If you think that in this technological era hand-writing is absurd, let me enlighten you. Studies have shown that when you hand-write more areas of your brain are activated than when you type.
French neurophysiologist Jean-Luc Velay and Anne Mangen, an associate professor in the Reading Center at the University of Stavanger in Norway wrote a research paper published in "Advances in Haptics" on the differences between learning letters by hand-writing and doing it by using a keyboard. Based on a study done on a group of adult volunteers, they concluded that the process was more efficient in the group who learned by hand-writing. This efficiency correlated with more activated areas of brain activity.
Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, found that kids in grades 3, 4 and 6 who wrote their essays by hand expressed more ideas and used more words than those who used the keyboard for the same purpose. There are other studies that showed similar findings.
Now I understand why I need to hand-write all my short stories and essays before working on the keyboard.
Go ahead! Grab a pen, get that old note-pad from your drawer and let your thoughts run on paper. You may end up making interesting discoveries...
