The Evolution of Handwriting

brianlux

This thread is dedicated to my little first grader friend, Amaya who recently told her mother she wants to learn who to write in cursive.  Bless her sweet little head!

F Me In The Brain

I am an obsessive note taker.  I have bound notebooks for every different thing and I can tell you what we discussed at a meeting 3 years ago if you give me the date.

However......I do struggle to read my writing and I bet I use the books twice as fast as needed due to the shitty nature of my handwriting.  I would love to blame the keyboard, and it does contribute, but my handwriting was awful even as a kid and young adult, before so much of writing was at a keyboard.

brianlux

F Me In The Brain said:

I am an obsessive note taker.  I have bound notebooks for every different thing and I can tell you what we discussed at a meeting 3 years ago if you give me the date.

However......I do struggle to read my writing and I bet I use the books twice as fast as needed due to the shitty nature of my handwriting.  I would love to blame the keyboard, and it does contribute, but my handwriting was awful even as a kid and young adult, before so much of writing was at a keyboard.

I can't remember who it was, but in the mid 1950's someone of fame once described America in the 50's as "a nation of scrawlers".  I think (for the most part) my parents G.I. generation was the last generation that generally had good to marvelous handwriting. 

Somewhere in the early 80's I became frustrated with my cursive writing.  It was legible but not as neat as I would have liked it.  I found that I could print quite clearly and uniformly- to the point where one friend once told me, "Your handwriting looks like it was made by a typewriter", lol.   My hands are not so steady these days.  The typewriter has become shakey!

Meltdown99

My Dad and Sister, both left-handed have fantastic handwriting...me not so much.

F Me In The Brain

brianlux said:

F Me In The Brain said:

I am an obsessive note taker.  I have bound notebooks for every different thing and I can tell you what we discussed at a meeting 3 years ago if you give me the date.

However......I do struggle to read my writing and I bet I use the books twice as fast as needed due to the shitty nature of my handwriting.  I would love to blame the keyboard, and it does contribute, but my handwriting was awful even as a kid and young adult, before so much of writing was at a keyboard.

I can't remember who it was, but in the mid 1950's someone of fame once described America in the 50's as "a nation of scrawlers".  I think (for the most part) my parents G.I. generation was the last generation that generally had good to marvelous handwriting. 

Somewhere in the early 80's I became frustrated with my cursive writing.  It was legible but not as neat as I would have liked it.  I found that I could print quite clearly and uniformly- to the point where one friend once told me, "Your handwriting looks like it was made by a typewriter", lol.   My hands are not so steady these days.  The typewriter has become shakey!

I have a few acquaintances who can write like that.  It is pretty cool but I always wonder about how their hands feel.

brianlux

The strangest case of handwriting I know is that of one of the women I work with.  We write book titles on a list when they need re-stocking.  If I'm the one to go to look for the book, I often have to ask her to translate what she has written.  If it's been more than a few hours, she often cannot interpret her own writing.  And yet when she makes signs she writes in calligraphy and it is absolutely gorgeous writing. 

HughFreakingDillon

my handwriting used to be really nice/neat, and I don't necessarily blame computers on my incredible penmanship decline, but just underuse of it on a whole. that's probably partially due to computers, but adults just don't write nearly as much as kids (students) do. it started to decline long before I had a computer or worked on one. 

PJ_Soul

I usually half write/half print, and it looks terrible. If I want my cursive to look any good, I have to actually focus on trying to make it look good... and even then it is still only okay.

brianlux

F Me In The Brain said:

brianlux said:

F Me In The Brain said:

I am an obsessive note taker.  I have bound notebooks for every different thing and I can tell you what we discussed at a meeting 3 years ago if you give me the date.

However......I do struggle to read my writing and I bet I use the books twice as fast as needed due to the shitty nature of my handwriting.  I would love to blame the keyboard, and it does contribute, but my handwriting was awful even as a kid and young adult, before so much of writing was at a keyboard.

