WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING? THEN STOP TYPING

A generation that grew up using computers can now type faster than it can think — with poor results. Typing quickly doesn’t just cause typos, the University of Waterloo found, it also allows students to write before they formulate their ideas fully. In other words, fast typing undermines the content of their writing. “Typing can be too fluent or too fast, and can actually impair the writing process,” says Srdan Medimorec, a PhD candidate at Waterloo and the author of a study that measured the effect of technology on expression. Stu- dents were asked write essay- style answers to questions — typing some answers normally, and others using only one hand. Using one hand slowed them to about the speed of handwriting. It also improved their answers. When the students typed at full speed they tended to use the first word that came into their heads. The result of slowing down was a richer vocabulary and a better expression of complex ideas. Risko’s study is published in this month’s British Journal of Psychology.