Life is filled with many controversial topics, from the political party you affiliate with, to the type of pizza toppings you choose. While these are very important topics that should be talked about, there is a debate even more important in my mind. What type of writing utensil do you use? While I definitely have the correct opinion on this controversial situation, I decided to go on a journey that would hopefully lead me to the right answer. Is a pen or a pencil better for writing?
Like other life-changing decisions, I decided to start searching for whether a pen or pencil was better by going to the holy grail of advice: Buzzfeed quizzes. Titled “Take This Quiz To Find Out Which Writing Utensil Matches Your Personality,” this quiz is six questions long and covers very important questions in life. The setup of this quiz is a question at the top, with four boxes below it that give images of your possible answers. For example, the fourth question asks you to “choose a house,” and then there are four pictures of houses below to pick from. Questions range from “choose a color” to “drink some water,” which provides images of different drinking methods. After taking this quiz, the first result that I got was a “fancy pen” stating that my personality was “smooth, sleek, and classy.” Personally, I was very happy with the results of this quiz, because I adore pens. However, I learned that others were not so happy when I went to the comment section of the quiz. Someone under the username “carmilon” wrote that they also got a “fancy pen,” following it up with a comment about how they “hate pens! No wonder [they] hate [themself]! :).” I feel as though since they made a smiley face at the end of their comment, they must be joking.
While scrolling through the comments I learned that some people got that they were a “pencil” or a “ballpoint pen.” Some quiz takers were upset because their result was a “marker,” which was pointed out as not actually a writing utensil like the advertised title of the quiz. Because of the negative feedback in the comments, I decided to take my search for an opposite opinion, about pens being the greatest writing utensil of all time, elsewhere.
When Buzzfeed failed to help me with my search, I headed to the next obvious place: an Instagram poll. This poll consisted of 39 people and resulted in 24 votes for pens and 15 for pencils. I hoped that Instagram would convince me that the opposing opinion was wrong. 24 people agreed with my decision that pens are better than pencils, and I again was left hopeless of a valid opposing opinion. In this Instagram poll, I supplied a Google form for people to fill out to see what their reasons were for choosing pencils over pens.
The responses to the Google form varied, including the strong words of one pen user: “pencils are horrible and for children. If you still use pencils, please grow up and use pens like an adult.” The pencil users were equally vengeful, saying that “[they] hope all pen loving m[other] f[*ckers] slip on the ink.” These two different students on each side of the argument chose to remain anonymous. Some other anonymous students thought about this argument in a much more logical way, saying that their “opinion changes depending on what [they are] using it for, but [they] make a lot of mistakes so [they] prefer pencil.” Or that, “Pens glide so much nicer than pencils. Even though they don’t erase, the gliding feeling is too good to use pencils.” People either had strong opinions or were too even-keeled to have any extreme opinion making the Instagram poll and Google form unhelpful.
Feeling lost in my search for the correct answer to this debate, I turned inward. I decided to write out an essay in both pen and pencil. The rating for each essay is based on five different criteria: feel when writing, look, readability, tiredness of hand after, and time. Overall, the pen wins with a total score of 9/10 while the pencil only got a 7/10. While this is based on my personal writing style, it is much more enjoyable to write with a pen because of three main reasons. First, there was no need to sharpen anything; my handwriting is far better with a .35 pen tip and that is unachievable with a pencil. Second, re-reading the essay was far easier with a pen; the darker ink helped the clarity but also the neatness of my hand writing was far improved. Third, and last but certainly not least, the feeling of writing with a pen was superior to a pencil.
After this long and developmental journey, I have come to the realization that maybe there is not one definite answer, and rather everyone will always have a different opinion. Personally, I strongly believe that pens are far better than pencils, but I also believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I can not decide for everyone else. However, if someone needed advice when choosing a starter pen, I would recommend the MUJI Gel Ink Cap Type Ballpoint Pen in black, with a 0.38mm tip.
