THOUMPRATHOM 1

Masna Na Thoumprathom

Mr. Abel Cadias

English 10 / 10:02

May 16, 2017

How Writing and Typing Affect Learners Memorization

Writing down notes helps people to memorize better than using laptop because using

laptop can easily disturb people. The purpose of this report is to explain how writing and

typing affects learners abilities to memorize. The importance of this research report is to

encourage people to use pen and paper to write down notes instead of typing notes in laptop.

The pieces of this information are based on eight sources. First, Lizette Borreli writes an

article Why Using Pen and Paper, Not Laptops, Boosts Memory? that describes the issue of

the journal Psychological Science, using pen and paper, not laptops, to take notes boosts

memory. Second, Allison Eck writes an article For more effective studying, take note with

pen and paper that discusses about the positive effects of using pen and paper. Third, the

article from Claremont Colleges shows the effects of method and context of note-taking on

memory. Fourth, the article entitled Why We Remember What We Write explains why we

remember things that people write. Fifth, the article entitled Does Writing Things down

Really Make It Easier to Remember Later? conducts the experiment to compare between

writing down notes and typing down notes by having two groups of people perform in the

experiment. Sixth, Stephanie Vozza writes an article about How typing is destroying your

memory states that the disadvantages of typing on laptop. Seventh, the article entitled

Typing, writing notes offer different benefits points out the different between typing and

writing notes. Eight , Cindi May on her article about A Learning Secret: Dont Take Notes

with a Laptop states that different note taking styles have different outcomes which can

affect ones learning.

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Ninth, the article entitled How to Take Good Notes explains how to take a good note that

helps you memorize better. Finally, the article entitled Handwriting vs typing: is the pen still

mightier than the keyboard? states the different between typing and writing.

Writing Down Notes

The way to practice to keep and retain information while saving time and effort is to

take notes by hand (Schoen, 2012). Taking notes by hand has quickly become outmoded, at

least in college classrooms. One of the most effective ways to study new information is to

write down notes by hand because the brain will stimulate when putting ink to paper and its

called the Reticular Activating System or RAS (Gayomali, 2015). Taking notes in class is

very important because it helps students to stay alert and focused on the lesson, and because

they will walk away from the class with a fairly detailed record of what was said. Writing

down notes makes a better writer and can prevent from distraction. Writing down notes by

hand is also a workout, not necessarily for the wrist, but for the brain. With the ability to

include different formats and notations often limited by word processing formats, those who

hand write notes claim that it provides control formats (Borreli, 2014). Wax, D. (n.d.) stated

that writing anything down makes people remember better but on the other hand, not writing

notes down is easy to forget. Writing notes by hand is much better for long term memory of

ideas. Students should not rely too much on other people notebook for good class notes but

take notes by themselves by use their own word to put the information and ideas and making

them part of your own mind. It will be hard at first, mostly because they are trying to write

down the last point while listening to the next topic (KJ, 2003). Psychological scientist that

study in Princeton University normally brought her laptop to the lecture to take notes, but one

day she forgot to bring it and she feel that she can learn a lot more (Borreli, 2014)
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Typing Down Notes

Most of students in today's world are using technological resources to collect and

keep information from their learning sources (Schoen, 2012). Many college students have

given up taking class notes by typing notes on laptop or computers instead of writing notes

down on paper. Scientists from Princeton University and the University of California said that

That method is less effective (2014). Students have a chance to use computer typing in high

school and most of the college students have gained typing proficiency. Students might write

the information down without really thinking about what they are writing when they type

note down on a computer. Using laptop to take notes in a meeting might be destroy ability to

recall the information later (Vozza, 2015). The problem is when taking notes on laptop,

Students cant help but take notes by memorizing word by word. Students take more notes

more quickly when they are typing notes but dont put as much thinking into them as when

they writing by hand (Pinola, 2017). Stephanie Vozza state that Psychological Science found

that pen helps people more than the keyboard when it comes to remembering what

information that people just write down (Vozza, 2015). People should attend more about how

they choose the way to take down notes, both in terms of the medium and the procedure.

