More writing, less typing

Interesting post from Umberto Eco at guardian.uk about the deteriorating quality of handwriting is commensurate with the skyrocketing proficiency younger consumers have both in typing and texting. There’s a great analogy to a challenge I see every day in the ad industry.

Handwriting (even really bad handwriting in my case) is an investment in thought. Putting thought to (literal) paper requires more focus and less auto-pilot than typing. Because you are more invested in the process, you can quickly shoot holes, improve organization, judge flow, etc. Flaws in writing and presentations don’t present themselves as readily when done on screen, especially if you don’t have an outline. If you haven’t tried in a while, you’d be surprised at the improved quality of work by simply doing outlines for persuasive memos and presentations by hand before typing a word (John Steel agrees) To an art director or copywriter, this idea is completely intuitive. It tends not to be for those of us in Account Management hard-wired to deliver work as efficiently as possible.

There’s a fine balancing skill rarely found in people on the account side of our business between speedy service and big ideas. Technology is a beautiful facilitator of speed, but it can sometimes actually stifle idea development because of it’s perceived ease of use. Next time you have to write a persuasive memo or assemble a presentation, make yourself sit down and at least scribble out an outline if not a rough draft. You’ll be surprised how much better the work is.