Slashdot Asks: Do You Prefer To Handwrite or Type Notes? (npr.org) 192
A study published by Psychological Science and transcribed on NPR explores the science behind note-taking. As technology becomes smaller, cheaper and more functional than ever before, it's not uncommon to see people taking notes on their laptop or tablet, especially in a school or work-related environment. In fact, it may be even more common to see people taking notes with an electronic device than with a pen and paper. The study shows that the process of taking notes by hand is slower, thus allowing the information being written to better soak into your brain. However, it's a double-edged sword. While using something like a laptop to type notes may be faster and allow for people to better transcribe what they're hearing, writing longhand generally allows people to better process the information they are writing, but at the expense of length. That is to say, writing longhand doesn't provide people with as much to look back on since the process is slower.
Now everyone is different and everyone has their own formula and routine that works for them, so we thought we'd ask the question: Do you prefer to handwrite notes or type notes on a computer? Does one form of note-taking work better than the other or is it a combination of the two that is best?
Now everyone is different and everyone has their own formula and routine that works for them, so we thought we'd ask the question: Do you prefer to handwrite notes or type notes on a computer? Does one form of note-taking work better than the other or is it a combination of the two that is best?
handwrite all day long (Score:2)
Handwritten in a sketchpad. For some reason I can't stand ruled notebooks.
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Handwriting in the sketchpad so that I can search through my notes once it's converted to text.
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Print Handwriting on my Surface Pro 4 in One-Note using the stylus. And I take notes, not transcribe, for work meetings and projects. I used to take notes in a lined notepad using a pen but then we moved to a new office where we no longer have assigned seating. So. No storage. Which is one of the reasons why I bought the Surface Pro 4.
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I've used a Surface 3 with a Microsoft Pen, and it's... OK. Not great. Palm rejection sort of mostly works in the OneNote universal (previously metro) app, but less well in other apps.
By contrast, I tried a friend's iPad Pro with Pencil and it seemed like a smoother experience. It's the first time I've felt like I was writing naturally on a screen.
You could also try an Adonit Jot - the bluetooth version that'll work with your iPad and offer palm rejection and pressure sensitivit when coupled with an app th
Depends on the content surely (Score:5, Informative)
Good luck managing to type complex equations as fast as you can write them.
If you are talking about transcribing something, then yes typing is faster. But if your note taking requires you to jump around the page, annotate diagrams, sections of text or anything else then writing wins.
Having things electronic makes things easy to file and refer to, but that is why I use a tablet and stylus.
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Personally I take my notes by hand first, then if I know I will want to go back to them later I manually transcribe them into presentation slides (which I usually then export to PDF).
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My note taking tends to be in meetings, while on the phone or at coffee shops. So my solution is to use OneNote. I write the notes with a stylus on my tablet and they then autosync with my laptop. I then attach them to the relevant record in my CRM.
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My only disagreement is I would reverse chemistry and math. I am comfortable enough with programing languages that I have little trouble typing mathematical expressions. At worst, you use notions like abs() and limit() etc. I know what it means, and thats all I need for notes.
The last real academic class I took was chem, and I don't know how I would take those notes without some specialized software and/or a new language to express it in. It would be much faster for me to draw a lewis structure than to type
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This entirely.
Another thing where paper wins out over tech is writing space. When I'm working on something complicated I like to have it all spread out so I can quickly see everything and re-arrange as appropriate. Scrolling around on a screen (or even a few screens) just doesn't have the same utility as a conference room table and a pile of paper printouts for some things.
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Same. When I need to write notes that are just text, typing is much faster. But as a software developer, notes often include diagrams of one sort or another and sketching them on paper is infinitely faster as well as more flexible than attempting to draw them up in visio. And the various sketching programs available might as well be drawing in crayon.
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Good luck managing to type complex equations as fast as you can write them.
That's why your phone has a camera.
Re:Depends on the content surely (Score:4, Insightful)
Forgive me for being dense but how would a camera help? Some of the maths lectures I have done have had the solution for the same problem spread over 9 hours of lectures. You wouldn't know when to take a photo, let alone be able to understand it afterwards.
