Handwriting

[El Barto]

I'm finding that I'm forgetting how to actually write, and it's getting worse as time goes by. I type, and tell my phone what to type, and occasionally I poke at the letters on my phone. Most of my actual handwriting is taking a quick note on the back of the first envelope I find on my desk (somebody needs to make envelope sized notepads), and the letters never come out right. I sometime write names on packages that we ship out, and I always wonder if the customer ponders why there's a lower cased T in Miranda, or what APRX means. At this point I manage to draw the wrong letter on 15-20% of the words I write. My penmanship has always sucked, it is what it is, but now it's starting to piss me off.

How are other people doing with their penmanship? Do people still write regularly? Can you still write in cursive and whatever the opposite of cursive is, like most of us were taught long ago? Do modern kids even know how to do either? This kind of fascinates me because the development of a written language was a major turning point of modern humanity, and it's something that we now take for granted.

[The Walrus]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

[Adami]

My hand writing has always been bad. I figured I could either fix it, or get a doctorate to justify it.

Went with the doctorate.

[Podaar]

I still have excellent (IMO) cursive penmanship, but I practice it seldom. If I want to write a personal note, say on a Christmas card, I try to practice on scratch paper for a bit first and it all comes back.

My printing is legible but incorrect because it's all uppercase, just with a larger letter for proper nouns and to begin sentences. If I want to print correctly, I have to really go slowly because my hand (well, my brain actually) doesn't want to write lower case letters naturally. Interestingly, my Mom still prints this way. I may have picked it up from her...I'm not really sure.

The arthritis in my hands get's really aggravated by any pen work, though. I can't do it for very long without breaks and stretching my knuckles.

[El Barto]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Isn't the capital Q the one that looks like a 2? Or maybe the L from Laverne. In any case, I wrote in cursive for a good chunk of my life. At some point taking notes in school my cursive devolved into a bizarre sort of custom shorthand that was completely illegible except to me (sometimes) and I had to switch to printing.

I also have two different bugs in my coding that effect my writing. I have issues with horizontal spacial orientation, so Latin based languages cause me problems, and there's also a disconnect between what my brain says and what my hand does, so I'll often write the wrong letter. That's something that's been an issue since 3rd grade, but it seems like the modern rarity of actually writing things is making matters worse.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

[The Walrus]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

You're joking, right? The whole world isn't plated in chrome and filled with jetpacks. Of course people still write checks. WTF

[Stadler]

I haven't written a full sentence in cursive in DECADES.  I do a lot of printing though, and I have rather neat penmanship for that.  My problem now is fatigue; I just lose steam after a couple lines (which is a shame, because I love writing letters and notes and sending them, and where they used to be really neat, now it's like the cover of Motorhead's "Another Perfect Day" as you move down the page. 

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

You're joking, right? The whole world isn't plated in chrome and filled with jetpacks. Of course people still write checks. WTF

I've never written a check. Don't think I've even seen anyone write a check since like, 2010 or something.

[The Walrus]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

You're joking, right? The whole world isn't plated in chrome and filled with jetpacks. Of course people still write checks. WTF

I've never written a check. Don't think I've even seen anyone write a check since like, 2010 or something.

I dunno where you live, but that baffles me. I see checks every day. I'm guessing you live in a big city or something...

[Stadler]

What are checks?

[Cool Chris]

My handwriting is somewhere between good and balls. I've never had a job where I had to hand write much, so I don't do it very often. Most of what I write is for myself, like a grocery list, where I am the only one who needs to know what it says. If I write a note to someone like a Thank You letter, I need to sit down and commit a bit more time and effort to it to make it something I am happy with.

My 3rd grader was just beginning to learn cursive at school before they shut down. We bought her a book to practice. We both want her to have nice handwriting, cursive or otherwise.

[El Barto]

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

You're joking, right? The whole world isn't plated in chrome and filled with jetpacks. Of course people still write checks. WTF

I've never written a check. Don't think I've even seen anyone write a check since like, 2010 or something.

I dunno where you live, but that baffles me. I see checks every day. I'm guessing you live in a big city or something...

As I recall you're in a profession where people have to make sizeable, one-time payments. I can certainly see a lot of checks going that way. I never had checks issued for my accounts, so it'd either be plastic or I'd have to get a cashier's check from my bank.

[Indiscipline]

All my work notes and projects are in handwriting - mainly because I can't type to save my life - filling ever growing piles of ledgers. My form was never visually pleasing to begin with, and with the years it devolved into something really difficult to read.

Fun handwriting fact: my father was left-handed, but he was forced to handwrite with his right hand at school (a remnant from the fascist party laws); he suffered terrible migraines until he taught himself to write with his left hand later in life. He always swore the whole thing made him a more reactive drummer though.

[The Walrus]

I mean, I get that some people don't use checks anymore, but to act like they've gone the way of the dinosaur is a bit silly. Checks are still used all the time in lots of places, I still see people using them at the grocery store.

