Writers are finding ways to revive the endangered art of handwriting
Penmanship may be in decline, but handwriting can benefit motor skills and memory, says professor
Originally published on April 12, 2023.
The words "commerce" and "communications" are completely different words when it comes to spelling and definition.
But during a recent gathering by the Toronto Letter Writers Society, members of the group found themselves teaming up to decipher which word was which when it came to a written letter sent by a pen pal.
"This is the worst Scrabble game," said Angelica LeMinh, as members of the group laughed and gathered around the letter to figure out what was being said.
"Often these letters end up here, and we try to figure out what the contents of the letter actually are," explained Andrea Raymond-Wong, one of the society's co-owners.
"It could be commerce and not communications. That word is just very mysterious, though."
The society holds monthly meet-ups for people to hand write cards and letters to loved ones and friends from across Canada and around the world.
But more importantly, she says these social gatherings are helping people practice and reconnect with their handwriting, especially in an era of texting, voice memos and emails.
While Raymond-Wong has always been a lover of good penmanship, she's found the quality of her own writing paying a price given that she's not doing it as much anymore.
"My cursive, my handwriting is terrible. It's best used when I'm scrawling notes really quickly. I think it borders on illegible," she said, adding that she now opts to write in print so people can read her writing more easily.
Jessica Lewis, who co-runs the Toronto Letter Writers Society, found her hands cramping up more frequently when she started picking up a pen and paper to write after the pandemic hit. Before COVID-19, she made it a habit to write things down in a daily planner. But as life slowed down during the pandemic, she found herself marking things down in her phone calendar as it was more convenient.
"I do have to take breaks like, probably every five minutes or so," she said.
"My doctor said that it's because you're not using it as much anymore. So you need to practice and stretch out your hand more."
Lewis adds that the society meet-ups give her an incentive to pick up a pen and write more often again, and respond to letters she's received from pen pals even though she's months late in replying.
Writing benefits your memory
Like sports and exercise, penmanship is a skill that requires frequent practice and skills, says Hetty Roessingh.
The professor emerita at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, who researches the benefits of handwriting, note-taking and literacy skills, says the quality of penmanship has declined because motor skills have taken a hit during the pandemic.
"We need to work on more tinkering, more loose parts play, and really work on those fine motor literacy skills that includes a good pincer grip," she said.
Beyond our motor skills, Roessingh says writing by hand can also benefit your memory. She referenced a 2014 study by American psychologists Daniel Oppenheimer and Pam Mueller, which found that students who took notes on a laptop performed worse in subsequent tests compared to those who wrote notes by hand.
While keyboarding may seem faster and more convenient to communicate, it doesn't provide the same feedback to the brain compared to writing out each individual word and letter's shape by hand, she said. What's more, you're more likely to form a deeper understanding of what you write if you put a pen to paper, even if it's something as simple as a handwritten grocery list.
"Handwriting is generative. You summarize, you synthesize, you register that information," she said. "If you're just typing, you're just typing the keys."
Finding a script that works for you
When she was a young student, Roessingh — who's now in her 70s — says she was taught a "loopy, embellished kind of cursive" writing that was tough on her hands. But as an adult, she found herself taking calligraphy lessons to improve her own handwriting.
Those classes, she says, completely changed the style of her writing.
"It's a [connected] italic that gives me the speed and legibility I need to be functional but good looking at the same time," she said. "I can slow it down and be much more mindful. I can speed it up a bit if I'm just making a quick grocery list."
The key to good penmanship is starting young, she says, and prying kids away from digital devices to focus more on putting words onto paper.
However, she stresses that it's never too late to want to improve, and suggests other adults try calligraphy classes and accessing online resources to find a simplified handwriting style and script that works for them.
"I'm not saying there's no place for digital literacy. Our kids and our people have to become bilingual — [we're] digitally literate, and we need to handwrite and keep our hands active and busy," she said.
"For all the reasons I'm mentioning, that has to do with handwriting as a cognitive tool, and writing as a social and emotional connection to people who matter to us."
Written and produced by Samantha Lui.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
