I write everything by hand apart from 'actual writing', like essays and presentations, which go straight on the computer, however I do draft sentences and short paragraphs by hand. I have quite neat, quick handwriting so can jot my ideas down as quickly as I think of them and I have always made a lot of notes in classes, my tutors often comment on it, in a good way I think! I always write on journal articles and make notes from book chapters, I think that makes me a slower reader than most other people but it helps me to engage better, especially when it's difficult.
I have to do a lot of reflective writing as well and it's quite personal sometimes, so could never do that on the computer as I would be missing out so much of it, handwriting is far more personal.
Everything I write always starts with a first (and usually second) draft on paper and then gets re-drafted as I type it in. Then printed out and notes scribbled on it and edited to match. Possibly related to the mathematical nature of what I do but I will handwrite everything even paragraphs, discussions etc. It takes an awful long time to get anything from idea to report though and I think my supervisor would prefer if it didn't.
I write all of my notes to myself and thoughts and ideas in a notebook that I keep aswell as what I set out to achieve and what I've actually done each day. I would naturally handwrite everything if I could but managed to drop this habit pretty early on in my undergrad degree. Plus my writing is pretty atrocious so trying to decipher what I've scribbled after any length of time has passed has often proved difficult :$
PostgraduateForum Is a trading name of FindAUniversity Ltd
FindAUniversity Ltd, 77 Sidney St, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. Tel +44 (0) 114 268 4940 Fax: +44 (0) 114 268 5766
An active and supportive community.
Support and advice from your peers.
Your postgraduate questions answered.
Use your experience to help others.
Enter your email address below to get started with your forum account
Enter your username below to login to your account
An email has been sent to your email account along with instructions on how to reset your password. If you do not recieve your email, or have any futher problems accessing your account, then please contact our customer support.
or continue as guest
To ensure all features on our website work properly, your computer, tablet or mobile needs to accept cookies. Our cookies don’t store your personal information, but provide us with anonymous information about use of the website and help us recognise you so we can offer you services more relevant to you. For more information please read our privacy policy
Agree Agree