TOEFL Independent Writing 1


 Some people claims that children should only be taught to type on a keyboard because they think the time to learn writing by hand with pencil or pen is waste of time. However, I think children should be taught how to write by hand with a pencil or pen. First, there are lots of things still not substitutable. Second, relation between those two methods are not exclusive.
 First of all, a keyboard can't replace all available functions which can do by a pencil or pen. There are still various situations in which we need a pencil or pen. For example, we can't directly draw smooth curve by a keyboard. Even if we can try to draw complex structure by a keyboard, that will be a very heavy job. Furthermore, a keyboard can not present all context like a paper smell, sense of gripping a pencil and natural movement of our hands. Several evidences shows that a keyboard can not substitute a pencil or pen.
 Next, a keyboard and a pen like tools need each other for more productivity. We use a pen or keyboard to produce meaningful results. If you want to make great output from those tools, you need to combinate them in to your writing skills. To illustrate, keyboard is optimized tool to type very fast and pencil is very creative tool. You will get less time and more results by combinate each method. They support each other because they have a totally different look and usage.
 To sum up, people should teach skills to use not only keyboard but also pen or pencil. A keyboard does not have some feature which pen or pencil have. A keyboard and pen is more useful when they combined together. These are two reasons why I think children should be taught to learn how to write by hand with pencil or pen.
