing, some people find that it is also easier to generate ideas on paper than on a computer.

Luckily for us, it seems like most of our teachers already understand this concept, with quite a bit of our work done on paper and annotation completed in our texts. So the next time your English teacher makes you write an essay by hand or your history teacher requires long, detailed notes taken on paper, be grateful - it will likely enhance your thinking and help you learn the material better.