What do you prefer to write with?

The answer to this question was really only a two horse race. Ball-point pens or pencils would seem to be the most obvious choices and the results show that they are. More than half the teachers who took this poll like to write with a ball-point pen. Almost a third of respondents prefer to use a pencil. Felt-tip pens, markers and crayons accounted for less that 20% of the votes combined.

The question isn't which implement do you prefer to use, but why would you use anything other than a pen or pencil. Honestly, if you are trying to write anything more than five words long using a crayon would use too much paper. Can you imagine writing a 1,000 word essay in crayon? You would end up handing in an entire ream of paper and each line on the page would only have five words. While great for toddlers and for use in coloring projects, crayons are not a practical implement for writing.

Markers and felt-tip pens are very similar and both have inherent problems. If using either of these implements the writer had better be sure of what they want to say. The chance of erasing or whiting out an error is pretty slim. Markers are indelible and mistakes don't cover easily. These have to be preferred only by the super confident people who never make mistakes.

That leaves pens and pencils left as the most obvious choice for favourite writing implement. Pencils are fantastic to use because they are easy to erase, you can't smudge the work very easily, and they are very inexpensive. The only drawback is the need for a sharpener. It's amazing how difficult it is to find one when you need it. Pens on the other hand, are wonderful self-contained units that keep going and going. When they finally exhaust their ink supply, there is no messy refilling required, you simply toss it in the garbage and grab another one. The variety of ball-point pens available is mind boggling as well. Retractable pens or ones with a cap, black or blue, thin line or thick? The choices are almost endless.

So go ahead, pick up your pen or pencil and write that letter to your cousin that you were supposed to send last month. You could try to use a crayon but be prepared to pay for extra postage.