How's your handwriting?

[raeoflyte]

I write like an 8 year old which is pretty embarrassing. 

How big of an impact do you think poor handwriting has?  And if you improved your own, how did you do it?  

[Abby Normal]

Mine is a hot mess.  It used to be better, but I had some severe issues with my right wrist years ago.  So I tend to write with a flat hand giving my writing a left handed slant.  The faster I write, the messier it gets.

[shanendoah]

I'm left handed- it doesn't matter how nicely I write, it all gets smeared anyway.

[steph08]

My brother's is like an 8 year-old, it is disturbing.

Mine is quite nice, if I do say so myself. Also, two younger guys have said how nice my signature when I am checking out at the grocery store.

[violagirl]

Horrible and it has always been just a scrawl that even I can't really read. As I have spent less and less time writing and more time typing..it is actually getting worse. My teachers used to tell me I'd make a good doctor.  In Grade 1 my teacher wrote my mother a note that I try to go too fast and so my printing was messy and nothing has changed since then. 

[Spellbound454]

Its not good.
If I have to write on whiteboards in the classroom.... the kids can't read it.

I've learned to type things out and project it...less stressful

[Deleted]

My handwriting?

Before I went into the A.F. it was great. After signing my name about 100 times a day for 20 years, even I can't read it. It's rare for me to spell my name right when I do sign something (I tend to drop a loop or 2).

[Deleted]

Mine is absolutely beautiful, but it isn't my doing.  It was awful until sixth grade.  My sixth grade teacher treated me like a second or third grader and made me copy the style manual over and over and over.  You have to have just the right slant.  The last letter has an upward curled stroke, and the next word begins with a curled stroke that goes down and fits perfectly under the other loop.  She really drilled the rules into me, and her last holdout made it into the Good Writers Club.  That was a national penmanship club, not about the quality of what you wrote.  You earned certificates.

Mine deteriorates somewhat when my hand gets really tired--for example, grading essays.  I do find certain pens are more conducive to good penmanship.  Pilot gel pens are really awesome.  I buy them for grading, and it really does help.

It used to be my joke (and I shared it with the test takers) that the hardest part of the college admission SATS was writing out the certification statement.  The directions said to "write, not print."  These tremendously bright kids (they are the only ones who take the SAT because ACT is standard here) struggled to write it.  Most people would finish, and two or three would struggle to write out the statement for another ten minutes.

It is sad that they will no longer teach cursive writing.  I don't think they should drill them the way I was drilled, but they lose the ability to read cursive.  Most of my students complain that they can't read even good cursive.

[kent]

Aug 15, 2013 18:06:37 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

I'm left handed- it doesn't matter how nicely I write, it all gets smeared anyway.

Me too but having spent several years as a mechanical designer (this was prior to CAD systems) I actually print quite well.

[The Home 6]

I don't write, I print.  But it's legible, and better than BS's handwriting. This means I have been tasked with filling out all sorts of paperwork. I can write in cursive, but I had a SUPER strict instructor who would always tell me that my lowercase r's were horrible. It has led to a lifetime of avoiding cursive.

My mom has perfectly lovely handwriting, but a sadly increasing number of her students tell her that they cannot read cursive.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Mine is friggin horrible, and I really didn't notice because I did everything on a computer in the military and at work.  Then I joined a volunteer board as treasurer and had to write checks.  I got several comments about how I should have been a doctor, which I think means barely anyone could read it.  I hate filling out forms.  The neater I try to print the more childish looking the letters get.  If I write fast it looks more adult, but is barely legible.  I try to get the wife to fill out any paperwork we have to turn into the daughter's school or whatever, because my penmanship is embarrassing.  It's getting a little better since I noticed how bad it was a couple years ago, but not much.

My cursive is a bit better if I slow down and take my time, but I had to google a couple of letters.  Like capital Gs and Fs.  Couldn't for the life of me remember what they were supposed to look like.

My signature has always been a scrawl.

[Jaguar]

My writing sucks, but my printing is really gorgeous. So I write some and print some, that's my style.