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Handwritten works well (Score:2)
In medical school we had the best of both worlds - we all took handwritten notes, and formed a note taking service, where someone recorded, and then transcribed all of the lectures.
Although to be honest - it was more efficient to skip class, and study the transcribed notes - better retention, and time management. Course load was roughly 2.5 times more than a typical college work load.
BUt yes - anecdotally speaking - hand written notes always seemed better for raising your testing averages.
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Why ask a poll type question without a actual poll (Score:4, Interesting)
Why ask a poll type question without having a actual poll? OP are you going to manually go through every comment to tally it or is there really no reason in asking the question and just a attempt in making "news" regarding something IMO that isn't nerd news worthy..
Scribbling on paper (Score:2)
Handwriting for security (Score:5, Funny)
My cursive writing is so unreadable it is better than encryption.
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Huh, so you're a doctor by trade? How's the money in that these days?
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No. I just write programming specifications. By hand for security.
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My printed writing is so bad that Diane Feinstein is trying to get it banned on grounds of national security.
Because they'd never be able to decrypt it.
Me neither, alas.
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My wife's handwriting is so bad that sometimes I can't even tell if it's the right way up.
It's the way you take notes, not the tech (Score:5, Informative)
Numerous studies have shown better retention and understanding when people "take notes," as opposed to simply transcribing large chunks of what they hear.
This is a general issue with learning in general -- the more your brain "works" to understand something, the better you retain it. (Numerous studies suggest that too.) And even if you're not going for retention in your brain, if you actually listen and comprehend, then write down short "notes" (i.e., summaries), you'll probably do better than if you attempt to transcribe spottily and perhaps miss some critical detail in your transcription.
The problem is that many people type so fast that they naturally tend toward chunks of transcription, rather than processing the information and then summarizing in "notes." If you take the same kind of notes while typing that good note-takers do by hand, you'd do just as well... perhaps better, because sometimes the speed will help.
But of course there are other advantages to handwriting, especially when it comes to math, chemical formulas, drawing diagrams, flow-charts, whatever. Handwriting is still usually much faster for everything other than plain text -- and thus, it's still my preferred medium, whether on paper or with a stylus on a tablet or whatever. (Also, I don't believe in linear note-taking: connections are generally complex between ideas, and a blank sheet of paper allows a lot more flexibility in drawing various sorts of connections than text arranged in lines.)
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Numerous studies have shown better retention and understanding when people "take notes," as opposed to simply transcribing large chunks of what they hear.
This hasn't been my experience. But then, I often can't read my own writing if it was written in a hurry (which was often the case, back in college).
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Bad teachers make bad note-takers (Score:2)
Unfortunately, all through middle and high school, I had anal-retentive teachers who demanded you transcribe their notes word-for-word and took 10% or more of your grade from random note tests. I had one teacher whose tests would consist of questions like "what is the third word on the 5th page of section 5 in your notes" and the answer would be "the" or something ridiculous. As a slow writer, I found it infuriating and it really left a bad taste in my mouth about education for many years. It wasn't about l
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We're told through school to study and take notes, and nobody tells us how. Sounds like your teacher, like most teachers, doesn't actually know how to do any of that "studying" or "note-taking" stuff.
This is where mnemonics education would come in handy. Human memory is associative and heavily benefits from organization; this means things like reflection (associating new information with current-known and with itself) and note-taking (organizing information into a clearer, concise, more ordered form) si
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I type at 125wpm and I still write notes because it's faster to write.
The other side of that is I've started learning Teeline, and can write notes at ~350wpm. I also use a Cornell notebook, so my notes are easier to organize.
Drawing words is slower than typing them (Score:2)
I type at 125wpm and I still write notes because it's faster to write.
For written words that cannot possibly be true unless you are fluent in shorthand [wikipedia.org]. For written words most competent typists are can take notes typing far faster than they can hand write them.
