Writing by hand isn’t very popular these days – and that just might be the reason why our students seem to know less and less. (Do you ever watch Jessie Watters when he interviews college students? Ouch!)
Some time ago I wrote about one of the exercises I did when I first began to study copywriting. The 
assignment was to hand-copy each direct marketing promotion in a very fat book. These were promotions that have done well, bringing in millions of dollars in sales over the years. They were among the best examples of how to attract consumers and move them to a purchase.
Instructions were to copy each one three times – and I don’t mind telling you that it was a boring exercise.
It would have been much easier and faster to copy them on a keyboard – but the instructions were to use handwriting. They explained it as something about a hand/brain connection. Handwriting would help lodge the language, the conversational tone, and the cadence into our subconscious – or something like that.
Handwriting is not just for learning to write well…
Last week I read an article about note-taking – and why students who take notes on their laptops learn less than those who take notes by hand.
This time the reason why was explained more clearly. (Or I was paying more attention.)
It seems that we humans can type everything we read or hear without actually thinking about it. We just pass the words from our ears or eyes and on through our fingertips without processing the meaning of those words.
(Have you ever transcribed a document and suddenly realized you were typing the words, but thinking about something else? I have.)
When it comes to note-taking, students with pen and paper have an advantage because they don’t have time to write down every word. They are forced to think and summarize, listing only the key points. This process engages the brain and wakes us up to the concepts.
To summarize - handwriting:
- Engages different parts of your brain.
- Takes time and forces you to think about what you’re writing
- Creates more and better memory cues
- Helps you focus on the concepts rather than the words
So the message remains: If you want to write better letters, blog posts, or any kind of marketing materials, go find some examples that you know get good response. Then copy them by hand.
Writing Image courtesy of punsayaporn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
brain Image courtesy of ratch0013 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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