– a good supervisor will want to know
about the progress we are making, but
the progress we make will always be
down to us. Keeping a journal means
that we can keep a check on ourselves;
for example, how far we have achieved
our goals and what we need to do next.
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Journal writing can be done in a number of
ways (for example, by hand in a notebook,
on a device such as a smartphone or tablet).
However, the value of writing by hand cannot
be underestimated, and we explore this in the
next theme.
Notes
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Theme 1.3
The link between
writing and
understanding
Writing is a skill and hence something that we
learn and improve upon. As children most of us
learned to read more quickly than we learned
to write, and many students say that the most
difficult things on their course are their written
assignments. Writing often leads to a significantly
deeper level of reflection than thinking alone, as
it slows our thought processes down.
Writing gives us a much sharper focus and helps
us to concentrate; it is almost impossible to write
about something without thinking about what
you are writing at the same time. So why is this
the case? Research in neuroscience shows that
writing by hand stimulates the reticular activating
system (RAS) at the base of the human brain
(Pérez Alonso, 2015). The RAS acts as a filter
for information that the brain needs to process
and ensures that we pay more attention to what
we are actively focusing on at a given moment.
Writing, therefore, sharpens our focus and is
usually a more effective way of learning than
discussion or reading. This means that you will
be much more likely to remember something you
have written down than something you have
read or discussed; and, in addition, you have
a record that you can refer back to. Having a
sharp focus is one key aspect of carrying out a
good research project.
Writing always involves making decisions
about what to write, which means processing
your thoughts and expressing yourself in words;
this helps your understanding to develop. For
example, when you take notes from reading
a text, simply copying it will not help you to
understand it, but summarising it and putting it
into your own words probably will. In pieces
of written work, you might need to explain
the approach you have taken so that you or
someone else can read it and understand what
you have written. So, the act of writing helps us
to develop our understanding.
However, we live in a world where most of us
use some kind of keyboard more than we write
by hand. In addition, most of us can type more
quickly than we can write. So, do we need
to write by hand? We know that writing by
hand slows us down and helps us to remember
things. An interesting study by Mueller and
Oppenheimer (2014) showed that students
who used laptops for taking their lecture notes
produced poorer-quality work than those who
took notes by hand. This is because those using
laptops tended to try to type the lecturer’s every
word, while those who wrote by hand had to
be much more selective about what they wrote.
This forced them to begin processing the material
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straightaway; this is what helped them to perform
better in their studies. So, writing by hand does
seem to have some benefits. However, it is
important to bear in mind that if you have a
particular learning support need (for example,
dyslexia) using a keyboard might be a much
better option for you. So, remember, it’s all about
knowing what