Hand writing is really a form of drawing. You can use it to draw text but it's not efficient to do so in large quantities. It has the advantages or being space efficient and for pen/paper energy efficient but drawing words is not quick compared with typing. The mistake most software developers make when creating sof
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Written words have meta-information like underlining or simple positioning. Simulating the same information when typed takes a little more time; while typing lets you quickly amend the notes (insert, delete, rearrange).
Cursive writing can break 100wpm; and abbreviated longhand (abbr, +, v., etc.) breaks my Dvorak speed. Breaking my 72wpm QWERTY record wasn't hard. Teeline can break 350wpm, but that's getting into shorthand.
To really hit those high shorthand rates, you have to stream text efficiently.
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Numerous studies have shown better retention and understanding when people "take notes," as opposed to simply transcribing large chunks of what they hear.
When I started college, I thought I must be super-fast at note-taking, because other students would complain when the professor erased something from the board, saying they weren't done taking notes yet. I later realized, I didn't write any faster than the other students - the difference is, I wrote what I thought was worth writing, and never just copied things down.
As such, my notes contained the information I thought was worth keeping. They were tailored to me, and might lack details other students though
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It's the act of taking notes that matters, not the method.
I think that's what I said. Notes instead of transcription.
I don't remember handwritten ones any better than typed notes
If you take the same notes, there probably won't be any difference. The problem is that many people tend to take different KINDS of notes while typing: more transcription, less comprehension. If you're one of the minority who takes notes in a similar way whether by hand or typing, then yes, there's probably little difference.
It depends on the notes (Score:2)
If I'm at my computer I'm not really going to handwrite notes. But if I'm somewhere that accessing/using pen+paper is more beneficial to use, I'll use that. I have a Palm Tungsten C I still use daily for work because IMHO its core function of a general purpose, disconnected personal data assistant has yet to be bested. It's always on me so unless hitting a single button and entering my password is too long then pen[cil] + paper win I guess.
Computer to transcribe, paper to think (Score:5, Interesting)
Over the years I have gotten better at taking notes on a computer, to the point where I can make well-organized, nicely formatted notes in real time. I memorized a few shortcuts like Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, or 3 for various headings and subheadings, wrote a few macros to insert code blocks, etc. Since my typing speed is much faster than my handwriting, and the flexibility of being able to go back and edit or rearrange things, the computer is now my preferred method for taking notes during a lecture.
However, the minute I need to think creatively (whether to organize my thoughts, troubleshoot a problem, or create an outline for a new document), I immediately go back to pen and paper. I'm not entirely sure why... one would think that the ease of cutting and pasting on a computer would make it better suited for keeping up with fluid nature of creative thought, but no. Something about the tactile nature of the page makes it easier to think clearly, scribbles and all. I suspect it has to do with thinking habits ingrained from early childhood... or I might just be a Luddite at heart.
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Arrows, shapes and symbols (Score:2)
Arrows, shapes and symbols are much easier to execute with handwritten notes rather than typed. So I prefer the handwritten.
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You need one of those smart whiteboards that can export the doodles. Plus the markers never run out of ink.
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Paper & Pen for Flexibility (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a paper-based note-taking system that has served me well for my entire career.
I always write down the date and time I arrive, and the time leave for the day, with a margin-to-margin line delineating days.
Whenever I change tasks, I jot down the time and what I'm doing next. Huge help when I'm working on projects where to-the-minute timecards are required.
In meetings, I write down the key points being made. If the point applies directly to me, I put a box in the left column, to indicate that it is a "to-do" item.
If a point is something I can/should contribute to, but not during this meeting, I put a circle to indicate I should probably send an email.
If there is a change in policy, or a new direction or project, I put an asterisk to the left.
Most of the above merely help me prioritize my work.
But there is one more massive reason to take notes compulsively, and not just in meetings: Patents. While I have no patents to my name, my notes have twice been used as "prior art" to help defeat or limit other patents, or to help negotiate far better licensing terms.
From a personal development perspective, I also make not of my mistakes. Writing them down makes it harder to repeat them.
As I get older and my memory grows ever weaker, I find it hugely beneficial to be able to go back 6 months or a year, and be able to perfectly describe what I was doing and why.
