Handwriting? Surely you jest...

[eawmp1]

I'm a physician who still handwrites clinic notes (and cannot read his own writing at times). However, until there is an input modality for me that is as fast as writing, I cannot forsee electronic medical records easily incorporated into my practice (though I'd love for the technology to be developed).

 

[mscriv]

Printing is my method of choice. Like others have mentioned I haven't written in cursive in quite a long time, at least 15 years for sure. As far as signatures go I'd say our entire society is at the point where "place your mark here" is appropriate. Most of us rely on some personal signature artifact we have carefully designed through years of laziness and rushing to sign the check/credit card receipt.

I don't think I could write the alphabet in cursive if given the task of doing so. However, I contribute part of this deficiency to the study of Greek and Hebrew in college. Basically, I'm saying that all of my squiggly line letter recognition has gotten jumbled in my mind over time. Thinking of a cursive capital D draws a blank, while I know what a delta should look like in Koine Greek and could easily reproduce that.

Imagine how our motor skills will further degrade when our technology refines input devices to the point of simple thought reproduction. From articles I've seen we are getting closer. 😀

 

[yg17]

My Arabic looks like crap too, but then I don't speak/write it 😱

When I was in Hebrew school back in the day, my Hebrew writing looked like crap. Given how similar the languages are, I would guess that if I knew Arabic, my Arabic would look like crap too.

In fact, I bet my Chinese, Korean and Japanese would look like crap too if I knew those languages. See a trend here? 😀

No matter the language, my writing looks like crap.

 

[mscriv]

Just looked this up

How Should We Teach Our Children to Write?

The following article first appeared in "The Blumenfeld Education Letter" September 1994 issue. It fully explains why cursive definitely should be considered ahead of printing and why that was always how schools actually taught prior to the late 1930's. Before that time everybody was taught cursive and most were very proficient!
All of this must lead to one simple conclusion: teach cursive first and print later. There are few things that help enhance a child's academic self-esteem more than the development of good handwriting. It helps reading, it helps spelling, and because writing is made easy, accurate, and esthetically pleasant, it helps thinking.

As Francis Bacon once said: "Reading maketh a full man. . . and writing an exact man. "

This article is from The Blumenfeld Education Letter, Vol. 9, No.9 (Letter #97), September 1994. Editor: Samuel L. Blumenfeld.

LINK

I so don't remember a capital Q looking like a number 2.

 

[iShater]

My Arabic looks like crap too, but then I don't speak/write it 😱

My Arabic looks fine, but that's only because I have a translator to write it for me.

Smart@$$es 😀

I'm a physician who still handwrites clinic notes (and cannot read his own writing at times). However, until there is an input modality for me that is as fast as writing, I cannot forsee electronic medical records easily incorporated into my practice (though I'd love for the technology to be developed).

Considering the importance of doctor notes (and prescriptions), I still don't understand how writing skills are not required of docs!

When I was in Hebrew school back in the day, my Hebrew writing looked like crap. Given how similar the languages are, I would guess that if I knew Arabic, my Arabic would look like crap too.

In fact, I bet my Chinese, Korean and Japanese would look like crap too if I knew those languages. See a trend here? 😀

No matter the language, my writing looks like crap.

Ditto. I think if you cannot follow rules that allow you to write properly in any language, it will impact any other one you learn/attempt.

 

[steve2112]

I so don't remember a capital Q looking like a number 2.

Me either. I guess that's why I always did a regular block Q. I also did the same thing with G or S. My signature has a block S and the rest in cursive.

I always felt bad about my poor handwriting. My dad's handwriting looked pretty much just like that example you posted. Between evil Catholic school nuns 🙂)) and a mother who made him practice almost every day, his writing was textbook perfect.

 

[balofagus]

I remember doing handwriting in Grade 4… It was hard, made my hand cramp and looked ridiculous.

I just did a little experiment, printing, "cursive-ing" and then using my standard writing (which is a "cursive-esque printing" to write out the phrase

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

My standard writing took printing took 15 seconds, nicely printing it took 22 seconds and handwriting took 49 seconds plus I had to look up how to make a capital T beforehand 😛

Standard: 36 WPM
Printing: 24.5 WPM
Cursive: 11 WPM

and my typing is only about 55 WPM.

 

[Surely]

I remember doing handwriting in Grade 4… It was hard, made my hand cramp and looked ridiculous.

I just did a little experiment, printing, "cursive-ing" and then using my standard writing (which is a "cursive-esque printing" to write out the phrase



My standard writing took printing took 15 seconds, nicely printing it took 22 seconds and handwriting took 49 seconds plus I had to look up how to make a capital T beforehand 😛

Standard: 36 WPM
Printing: 24.5 WPM
Cursive: 11 WPM

and my typing is only about 55 WPM.

To be fair, you can't really compare the speed of a writing method that you use regularly to a method that you haven't used since the 4th grade.

It's taking you longer because you have to think about how you're writing while you write it when using cursive. With your usual method, you don't have to think about how to write the letters- it just ends up on the paper naturally.

