Case Study: Typing vs. Handwriting

Five literary scholars assigned four hundred volunteers to engage in different writing activities for the purpose of comparing the functionality, advantages and disadvantages of Typing and Handwriting. Each volunteer was monitored separately using a video camera. Their heart rate, pulse, and breathing patterns were recorded. The volunteers were asked to write a small sample of poetry, a short story, an outline of a novel, a business letter, and an essay in a random order using either a 15 inch laptop, blue ink on notebook paper, black inc on paper recycled from various leaves, or chisel and a peice of bark.

After the writing samples were completed, each volunteer was asked a few questions orally in regards to their opinions on Typing and Handwriting. These are the most common sentiments expressed about the two mediums:

Typing:

- quicker
- easy to write stream of consciousness
- tangents happen naturally
- many bad writers use this method
- it’s hip
- you need $ to buy a computer or typewriter
- finger dexterity is important
- good for long, boring papers
- good for spontaneous, noisy poems
- looking at a screen can be exhausting



Handwriting:

- Time to think and edit as one writes
- Old
- Traditional
- Slow
- Used by Shakespeare
- Hand cramps can be an issue
- Not using electricity
- Do it outside
- Different kinds of paper is fun
- Different kinds of inc/lead is also fun
- Not looking at a screen


Results:

Poetry should always be typed on a typewriter, business letters should always be initially drafted using bark, short stories come out best in blue inc, novel outlines cannot be drafted in pencil, and essays should never be written.