Paper rocks. Plus it's way easier to carry around, and needs "recharging" only about twice a year.
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I love paper-based notes. There's no way to search or aggregate them so it's easy to slow down FOIA requests. Also with paper it's easier to bury evidence.
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do not bury paper evidence. you burn it for firewood. if you burn it hot enough they can't recover anything.
Neither (Score:4, Interesting)
Neither. I engage in the meeting, it's a conversation not a data-dump. I do use the notes feature in my phone to take down the bullet points of the conversation. When I get back to my desk I then type everything out using those bullet points as a guide.
One of the things that drives me crazy when I give marching orders to my employees is when they insist on writing every step down. I don't mind a little note-taking, but the ones that try to write the whole conversations down are typically the ones that I end up having to give the most revisions to. When they discuss with me they form the correct picture in their head, then they perform like a brain instead of like a robot. When questions come up they can take a better guess at what the answer probably is if I'm not immediately around to answer.
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Been there. If he's out to save face he'll just say you took your notes wrong. Your chances of failure won't go down if you don't understand what he wants. And I do mean 'wants' not 'what he told you he wants'.
Try being client-facing some time, you'll learn how to become psychic because the paper-trail won't help you.
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Not everything is a meeting. I have always found that writing notes while the professor speaks helps me greatly in recalling the information later. Often this actually means recalling the notes page in memory then locating what I want to know from that picture.
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I engage in the meeting, it's a conversation not a data-dump.
You're making a lot of assumptions about the purpose of the meeting.
If a meeting is about collaboration then you should have a scribe anyway.
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No, no, and no.
Law Student v. Lawyer (Score:3)
Yes (Score:2)
The problem with typing... (Score:2)
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Manual typewriters FTW.
I had three manual typewriters during my pre-teen and teen years before I got an electronic typewriter. Never mastered touch typing on a manual, but I did use more than two fingers on it at a time.
Well I study online... (Score:2)
No lecture halls for me. We do have video lectures for certain subjects but there's no need to take notes, per se, because you can replay and pause the lectures at any time.
If I was in a more traditional classroom environment I might buy one of those Surface things with the stylus for scribbling on PDF lecture slides.
I did buy pen and paper notepad when I started the course but rarely use it except when doing certain exercises by hand. For library searches I am looking up books on my laptop to copy and past
Tried both, handwritten all the way (Score:2)
In the late 90s, I decided to do some A/B testing to see which method worked best for myself. I had 6 classes for a term, 3 of them I took handwritten notes, and 3 of them I took typed notes.
I've never been much of a crammer and usually relied on rereading the notes once or twice prior to an exam.
After the midterms, I've noticed that I had a higher score for all 3 classes with handwritten notes, so the next thing I did was to ditch the laptop.
One thing I love about handwritten notes is that I can visualize
None of the above (Score:2)
Maybe I have poor I/O bandwidth, but if I'm doing anything besides paying attention to what's being presented (including trying to take notes), I retain little of it. If I do pay attention, I usually have little problem recalling what I need, especially since I can usually reference a textbook or handout.
Way back when I was in college, I didn't realize this at first. I took copious notes freshman year that added up to several inches of notebook thickness. Making those notes was stressful and not that helpfu
Typing in a meeting annoys others (Score:2)
Typing, even on a touch device, makes you appear distracted, even if you aren't. By contrast, writing notes by hand reinforces that your are listening to what is being said.
After writing my notes on a notepad, if I want to keep them, I take a picture so I have an electronic copy.
Missing Option - Stenographer (Score:5, Interesting)
This took place in the olden days, before there were laptops. For our basic circuits class (the one that separated the EEs from the wannabes) a group of us hired a stenographer to take notes. We talked the prof into giving permission, on the sensible basis that if we weren't copying notes just as fast we could to keep up, then we could actually pay attention to the lecture. I think he got a copy of the notes as well. Cost us all about a dollar a lecture and the stenographer made about $40 an hour, which was a pile of money in those days.