There are times when taking notes by hand can be much more beneficial, and there are also a

times when your laptop is the right choice (Vozza, 2015). Scientists established two groups of

student and let them study their notes, after a week later scientist expect the score of students

that used laptop to take notes will be better than hand written notes but it wasnt case.

Scientists were surprised that handwritten student still did better, scientists said that even

laptop note takers had more information to written down but student hadnt make a good

enough score as scientist expected (Vozza, 2015).

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How Writing and Typing Affects Learners Abilities to Memorize

People memories are controlled by brain and it is a person's ability to retain, store, and

recall information. When people are getting older, memories are also getting worse and thats

why the elder person tends to not remember things very well. Some scientists say that writing

things down make them easier to remember (Sofia, 2013). Research about the psychology of

writing and memory are found by scientist. Scientists found a very good evidence that writing

helps to remember things better and what is the especially interesting is writing things down

helps to remember more about the important information. Brain is divided up into many parts

that process different types of information. Different part works have different processes

which are emotions, information, communication, and many other types (Vozza, 2015).

However, these different parts are communicating with each other. When people listen to a

lecture, the part of the brain that handles listening and language is activate. These passes

some information to memory, but it doesnt seem to be very different in how it does this

because the important information is working exactly the same way as a small information

work (Vozza, 2015). Students who had taken notes remembered higher proportion of key

facts, while those who take notes on laptop remembered a more or less random classification

of points covered in the lecture. Writing seems to act as a kind of mini exercise when doing.

Scientists have been writing before about how doing something can trick the brain into

thinking, and writing something down also seems to use enough of the brain to cause this

effect, this leads to have a greater memorization. Wax,D. (n.d.). Typing allows people to go

faster but not because everything will be faster, more time to think is always better said by

Anne Trubek, associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Oberlin College in Ohio

(Chemin, 2014).
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Conclusion

In conclusion, the purpose of this report was to explain how writing and typing affect

learners abilities to memorize. This research concluded that writing down notes can help

people to memorize things better than using laptop because laptop can easily disturb people

and it used less time to type down, but people brains usually need more time to remember

somethings. If Thai students do not depend on electronics and come back to the original way

how people use before technology becomes popular, the quality of remembering information

will be better. However, technology doesnt actually bad at all because it also helps people to

find sources on the internet and many other things. This research report recommends further

research on how to improve people memory by using laptop to study.

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References

Borreli,L.(Feb 6, 2014). Why Using Pen And Paper, Not Laptops, Boosts Memory: Writing
Notes Helps Recall Concepts, Ability To Understand. Retrieved from
http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-laptops-boosts-memory-
writing-notes-helps-recall-concepts-ability-268770

Bolton, K. (Nov 15, 2012). Typing, writing notes offer different benefits. Retrieved from
http://www.kstatecollegian.com/2012/11/15/typing-writing-notes-offer-different-
benefits/

Chemin, A. (December 16, 2014). Handwriting vs typing: is the pen still mightier than the
keyboard?. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/16/cognitive-benefits-handwriting-
decline-typing

Eck,A.(Jun 3, 2014). For more effective studying, take note with pen and paper. Retrieved
from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/taking-notes-by-hand-could-improve-
memory-wt/

KJ. (June, 2003) How to Take Good Notes Retrieve from

https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/history/resources/study/notes/

May, C. (June 3, 2014). A Learning Secret: Dont Take Notes with a Laptop. Retrieved
from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret- don-t-take-notes-
with-a-laptop/

Schoen, Ian.(2012). "Effects of Method and Context of Note-taking on Memory: Handwriting

versus Typing in Lecture and Textbook- Reading Contexts". Retrieved from
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1019&context=pitzer_theses

Wax,D. (n.d.). Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write. Retrieved
from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/writing-and- remembering-why-we-
remember-what-we-write.html

Sofia, PC. (April 17, 2013). Does Writing Things Down Really Make It Easier To
Remember Later?. Retrieved from https://www.education.com/science-
fair/article/writing-down-things-remember/
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Vozza, S. (April 14, 2015). How typing is destroying your memory. Retrieved from
https://www.fastcompany.com/3044907/how-typing-is-destroying-your-memory