John Hancock would be one outstanding law student today. His signature on the Declaration of Independence is iconic, done in beautiful, sweeping cursive, so he would have no problem taking notes in classes where laptops are banned. (One problem: His writing was quite large, so he would need many, many notebooks …)
Some of today’s law students don’t have such fine handwriting skills, which can be a pain if taking notes by hand is their only option. Studies show that taking handwritten notes helps with retention and that you are more selective about what you write down. Yet some students say that offers little comfort if you can’t read what you’ve hastily scratched out.
Many students lack fast handwriting skills because they grew up writing on computers, tablets and smartphones.
Quick! When’s the last time you wrote anything down with pen or pencil? We’re guilty. This magazine article? It comes to you via Microsoft Word.
On numerous online forums, students wrote – um, on keyboards – that their poor handwriting skills can cause problems.
“I’m a 1L, and this first semester every one of my professors banned laptops. Every. Damn. Professor. I haven’t taken handwritten notes since high school because of poor handwriting. The end result is that my notes are barely legible and I’m not taking down nearly as many notes in class as I’d like.”
And: “I have terrible handwriting. During undergrad, I actually failed a class because I fought with my teacher about the right to use a laptop.”
Do the students have a point? Are laptop bans the best way to foster better note-taking as well as prevent distraction? Some students use laptops during class to check Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and even shop online. One student complained about seeing a fellow student, near Valentine’s Day, buying lingerie during a lecture.
But handwriting, particularly the cursive style, is fast becoming a lost art. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards Initiative dropped cursive writing from its guidelines. Meanwhile, the standards require that students be proficient in typing by fourth grade.
A British pediatric occupational therapist said earlier this year that children aren’t starting school with the same hand-strength kids used to have and that they are having trouble holding pencils. This may be because young children are using tablets and computers and not playing with blocks and other toys that foster the dexterity needed for handwriting.
Some states are going against the tide and passing laws that require cursive writing, which some argue is superior to printing because you can write faster. Your pencil doesn’t leave the paper as often.
Those advocating a return of cursive instruction are worried that today’s students won’t be able to read older documents written in that manner.
In academia, it’s not the end of cursive that’s the worry. It’s the reliance on laptops for note-taking.
One of the more widely cited studies of handwriting and note-taking is called, “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard.” Released in 2014, it compared students who used laptops to those who took notes by hand.
The students with laptops wrote a lot more words but did not score as well on conceptual-application questions. The study concluded that it was because they were apt to “mindlessly transcribe” instead of listening. In another test, even when they were told not to try to type every word, the laptop users still had a propensity to write more.
Even students who find handwriting a struggle will benefit from taking notes by hand, said Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who was one of the paper’s researchers.
You don’t have to be lightning fast. Because you can’t write quickly enough by hand to capture every word being said, you’re forced to paraphrase what is being said, he noted.
“In order to do that, you have to understand what is being said at a deep enough level to describe it in your own words,” Oppenheimer said. “That has two benefits: 1) Deep processing helps with memory, so when you have to think about the material, you’re more likely to remember it later, and 2) You actually understand the material.”
Conversely, those taking notes on laptops have little recognition of what is being taught, he said.
“It is the struggle that causes the improvement in learning,” he said. “much like how the harder you work out at a gym, the more you get in shape.”
But Oppenheimer doesn’t write in cursive and feels it is not superior to printing. The important thing is to take pencil to paper.
“I learned cursive back in the day, but I find I can write both faster and more legibly when I print than when I use cursive,” Oppenheimer said.
Darren Rosenblum is a professor at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y. He wrote an op-ed for The New York Times titled, “Leave Your Laptops at the Door to My Classroom,” which pretty much tells you where he stands on the issue.
He admits to having been an “early adopter” and typing his notes in law school, but he found he was simply taking dictation. As a junior attorney, he took notes on a “clunky first-generation laptop,” he said, and he caught grief from the firm’s partners because he could not do so adequately.
“Even when I was allowed to use a laptop, I paid for it because I couldn’t converse about what was discussed, not having carefully listened,” he said.
Yes, handwriting can be hard, but it helps in the learning process.
“There are some of us, like me, who write slowly and not terribly clearly,” Rosenblum said. “It can be frustrating. It is, however, a skill like any other that one can acquire relatively quickly.”
One law student complained that banning laptops causes students to lose valuable technological advantages.
“I think the No. 1 reason to allow this is that there simply isn’t time to transcribe hand-written notes and that notes stored in the cloud are vastly more secure than notes written on paper,” the student wrote of Reddit. “As a law student, you can’t afford the additional work caused by either data loss or note transcription.”
Not all law students complain about banning laptops, though. Another on Reddit wrote: “I generally think students should use what works best for them. However, the classes I had in which laptops were banned had more vibrant conversation.”
While this debate will likely continue as students become more reliant on technology and the world moves closer to becoming paperless, many law professors believe it’s in the students’ best interest to take notes by hand.
One student found an answer:
“I learned cursive while I was bored in Property,” the student wrote on Reddit. “Literally, get the sheets for first-graders and do them. Also get a fountain pen.”
