No typing! Can gen X really beat gen Z in our handwriting challenge?

Students could soon be sitting some end of year exams on laptops, it was reported this week, amid complaints from pupils of hand fatigue because their hand muscles "are not strong enough".

- 

With Ofqual set to launch a public consultation about the introduction of onscreen exams, we decided to conduct a test of our own, pitting seasoned Guardian columnist Zoe Williams against George Francis Lee, our gen-Z journalist in training.

Armed with only a pad, pen and a media law text book to copy from - who could scribble for the longest before cramp set in. It's a write-off!

Zoe Williams Columnist

I take enormous pride in my ability to use a pen and paper. It may seem like the most absurd thing to show off about, like flexing that you know how to desalinate sea water using only two spoons, when you have fresh running water.

I've been pretending I can do shorthand for so long that I can't even remember whether it was a boast when I started lying about it. Maybe in the 90s everyone could do shorthand, the way everyone could remember their landline number. In fact, what I learned was how to write very fast, for ever, in the most adverse conditions.

This write-off, in its climate controlled conditions - a desk, a pen that worked, good light, a pristine notepad - should have been a personal best.