Writing by hand using paper and pencil has practically become old-fashioned with today’s tech-dependent lifestyle, but have you ever considered how keeping a hand-written daily journal or diary might help you improve your English? Writing ideas down helps you clarify your thoughts and remember things, but doing so in English can also give you extra language practice. Studies show that writing by hand boosts learning because we tend to focus more on what we write by hand than what we type. You activate more parts of the brain when you write by hand versus typing, too. When you keep a daily handwritten journal, you actively practice using vocabulary and grammar rules, but beyond that, you gain confidence in organizing and expressing your ideas in English. You may worry that a journal might not be useful because no teacher will correct what you write. However, you should think of journaling as a chance to practice writing for fluency, not necessarily just for grammatical accuracy. When you keep a journal, you’ll find that you’ve greatly improved how your writing flows over time. What should you write about in your journal? The good thing about a private journal is that you can write about anything you want. No teacher is controlling your topic of choice. Journal writing is “free writing” and doesn’t have any set topic or strict organizational rules like an academic paragraph or essay. You can reflect on things that happened during the day, examine your hopes and dreams, set future goals, and more. You can also do a Google search for “journal topics” if you aren’t feeling creative or want more structured topic ideas. So, pull out an old-fashioned notebook and a pencil and get started on your very own English language daily journal.