手写的重要性 | 经济学人文化

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英文部分选自经济学人20230917期文化板块

Culture | Johnson

文化 | 约翰逊专栏

The importance of handwriting is becoming better understood

手写的重要性逐渐为人所知

Research on pens and paper highlights their benefits

相关研究凸显了手写的益处

Two and a half millennia ago, Socrates complained that writing would harm students. With a way to store ideas permanently and externally, they would no longer need to memorise. It is tempting to dismiss him as an old man complaining about change. Socrates did not have a stack of peer-reviewed science to make his case about the usefulness of learning concepts by heart.

2500年前，苏格拉底认为书写会毒害学生。有了书写，思想就能永久储存在人脑之外，学生也就不再需要记忆。这时，我们很容易将苏格拉底贬低为一个墨守成规、满腹怨气的老头。可惜当时没有一堆经过同行评审的科学论文来佐证熟记概念的好处。

Today a different debate is raging about the dangers of another technology—computers—and the typing people do on them. As primary-school pupils andphd hopefuls return for a new school year in the northern hemisphere, many will do so with a greater-than-ever reliance on computers to take notes and write papers. Some parents of younger students are dismayed that their children are not just encouraged but required to tote laptops to class. University professors complain of rampant distraction in classrooms, with students reading and messaging instead of listening to lectures.

今天，又有一场激烈的争论围绕另一项技术——电脑——以及用电脑打字的危害展开。北半球新学年伊始，无论是小学生还是博士生都陆续返校学习，很多学生记笔记、写论文都越来越离不开电脑。低年级学生的家长忧心忡忡，因为学校不仅鼓励、而且要求学生带笔记本电脑上课。大学生四处分心，上课不听讲、看闲书、发信息，教授对此十分不满。

A line of research shows the benefits of an “innovation” that predates computers: handwriting. Studies have found that writing on paper can improve everything from recalling a random series of words to imparting a better conceptual grasp of complicated ideas.

手写是一项早于电脑的“创新”。一系列研究揭示了手写的益处：从回忆一系列随机排列的单词，到从根本上更好地理解复杂思想，如此种种，不一而足。

For learning material by rote, from the shapes of letters to the quirks of English spelling, the benefits of using a pen or pencil lie in how the motor and sensory memory of putting words on paper reinforces that material. The arrangement of squiggles on a page feeds into visual memory: people might remember a word they wrote down in French class as being at the bottom-left on a page,par exemple.

在学习死记硬背的内容时，不论是奇形怪状的字母，还是让人捉摸不透的英文拼写，都可以用笔写一写：手写过程会形成肌肉记忆和感觉记忆，进而加深学习效果。纸上弯曲线条的分布方式也会形成视觉记忆；比如（par exemple），人们可能记得自己在法语课上写下的一个单词位于某页左下角。

注释：

1.feed into: to have an influence on影响

2.squiggle: a line that bends and curls in an irregular way. 不规则的曲线;波形曲线

3.par example: for example (French)

4.死记硬背 Rote learning or learning by rote is learning things by repeating them without thinking about them or trying to understand them.

One of the best-demonstrated advantages of writing by hand seems to be in superior note-taking. In a study from 2014 by Pam Mueller and Danny Oppenheimer, students typing wrote down almost twice as many words and more passages verbatim from lectures, suggesting they were not understanding so much as rapidly copying the material.

手写最明显的一大优势在于高效记笔记。帕姆·米勒（Pam Mueller）和丹尼·奥本海默（Danny Oppenheimer）于2014年开展了一项研究，结果表明相较于手写的学生，打字的学生逐字记下的课堂笔记单词量几乎多出一倍，记下的段落也更多。这表明打字的学生只是在快速抄写材料，对材料的理解并不深入。

注释：

verbatim: If you repeat something verbatim, you use exactly the same words as were used originally. 逐字逐句地;一字不差地

Handwriting—which takes longer for nearly all university-level students—forces note-takers to synthesise ideas into their own words. This aids conceptual understanding at the moment of writing. But those taking notes by hand also perform better on tests when students are later able to study from their notes. The effect even persisted when the students who typed were explicitly instructed to rephrase the material in their own words. The instruction was “completely ineffective” at reducing verbatim note-taking, the researchers note: they did not understand the material so much as parrot it.