Neither. I listen. (Score:3)
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I'll ask the questions nobody else is asking because they're too busy scribbling notes to actually engage in the learning process.
Hopefully someone is a scribe otherwise your genius question will be lost when the presenter at the meeting only sends out a copy of the slides.
A good meeting needs collaborators and note takers. Neither is more important than the other, especially if the meeting is very technical where everyone is so busy collaborating that no one remembers what the heck they were talking about 5 minutes after they leave the room.
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Cowboy Freakin' Neal! (Score:2)
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Getting back on topic, I'm definitely in the "Handwritten" column. Being a lefty, I rarely write with pencil. Other left-handers will likely understand why. As for paper, I prefer quadrille or genuine Post-It Notes. I've yet to find any substitute for the latter on which the pen doesn't skip at crucial moments.
(FWIW, I've never taken a typing class. I touch-type, but probably do it wrong, although--after nearly a decade in Sweden--I can use a Scandinavian or US keyboard more or less
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As a lefty, I prefer pencil. It takes really fast drying ink for me to accept using a pen, but a pencil washes off easily.
I prefer Black n' Red note books,as the covers are nice and hard to use as a writing surface. Certainly MIDORI and Moleskine are fine too, but BnR is cheaper and the paper tends to be fine for pencil (for ink, Moleskine is perhaps nicer than BnR). Also, I start writing in them from the back and usually only fill one side of the page and save the back (front?) for notes, corrections, upda
Handwrite on a device (Score:2)
Depends (Score:2)
I jump back and forth between typing notes and handwriting them. Of course, it often depends on if a computer is handy or not. I can type a zillion times faster than write, plus my handwriting is horrible to the point often only I can make it out. And typed documents are easy to edit and reuse later, and can be distributed nicely, and searched. So typing is a win.
One factor is noise... typing is loud, and in a meeting, it is often unacceptable/distracting to people and can be rude. And there are things
Glad I'm not a student today (Score:2)
The noise of other people typing, even on quiet keyboards can really get under my skin when I am trying to focus. At work it's OK. I can pop on some headphones. But if I were a student now, I'm not so sure that I'd be able to sit through a lecture for very long if people were taking notes on laptops.
Taking Notes is Too Slow (Score:2)
Depends on the purpose (Score:2)
Typing for me for texts. (Score:2)
Due to my disabilities. I can type like a machine gun which drives people crazy with clicky keyboards [aqfl.net]. ;)
Depends (Score:2)
I type if I want to be able to organize thoughts and actually read them later.
I hand write to form visual associations to remember things.
If I do write it down on paper (Score:2)
These aren't the only options... (Score:2)
Color graphics with multi language (Score:2)
While using computer almost all day, I prefer dropping my notes in my notebook.
A multi core ball point pen with red, green, blue, black and a mechanical pencil
makes a good combination. A rubber eraser around will be handy.
When a concept is still in development stage, a pencil and an eraser usually works
more efficiently.
Neither (Score:2)
Both (Score:2)
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It's not 1 : 1 comparable but I find that Zim is a pretty good tool on Linux for similar notes.
The fact that it stores the info in flat text files also makes it easier to manage data directly if you should so choose.
see http://zim-wiki.org/ [zim-wiki.org]
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Both. But I wish my handwriting were better. (Score:2)
I type and write. But I wish my handwriting were better.
I like it when I find the time, peace and place to do some good handwriting. When I'm relaxed and not exausted my handwriting is actually quite good. I'm also a geek for all sorts of pens, pencils, calligraphy brushes, notebooks and paper-types.
I've always gotten flak in school and especially from my mom because of my bad handwriting. Turns out my handwriting isn't bad, I just don't have that much practice.
With all the typing however, digital is still
Type (Score:2)
Depends on the subject matter (Score:2)
Depends on what I'm taking notes for. If it is mostly text then typing is the way to go. I can type nearly fast enough to transcribe in many cases. But if math or drawings are involved then handwriting is the only realistic option. Paper and pen are fine. A tablet with a very well done stylus and good software actually is ideal but so far I haven't found one I consider adequate, mostly because the software for note taking is complete shit. (and I'm being generous - the hardware is passable but the sof
Slides (Score:2)
When I was in college, I preferred to take notes on a printout of the slides for that lecture. 2Ã--3 layout of slides so as to not be too much.
