I just read an interesting blog post at lifehacker.org on why we remember what we write, which got me thinking about paper and pen vs. word processors.

I compose new material (such as this blog or research articles) in a word processor.  It is a better way of keeping up with how fast my brain is working.

But in studying for the multivariate statistics exam I have on wednesday I started going back through my notes/books and writing, by hand, on paper, a summary of the key information.  Essentially notes.  It never even occurred to me to do this on a computer.
 
The result that we process it differently and retain written material better isn’t entirely surprising to me, but I now understand a bit more why that was the technique I was drawn to. 

Perhaps I should do more of my brainstorming around papers on, well, paper.  I certainly can’t write as fast as I type, but I may well be able to come up with more ideas and organize them before I start writing by doing it on paper.

Now if I could just figure out how to do a proper trackback…..