[moon/Laura]

Mine used to be good, but the older and more impatient I get, the worse it's gotten. It's usually a mish-mash of both printing and cursive, lol. I can do it neatly enough when I have to, but it's an effort. I really don't write hardly at all anymore. I do most everything on the computer.

[NoNamePerson]

I have two styles of handwritting - one with glasses and one without glasses

[Deleted]

Does anyone else have two styles of printing certain letters?  My a's look like a most of the time.  Sometimes I do the version taught in first grade.

My students laugh at me sometimes.  I think they think I am being pretentious.

[naturallyfrugal]

I'm left handed and have very neat printing and nice cursive. The pen makes all the difference - I prefer a Pentel gel, medium point in blue which are quick drying so don't smudge when I write.  I print 99% of the time, so my cursive isn't as good.  

I was made fun of in 6th grade by a girl because I didn't write in big, loopy letters like her and I vowed no one would make fun of my handwriting again.  Isn't it weird, the things we remember from our childhoods?

[Deleted]

It gets worse every year. I hardly handwrite anything anymore.

[saveinla]

I have very neat hand writing - both cursive and printing. I take note all the time and people are impressed. The downside is that there is a lot of writing for me when people want nice notes, letters and cards.

I studied in a convent and the nuns would make us write at least 2-3 pages every day to improve our hand writing. If you did not do well, you were assigned more pages to write  . I was also afraid of the rap on the knuckles which was their punishment if you did something wrong. They would also assign writing during the summer - a bound notebook full of stuff that you had to copy  very neatly.

[toomuchreality]

I have always had decent hand writing. When I was working, supervisors from other departments would ask me to write (print) things, used for training purposes. Every year I wrote the names on all the Sub for Santa Christmas stockings too.
Growing up I would sit for hours practicing different styles of lettering. My mother always had beautiful hand writing, that I admired, and her father was a sign painter back when they hand painted the signs on the front of stores, advertising that weeks specials, and their main store signs.

A few years ago I began to shake. Now, I am embarrassed to write things.



If you slow down, does it help?

[steph08]

A funny (well, really not) story about cursive handwriting.

My brother got married last year, and my mom and I went to the bridal shower. I don't know if my SIL wasn't taught cursive as a kid (she is a couple years younger than me), but every time she opened a card that was written in cursive, she had a hard time reading it, and the writing wasn't illegible or anything.

[NancysSummerSip]

Aug 15, 2013 20:20:34 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

I have two styles of handwritting - one with glasses and one without glasses

I have three - with glasses, without glasses and like a blind person. All bad.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Both my cursive and printing are really good. I decided to have beautiful cursive when I was in elementary school. It took practice, but I still have it now.  I do believe the pen tip plays a big part on how handwriting tuns out. My printing is good because of my elementary school teaching. 

Susana, I use a cursive s at the end of words, but a printed s at the beginning. 

[movingforward]

My handwriting is terrible so I try to print so it is at least legible.  I think it is kind of shame that kids don't learn cursive writing any longer though.  I get the reasoning behind not teaching it but still think it is kind of sad.  My niece learned to do her signature in cursive but that was it...

[chiver78]

my printing is pretty neat, my handwriting is gorgeous - my Nana was always big on having beautiful handwriting, and I used to do calligraphy. if I'm just writing notes for myself though, it's a mishmash of printing/cursive and shorthand, and I'm generally the only one that can read it.

[alabamagal]

Handwriting is way less important than it used to be.  Typing is where it is at!

[Deleted]

My Mom has perfect penmanship. I remember a gal in 5th grade that would forge a parent signature for a dollar but she couldn't do my Mom's so I was screwed!  I think I have nice penmanship. I have an artistic bent so I treated it like I was trying to copy a picture.


DD's 2nd grade teacher spent a week or two on teaching them cursive towards the end of the school year but I don't know if they will go any further with in in 3rd grade. 

[imawino]

My handwriting looks like a drunken toddler did it.  And I transition between printing and cursive throughout, which does not help. 

[Jake 48]

hieroglyphics