If you had been using cursive as your regular writing method all these years, you would probably be faster at it than your standard method.


An interesting tidbit: Lefties have a stronger ability than Righties to write in cursive backwards (from right to left, mirror imaged) almost naturally (as long as you are already a natural at writing in cursive normally). Da Vinci used to write some of his notes that way- it is thought he did this in order to hide their meaning from the authorities/church.

 

[balofagus]

It's taking you longer because you have to think about how you're writing while you write it when using cursive. With your usual method, you don't have to think about how to write the letters- it just ends up on the paper naturally.

Oh I realise that, I just think it's interesting how much slower it is… And really, 4th grade was only 10 years ago 😛

 

[Abstract]

LINK

I so don't remember a capital Q looking like a number 2.

That Q made me think too hard. 🙁

 

[SkyBell]

It's only been about 4 years since I've had to write in cursive (my old school district made us do it up until the 7th grade) and already, I'm forgetting how to do it.

I do 99% of my writing in print, but every once in a while I'll do cursive for the fun of it. I have to pause fairly often to remember what a letter looks like, or how to make it. I can't imagine what a pain it'll be in ten years...

 

[thomahawk]

when i write, its sort of a hybrid of cursive/script and regular print fused together. when i have to write something really fast it turns out to be straight out cursive/script. when i feel like writing nicely and is not rushed my writing looks like regular print..

dunno if thats a good thing, but my papers do look messy with the hybrid look..

 

[fireshot91]

This thread inspired me to write everything in cursive from now on. Thank you folks.




I just traced the alphabet with my finger on my desk, and the only letter I "missed" was an x, since I thought every "stroke" was connected. Apparently, for x's you have to go back and make the line.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be writing in cursive. Oh, I'm in 10th grade if anybody's curious.

 

[Zombie Acorn]

I don't really understand the benefit to tell the truth. Cursive is much harder to read than non-cursive print, meanwhile typing is much faster than writing in cursive. Also if you only teach kids cursive how is it going to help them read when some of the letters aren't even distinguishable as print?

 

[Zombie Acorn]

Imagine how our motor skills will further degrade when our technology refines input devices to the point of simple thought reproduction. From articles I've seen we are getting closer. 😀

Imagine a world where no one has to learn a language and we just transfer thoughts through our technology....












.... and then the electricity shuts off and we get to start back over again. 😛

 

[u6crash]

Someone brought this up on another board and I made a sample of my handwriting: http://threechordme.com/hodgepodge/idea.jpg

I can't do cursive anymore. Even before I was connected to the internet and all that, I was printing because I never cared for how my cursive writing looked. I often wonder if I'm too old to learn how to do it well without learning it in terms of an artform like calligraphy.

 

[velocityg4]

I'm surprised so many let their cursive skills slip. In high school I always used it even though it was no longer required. Then in college I did all the rough drafts to my reports in cursive even the ones that were over twenty pages, all of my class notes were also in cursive which amounted to five or six pages a day.

The only time I typed anything was when I was making my final draft to hand in and only because it was required, which I would think an English professor would applaud a student actually using cursive. These final drafts were just duplicates of my handwritten reports. I had always found it quicker and easier to organize my thoughts and achieve proper spelling and grammar by handwriting. As typing and autocheck makes me lazy and mistake prone. I can type at around 60WPM so typing speed was never an issue.

I still use cursive for notes on job sites and my copy of a customers receipt. I use longhand for the customers since I am sure many of them can barely read cursive.

The main reason why I hope for an Apple tablet is so that I can start handwriting everything and not bother with typing. So I keep hoping for one that is the size of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper.

 

[Pat.rick]

I'm terrible at writing in cursive. Then again, my block letters don't look too neat, either.

My typing looks beautiful, though. 😀

 

[bobr1952]

My penmanship has been going downhill since high school. This is even after years of note taking on paper.

I went to a Catholic elementary school and the sisters really tried their best with me but it was a hopeless cause and my handwriting has steadily gone downhill since then--an that was a LONG time ago. 😱

 

[-aggie-]

I actually have very beautiful handwriting, if I want to take the time to write clearly.

 

[Shotglass]

I've always had horrible handwriting, but I've been working on it. School is only one more year though, after that I'll have to come up with something to maintain my "skill". I should start writing a diary or something.

 

[Don't panic]

I just realized I had a font made of my handwriting a few years ago ...

(You have to change the extension to .ttf)

neat

 

[fireshot91]

How do you guys make these handwritings as fonts.


I mean, do you just write it down, scan it, and use software to make a font?

 

[r.j.s]

neat

How do you guys make these handwritings as fonts.


I mean, do you just write it down, scan it, and use software to make a font?

There are a few sites that will convert it for you, you download a template, print it, fill it out, scan it and upload it. I paid for mine, but it was only like $5, no big deal.

 

[yg17]

Here's my handwriting, not in font form. I should do the font thing, that would be pretty cool (and completely and utterly illegible)