大学生手写速度普遍较慢，而如果要手写笔记，就必须用自己的话提炼观点，进而有助于形成概念性理解。在课后可以复习笔记的情况下，手写笔记的学生成绩也更好。即使明确要求打字的学生转述课堂内容，打字的学习效果依旧不如手写。研究人员表示，这种要求“完全没有”减轻记笔记时逐字照搬的现象：学生并没有理解材料，只是鹦鹉学舌般地重复。

注释：

1.synthesize: If you synthesize different ideas, facts, or experiences, you combine them to form a single idea or impression.综合；把…合为一体

2.when: You use when in order to introduce a fact or comment which makes the other part of the sentence rather surprising or unlikely. (用于引出使句子的其他部分显得让人吃惊或不大可能的事实或评论)虽然，然而，可是

3.rephrase: If you rephrase a question or statement, you ask it or say it again in a different way. 重新措辞;重新表述

4.parrot: If you disapprove of the fact that someone is just repeating what someone else has said, often without really understanding it, you can say that they are parroting it. 机械地模仿；鹦鹉学舌般地重复

Many studies have confirmed handwriting’s benefits, and policymakers have taken note. Though America’s “Common Core” curriculum from 2010 does not require handwriting instruction past first grade (roughly age six), about half the states since then have mandated more teaching of it, thanks to campaigning by researchers and handwriting supporters. In Sweden there is a push for more handwriting and printed books and fewer devices. England’s national curriculum already prescribes teaching the rudiments of cursive by age seven.

许多研究证实了手写的好处，决策者十分重视。美国2010年开始实行的“共同核心标准”（"Common Core State Standards"）没有规定一年级（大约六岁）以上的孩子需要接受书写教学，但由于研究人员和手写支持者发起的运动，全美约一半的州开始强制要求加大书写教学力度。瑞典开始推广手写和纸质书，并减少电子设备的使用。英国国家课程标准也已经规定，学生开始学习连笔字基本写法的年龄不得晚于七岁。

注释：

1.共同核心：指一套教育标准，旨在确保学生在各个学科领域都具备相同的知识和技能。

2.mandate: To mandate something means to make it mandatory. 批准;颁布;强制执行

However, several school systems in America have gone so far as to ban most laptops. This is too extreme. Some students have disabilities that make handwriting especially hard. Nearly all will eventually need typing skills. And typing can improve the quality of writing: being able to get ideas down quickly, before they are forgotten, can obviously be beneficial. So can slowing down the speed of typing, says Dr Oppenheimer.

然而，美国有几个学校系统甚至禁止在绝大多数情况下使用手提电脑，这就太极端了。有些学生身患残疾，书写特别吃力。几乎所有学生最终都需要学会打字。打字还可以提高写作质量：能够快速记下灵感，以免忘记，这显然是有益的。奥本海默博士表示，放慢打字速度也有一定的益处。

注释：

school system，学校系统，指在一个地区下，由代表该地区的教育委员会负责管理的公立学校的总体。

Virginia Berninger, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Washington, is a longtime advocate of handwriting. But she is not a purist; she says there are research-tested benefits for “manuscript” print-style writing, for cursive (which allows greater speed) but also for typing (which is good practice for composing passages). Since students spend more time on devices as they age, she argues for occasional “tuning up” of handwriting in later school years.

华盛顿大学心理学荣誉教授弗吉尼亚·柏宁格（Virginia Berninger）长期致力于推广手写，但她并不是纯粹主义者。柏宁格表示，经过研究测试，“印刷体式”（正楷）手写、连笔书写（书写速度更快）和打字（方便锻炼段落组织能力）都各有好处。学生年龄越大，使用电子设备的时间就越长，因此柏宁格认为高年级学生应偶尔切换至“手写模式”。

And perhaps even into adulthood. Johnson had not handwritten anything longer than a letter in decades before putting actual pen to paper to write this column’s first draft. Whether it made any difference to the outcome is a question that readers must decide. Socrates may or may not have had a point about the downsides of writing. But no one would remember, much less care, if his student Plato had not noted it down for the benefit of posterity.