[faizoff]

I've never written a check. Don't think I've even seen anyone write a check since like, 2010 or something.

I write monthly checks to my daughter's school, they charge stupid fees for automated payment so I save by just writing checks every month. Same was in the previous rental I lived in, I would write checks to them to avoid paying stupid fees.
Regarding handwriting, I've always been a note take and write out full sentences at work and though since I got a Note 8 that has a stylus, I've switched to scribbling on my phone for meeting notes and what not.

I learned to write cursive but have pretty much forgotten how to do it now.

[El Barto]

My 3rd grader was just beginning to learn cursive at school before they shut down. We bought her a book to practice. We both want her to have nice handwriting, cursive or otherwise.

New question: Can penmanship be taught, or is it an innate capability? They certainly tried to teach me good penmanship, even at a point where I was actually trying to get an education. It just never worked with me. I'm not sure any amount of added effort on the part of me or my teacher would have changed that. It seems to me there's a difference between learning how to draw the letters on a line of double ruled paper, and actually stringing them together as your brain dictates what it is that you're trying to write.

[Stadler]

I think it's like anything else; PENMANSHIP can be taught, but GOOD penmanship perhaps has an intangible component that we all share equally.

I took drafting classes in high school and college (engineering) and so I write a very distinctive way that I wouldn't have (and didn't) written like naturally.  But that doesn't guarantee that I could letter a comic book.

[Anguyen92]

I used to have decent cursive penmanship, and then it went down the tubes in 5th grade, and then it got better onwards (although people couldn't read it much) until my English college professor told me to stick with standard handwriting.

Nowdays, since my work place involves typing a lot on the computer, writing doesn't really matter as much.  My workplace still does receive checks for payment or we need Voided checks to confirm account number in case we need to do a direct deposit

[TAC]

It would take me an hour to figure out how to write a sentence in cursive.

[Lethean]

I've forgotten how to write at least some letters in cursive.  I just don't use it and my signature is kind of a scribble so that doesn't really count as using cursive I don't think.

[MirrorMask]

I write only signatures at work, and take notes during training. As many others, I don't really have the habit to write for long periods of time anymore.

And my writing just sucks. Not the style or the grammar, I know how to write it, it's the calligraphy that it's atrocious. I've never been a good writer. Maybe it has something to do (probably not, but I like to put the blame there) with the fact that I'm a born left handed, but the nuns in kindergarten forced me to learn to write with my right hand 'cause the left one was evil or something (I shit you not). You can't change nature - I do EVERYTHING with my left hand, I'm a left handed, period. I even use the left foot if I have to kick a ball. I just write with my right hand and use the mouse with my right hand 'cause it seems to me a form of writing.

Anyway, we're all losing the habit of writing for long periods of time as a society. I'm sure people at university will beg to differ with all the notes they have to take.

[pg1067]

How are other people doing with their penmanship? Do people still write regularly? Can you still write in cursive and whatever the opposite of cursive is, like most of us were taught long ago? Do modern kids even know how to do either? This kind of fascinates me because the development of a written language was a major turning point of modern humanity, and it's something that we now take for granted.

Most of my writing these days consists of notes while on phone calls.  It's fine for that purpose.  If I have to write something that someone else needs to be able to read, I have no problem with that.

I attended Roman Catholic school from 1st through 12th grade.  "Handwriting" (i.e., cursive) was the only "D" I ever got until I got to college and dipped out on a class I didn't care about was too late to drop.  For a while, our teachers forced us to write in cursive.  As soon as I was allowed to do so, I stopped doing that.  I haven't tried to write in cursive in decades, so I have no idea how it would look if I tried.

My kids are 16 and a week shy of 18.  Both can write just fine.  They learned cursive, but as far as I know, neither of them uses it.  I'm of the opinion that cursive is about the most pointless thing that has ever been taught in school.  Why not teach calligraphy?  Or, stated differently, if one wants to learn cursive, that's great, but there's no conceivable reason to force it on kids.

I find it hard to grapple with the concept of someone forgetting how to write in cursive, and I say that as someone who basically lives on a computer. I write fluent cursive and can instantly write out the alphabet in cursive, but the one cursive letter I've never ever used is the capital Q. If I'm writing super quickly I'll write a combination of cursive and print; most often capitalized words will have a capital print letter and the rest in cursive, but sometimes I'll cut it off mid-word, like ending the cursive as it connects to a printed lower case t. Not always, though.

But yeah, I still write plenty of cursive, it's second nature. I don't think they teach it in elementary schools around here anymore which absolutely baffles me. How do people learn to sign their checks? When I was a kid - only 20 years ago - almost nobody else in my class had Internet or a computer, I was one of the lucky few. Even through high school not many kids had Internet. So now they've done away with cursive, and I assume most people have Internet, but the rapid change astounds me.

