The Importance Of Good Handwriting When Doing Math

Lets talk about the importance of handwriting when doing math. Now, by handwriting I mean everything around getting information from your brain onto the paper.

Mathematics and science are different from the social sciences and writing because you typically don’t use a computer to present your work. These days, students spend a lot of time learning how to work a keyboard and are used to producing documents that are complete and that look pretty. The problem with this for math students is that we don’t do mathematics on the computer (until we are doing more advanced mathematics). But when it comes to actually doing problems, the age-old methods of either chalk on a blackboard or pencil and paper, are the methods that people use. So what does this mean? This means that the tools of paper and pencil that have carried us so far are now tools that students don’t have enough experience with to use in the proper way, to get the most benefit from. (Remember the whole point of this experience is to learn mathematics, this is the only reason that we’re doing all of this).

So, let me give you a few important safety tips for how to do your written math homework in the way that will be the most effective for you – to learn the math as well as to get the most points on homework and exams. The first point, the most important point, is ‘Don’t be afraid of white space’. The clearer the paper you are writing on is, with just your mathematics on it and nothing else, the better you will understand what you’re doing. This means that when you do problems, give yourself a lot of space. If you’re doing algebra problems where there’s a lot of repetition, its OK to put several problems on one page, but keep it clear and keep lots of white space between the problems. Using paper to do math problems is one place where I, as an ardent environmentalist – I’m very green – really say that it’s worth it to waste a little paper. Especially when you’re doing larger, more advanced kinds of problems, things like doing partial fraction expansions, completing the square or word problems, give yourself a new sheet of paper for every problem that you’re doing. If you find yourself erasing or if you’ve gone down the wrong path with a problem, then start a new piece of paper with that problem. The final product of what you’re working on should be something that you can put in your notebook and refer back to later knowing exactly what you did. This gets back to the problem that I have when I’m grading exams: If I cannot follow what you we’re trying to do, even if you were doing it right, then I can’ give you any points. And this is coming from the king of partial credit. In fact it’s a really good idea, once you’ve completed a problem, to put it away and especially with hard problems, recopy it before you turn it in, so it looks complete and professional and like you knew what you were doing from the very beginning. This will help to cement the ideas in your mind, giving you better recall of them afterwards and it also tells the world, tells yourself, tells your teachers, your colleagues and your fellow students that you are a professional. This is the whole point of taking a class in the first place – to develop your thinking and show that you are professional.

Points to take from this post:

• Partial credit is your friend.
• Being able to follow what you did before will prevent you from having to do the same work over again.
• Get paper from the copy store and pull paper out of the recycling bin to use the backside
• Use a pencil so that you can erase it when you make mistakes, but don’t erase half the paper! If you find yourself erasing more than one or two small characters, then do it over again. This not only helps you to keep the paper clean and the quality of your work up, but it also forces you to work through the whole logical process again right up to the point where you made the mistake. From a learning standpoint, this is critical.
• Put curls on your T’s and your I’s, especially your T’s, so that you can separate the T’s from plus (+) signs and your I’s from 1’s. When you’re writing, write in full sentences making sure you including a period.
• Block printing for calculations is the best way to go.
• Lineup your equal (=) signs so that you can see the sequence of the algebra simplifications that you make.
• Remember there are many standard errors (and in another blog post I will go over 10 of them) that people make doing algebra. Those errors will be much easier to find if you break your algebraic steps up and show them all explicitly.