也许成年人也可以这样做。过去数十年里，在拿起笔和纸完成本文初稿之前，笔者手写的材料最长不超过一封信。手写是否会影响文章质量？这就要交由读者判断了。不管苏格拉底对书写弊端的看法有没有道理，要不是他的学生柏拉图为后代记录下他的对话，他的观点都不会有人记得，更不会有人在乎。

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观点|评论|思考

感想一

Constance，痛终有时，爱必将至

在当今这个数字化时代，电脑、平板、智能手机这样的电子设备已经成为日常生活中不可或缺的工具，电子邮件、即时通讯、社交媒体成了人与人之间交流的主要方式。技术的进步虽然带来了许多便利，但手工书写的重要性却反复敲击着人们的内心。近期研究表明，在纸上写作或手写笔记有许多益处。

首先，手写可以提高思维能力和学习能力。在手动书写的过程中，大脑的不同区域被调动起来，感官、运动和认知功能都能得到不同程度的锻炼，这种多重参与又能同时促进思维深度和灵活性的发散。相较之下，在电子设备上动动手指打字时，我们只是机械地按动键盘上的按键，这种机械性操作并不能引起我们的思考或激发创造力。因此，手写可以帮助我们更好地理解和记忆所学的知识。

其次，手写有助于提高注意力和集中度。在使用电子设备时，我们经常会受到来自电子邮件、社交媒体等一些应用程序的干扰，这些干扰会分散我们的注意力，使我们难以专注于当下的任务。手写则是一种相对简单得多的过程，不会发生类似的干扰。当我们专注于使用双手去书写文字时，我们更容易进入一种专注而沉浸的状态，在这样的过程中我们的专注力和集中度也就慢慢得到提升了。

此外，手写可以帮助我们更好地记录及表达思想。在手写文字时，速度通常较慢，这其实使我们有更多的时间来组织自己的想法。而使用电子设备时，我们往往会以较快的速度键入文字，这可能导致混乱且不连贯的思维。手写能促使我们选择更合适的遣词造句，更精确地表达我们的想法，同时也能够更好地保留下来文字记录，以供之后的回顾和参考。

最后，手写还有助于提高创造力和想象力。手写这一表达方式是自由的，它没有规定的格式或限制。通过手写，我们可以自由地进行写作，发挥无限的想象力；手写也可以激发我们的创造力，让我们更好地探索和发展自己的独特思维。

尽管电子设备在日常生活中日益发挥着重要作用，但手工书写同样不容忽视。在纸上写作或手写笔记可以提高思考能力及学习能力，增强注意力和集中度，帮助我们更好地记录和表达思想，同时也能激发创造力、促进想象力的无限延伸。因此，在日常生活中，我们应该保持手写的习惯，使其成为我们思考和交流的重要工具。无论是在学习还是工作中，手写都将给我们带来更多的益处和成长。让我们重拾纸笔，切实感受手写的魅力吧！

感想二
Very，男，电气民工，经济学人资浅爱好者

有时候我会想，我之所以是我，应该仅仅是因为记忆吧。

电影电视里经常在演，失忆的人往往没有被爱人和家人嫌弃，最终记忆恢复，幸福结局。细细想来，其中却有个比较大逻辑漏洞——倘若爱人或者家人也失去记忆的话，那么故事就到此结束了。所以记忆是人区别于其他人的本质和唯一基础。

于是我们在看待自己和他人时便有了一种几乎是永远不变的参照物，这种参照物的意义在于，我们评价和做出判断时有了稳定的依据，我们在追求幸福时也有了实际且无法被反驳的目标。有些时候，记忆的重要似乎被小瞧了，部分人认为当下的享受才是最重要的，殊不知享受完后的第一秒开始，你的记忆便在发挥作用，真实且不真实地记录下你对于当下享受的感觉，并以此作为以后这个过程的全部凭证。

于是我们可以适当地欺骗自己，完美地记录下其实没有那么美妙的一次过程，事实上如此之后，那个过程本身就已经被修改成完美了。当我们老去时，满脑子都是美好的东西（并且我们自己也认为是美好的），这难道不是一种极大的幸福吗？

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