Does anyone write checks anymore?

You're joking, right? The whole world isn't plated in chrome and filled with jetpacks. Of course people still write checks. WTF

I've never written a check. Don't think I've even seen anyone write a check since like, 2010 or something.

I dunno where you live, but that baffles me. I see checks every day. I'm guessing you live in a big city or something...

I almost never see checks written by hand by individuals anymore (businesses, including my employer, issue and receive computer generated checks all the time).  I can recall being in my early 20s and going to the mall before Christmas and writing checks for everything.  Now it's all credit and debit cards and most of my gift shopping is done online.  Even cash is relatively uncommon.  My mother used to write checks at the grocery store.  I live relatively close to a large senior housing community, so I probably see an above average number of persons over 70 at the grocery store.  I usually use the self-checkout line, but I know people still gripe when they get in line behind an old man/woman who writes a check.  I'm guessing that I probably wrote less than 12-15 checks in the last year and that all but a couple of those related to my daughter's high school marching band.

[The Walrus]

I feel like I'm the old fart of the forum now and I'm one of the youngest people here. 

[Evermind]

My handwriting is pretty good and I do cursive in both Russian and English. I often prefer to take notes on an A4 piece of paper instead of typing them up, be that something I need to do at work or during an RPG session.

Maybe it has something to do (probably not, but I like to put the blame there) with the fact that I'm a born left handed, but the nuns in kindergarten forced me to learn to write with my right hand 'cause the left one was evil or something (I shit you not). You can't change nature - I do EVERYTHING with my left hand, I'm a left handed, period. I even use the left foot if I have to kick a ball. I just write with my right hand and use the mouse with my right hand 'cause it seems to me a form of writing.

Okay this is scary, I've got the same story but it was my grandma instead of nuns in kindergarten. Was born left-handed, was taught to write and hold a spoon in my right hand, but I'm absolutely left-handed otherwise, down to the football example. My right foot is useless except for walking.

[lordxizor]

Most of my writing these days is just taking notes, which is an odd hybrid between printing and cursive and is practically illegible since I'm always writing fast. I regularly can't read my notes.

I do write nice notes to my wife every now and then. Occasionally even all in cursive if I'm feeling fancy. When I take my time I can write decent enough. Though it gets worse with each sentence since those muscles just aren't used much anymore.

[Dublagent66]

I haven't written in cursive in decades other than my signature.  Never really felt it was necessary.  What little I do write (which is hardly ever) is printed in upper case.  Filling out a form of some kind or writing only a couple of checks per month.  That's it.  99.9% of all the writing I do is on a computer.

[Harmony]

I love handwriting.  I used to be able to do calligraphy but it's been many years since I've done that.  My cursive style is a little calligraphy-like.  I block print a fair amount too.

I think letter writing is a lost form of art and communication.  I read back through letters my grandparents wrote to one another and it makes me a little nostalgic.  But those days are gone for good, I'm afraid.

[faizoff]

My handwriting is pretty good and I do cursive in both Russian and English. I often prefer to take notes on an A4 piece of paper instead of typing them up, be that something I need to do at work or during an RPG session.

I remember your handwriting from the Roulette that TAC hosted, it was amazing.

[gmillerdrake]

I have a ‘hybrid’ handwriting style and have been complimented that it ‘looks’ good. Every now and then I try to write sentences in cursive jus to see and it takes some effort to recall and do it.

I journal and write a bit by hand not computer so I stay in handwriting shape I suppose.

[Podaar]

To those who may be questioning the value of handwriting in our modern day. Text a love note to your SO, then grab a scratch piece of paper and hand write a heart felt note to Him/Her. See which one is cherished more than the other. Hell, you might get lucky.

[Northern Lion]

Other than signing my name (which you can't even read) I haven't written in cursive since I graduated from highschool and that was 24 years ago.  I don't even remember how anymore.

My print is fine though.  I used to do caligraphy as a hoby so my penmanship can be very neat and tidy if I want it to be.

[Phoenix87x]

I'm 33 and did learn cursive in school, but had completely forgotten how to do it by high school.

My regular handwritting seems to be ok at this point, but because of spell check/auto correct, I can no longer spell. So that's really the biggest issue for me.

[Northern Lion]

I'm 33 and did learn cursive in school, but had completely forgotten how to do it by high school.

My regular handwritting seems to be ok at this point, but because of spell check/auto correct, I can no longer spell. So that's really the biggest issue for me.

You and me both.  I'm already not a very good speller but spellcheck has made it worse.

[Harmony]

So not to squat on EB's thread but how many of you took formal typing lessons or learned how to type by some means?  And how many of you do the hunt and peck?

At one point, I could type around 80 wpm.  My mom insisted on a typing class in school and then I did transcription for some extra cash back in the day.  I watch my kids hunt and peck now and it makes me cringe!