writing psychology

Slow down typing to enhance your writing skills (pic courtesy of Just2shutter/freedigitalphotos.net)

Typing too fast can “impair the writing process”, while typing more slowly gives you more chance to think of a better word rather than settling for the first one that comes to mind. That’s the conclusion of a study by psychologists at Canada’s University of Waterloo.

The study involved asking participants to type essays using two hands or with only one hand. Analysing the results afterwards, the psychologists found that people used more sophisticated vocabulary when only using one hand because they had more time to search for the right word.

“Typing can be too fluent or too fast, and can actually impair the writing process,” said Srdan Medimorec, lead author the study. “It seems that what we write is a product of the interactions between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them.” So, possibly a case of more haste less speed when it comes to getting our point down on the page.