Text Analysis Software Suggests Typing Slower Could Improve Quality of Writing
Researchers from the University of Waterloo recently reported that slowing down the typing speed immensely improves one’s writing skills. The study suggests that lowering the typing frequency improves cognitive processing, as inferred by the Coh-Metrix text analyser. The detailed report was published in the British Journal of psychology.
The report is derived from a small test performed among skilled writers from an undergraduate student group. The research group manipulated the transcription fluency of these professionals by limiting them to type using only one hand, in the first condition. In the next step, they were again allowed to use both hands for typing. Srdan Medimorec, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts at Waterloo and lead author of the study explained that excessively fluent typing impairs mental ability which has an adverse effect on writing skills.
When researchers speculated on the results, they experienced vast changes in the same person’s essay writing, such as lexical sophistication, sentence complexity and cohesion of essays. Professor Evan F. Risko, Canada Research Chair in Embodied and Embedded Cognition and senior author of the study claimed that their research is the first of its kind to deduce such important conclusions from the sample results.
The researchers suggest that a fast typing speed could degrade writing quality, regardless of the tools. Thus, it can include text-to-speech programs, computers or a pen and paper, but the inverse relation of speed with writing skills does not consider the tool as a potential parameter. However, further research is required to confirm this idea.
The press also reported that slowing down the speed by a large amount could also negatively affect cognition. Therefore, it seems that writing in perfect sync with the mind appeared to be an uphill task. The experiment included three essay topics such as a memorable school day for them, an event that had a positive influence on them, and another which sought their opinion on a ban on cellular telephones in high school.
Source: <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/slow-down-your-typing-improve-your-writing-study" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Slow down your typing to improve your writing: study | Waterloo News | University of Waterloo</a> | #-Link-Snipped-#
The report is derived from a small test performed among skilled writers from an undergraduate student group. The research group manipulated the transcription fluency of these professionals by limiting them to type using only one hand, in the first condition. In the next step, they were again allowed to use both hands for typing. Srdan Medimorec, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts at Waterloo and lead author of the study explained that excessively fluent typing impairs mental ability which has an adverse effect on writing skills.
When researchers speculated on the results, they experienced vast changes in the same person’s essay writing, such as lexical sophistication, sentence complexity and cohesion of essays. Professor Evan F. Risko, Canada Research Chair in Embodied and Embedded Cognition and senior author of the study claimed that their research is the first of its kind to deduce such important conclusions from the sample results.
The researchers suggest that a fast typing speed could degrade writing quality, regardless of the tools. Thus, it can include text-to-speech programs, computers or a pen and paper, but the inverse relation of speed with writing skills does not consider the tool as a potential parameter. However, further research is required to confirm this idea.
The press also reported that slowing down the speed by a large amount could also negatively affect cognition. Therefore, it seems that writing in perfect sync with the mind appeared to be an uphill task. The experiment included three essay topics such as a memorable school day for them, an event that had a positive influence on them, and another which sought their opinion on a ban on cellular telephones in high school.
Source: <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/slow-down-your-typing-improve-your-writing-study" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Slow down your typing to improve your writing: study | Waterloo News | University of Waterloo</a> | #-Link-Snipped-#
0