The benefit of that is that notes would be in context to the slides.
I could add notes and arrows on the slides. The brain learns by associating.
If I would take notes on blank paper then I would also be copying what was on the slides, which would be more of an effort.
Notes? (Score:2)
Taking notes never worked for me. If I'm focused on writing, I missed half the stuff that was being said.
With Math is there any choice? (Score:2)
There's an app for that (Score:2)
I just use the Notes app on iOS. Preferably, I just take a photo of something rather than type out the detail. If the information was already written down on a label I see no reason to duplicate that effort, just photograph it and read it from the photo. Handy for recalling serial numbers and such. On a PC I just use the Sticky Notes app and screenshots. The only thing I tend to write down with a pen and paper anymore are passwords, which is possibly the worst thing to be writing down.
I use both. (Score:2)
Typing when I will uses notes for reference or need a longer life. And to share.
Handwriting is useful when I'm in the midst of making something or documenting things. Knowing it's short-lived.
And I sometimes transcribe written notes when I couldn't choose to type.
"As technology becomes... cheaper..." What? (Score:2)
Wait... is it actually becoming cheaper to own/use a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other potential note-taking device? Because I'm fairly certain that cheapo laptops (chromebooks, netbooks) have been around $150-$200 and proper low-end laptops have been $300-$500 have been those prices for years. Smartphones and tablets (relative to brand) have been stagnant in their prices as well.
And smaller? Smartphones are only getting bigger. Laptops have bottomed out i
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While going to get my Ph.D. I needed money. I had little time. So, I was a journalist for a short spell of my life. I'd taken no formal courses in shorthand. That's important because I also have messy handwriting. Since then, I've had trouble reading my own handwriting - it's that bad. It's that bad unless I take an inordinate amount of time to write and then it only marginally improves on the legibility scale.
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...unless your note includes drawings.
As always; it depends. Not all note taking is equal.
Sometimes I write, sometimes I type and sometimes, when I need to take a verbatim copy, I photograph.
I'm assuming most people do likewise.
Re: I am dictating this (Score:4, Funny)
People using phones to speak messages to other people? I've never heard of such lunacy....
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This.
For one, I can put stuff on paper with a pen that is slower, or even almost impossible, with a keyboard or even stylus. Circles and arrows, diagrams, lines linking one chunk of text to another, double-underlining, triple-underling, etc, etc.
Of course that means I'm also thinking about what I'm putting down on the page, not just playing stenographer, so I rarely have to go back and look through those notes: it's passed through audio memory, visual memory, muscle memory and analytic memory already. (
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I prefer to handwrite on an e-reader with a stylus and good palm rejection software. And not on a smartphone.
Sadly, the e-reader field ain't getting the love it deserves.
Gotta do it handwritten because keyboards and specialized software ain't friendly to chemistry, physics, equation input, and sketching that goes along with the aforementioned. Takes 500 years to do what i would in a jiff with a stylus.
I HAVE to type stuff most of the time because if I write it, I can't read it later. And that's just when I print it.
But when I can use Grafitti, I really prefer that. I can write more conveniently than I can type and it's converting to readable/machine-processable text as I write.
It's just too bad that styluses aren't getting much love these days. Although I've spent a lot of time using a toothpick instead. Styluses are too easy to lose, and you don't want to use something like a pen or pencil as a stylus.
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Not for English, I hope.
That kind of test is pretty stupid, but if you're going to have them why not do it from a book?
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Large squares are the perfect mixture between the two, yet apparently there is some conspiracy to withhold them from the whole of Europe.
European population density doesn't allow us to own large squares the way you US people can on your vast empty plains.
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I assume you've looked into and rejected Evernote? MS OneNote is quite good as well (yes, yes, MS being recommended on here, sky will fall...) but it's more of an 800lb gorilla of features. Evernote still keeps things fairly simple.