I can't remember who it was, but in the mid 1950's someone of fame once described America in the 50's as "a nation of scrawlers".  I think (for the most part) my parents G.I. generation was the last generation that generally had good to marvelous handwriting. 

Somewhere in the early 80's I became frustrated with my cursive writing.  It was legible but not as neat as I would have liked it.  I found that I could print quite clearly and uniformly- to the point where one friend once told me, "Your handwriting looks like it was made by a typewriter", lol.   My hands are not so steady these days.  The typewriter has become shakey!

I have a few acquaintances who can write like that.  It is pretty cool but I always wonder about how their hands feel.

My first attempt at writing a book (an utter failure) that was more than vignettes, poetry and short stories- in other words, a cohesive work- was almost two hundred handwritten pages.  Because at the time I owned neither typewriter not computer, the entire nearly two hundred pages were written by hand in print form.  My hands cramp up now if I write more than a short letter but I think that writing and years of organizing and shelving books and playing guitar has kept them in fairly good shape.  But one of the great frustrations of life is seeing the hands go.  They just plain wear out. 

HughFreakingDillon

PJ_Soul said:

I usually half write/half print, and it looks terrible. If I want my cursive to look any good, I have to actually focus on trying to make it look good... and even then it is still only okay.

that's me too. 

brianlux

HughFreakingDillon said:

my handwriting used to be really nice/neat, and I don't necessarily blame computers on my incredible penmanship decline, but just underuse of it on a whole. that's probably partially due to computers, but adults just don't write nearly as much as kids (students) do. it started to decline long before I had a computer or worked on one. 

I think computers and texting on smart phones has a lot to do with it.  We used to write notes, and send postcards and letters.  Today we mostly text (often without capitalization and punctuation), and send emails, etc. 

HughFreakingDillon

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

my handwriting used to be really nice/neat, and I don't necessarily blame computers on my incredible penmanship decline, but just underuse of it on a whole. that's probably partially due to computers, but adults just don't write nearly as much as kids (students) do. it started to decline long before I had a computer or worked on one. 

I think computers and texting on smart phones has a lot to do with it.  We used to write notes, and send postcards and letters.  Today we mostly text (often without capitalization and punctuation), and send emails, etc. 

I think it has some to do with ME, and it probably has a bigger impact on this generation, since they are using computers in school. But growing up we didn't have typewriters in schools until grade 9, and I didn't take that class. I didn't learn to type until I was in school again at age 23. 

As I said, my handwriting started to decline after i was out of school, no longer writing on a daily and hourly basis. I still wrote, yes, but probably 10% of what I did as a student. And this was, again, before I had access to a computer and there was no texting and I didn't have a typewriter. I still wrote letters occasionally, yes, but pretty infrequently. 

Now, if we are talking about current generations, absolutely it has a profound effect. 

oftenreading

My handwriting and printing has been crappy from the very start, consistently mentioned in my report cards. I still do an awful lot of note taking by hand, and if anything it's getting messier. Nothing has ever made printing or writing feel natural or easy. 

brianlux

I have to get to work but it would be interesting later to see what some here think about handwriting regarding:

-Is there a need for it any more and if so, why?

-What are your thoughts about reestablishing some emphasis on teaching handwriting in schools?

HughFreakingDillon

brianlux said:

I have to get to work but it would be interesting later to see what some here think about handwriting regarding:

-Is there a need for it any more and if so, why?

-What are your thoughts about reestablishing some emphasis on teaching handwriting in schools?

both my daughters are taught handwriting in school (ages 9 and 12). the 12 year old has great handwriting, 9 year old is getting better. I think it's very important to learn. it's a form of communication, and if there is ever a global catastrophic event, we'll need those skills. 

Spiritual_Chaos

People usually dig my handwriting. Or atleast I have been told so on a couple of occasions. But it's not cursive or classically "pretty" though.

PJ_Soul

brianlux said:

I have to get to work but it would be interesting later to see what some here think about handwriting regarding:

-Is there a need for it any more and if so, why?

-What are your thoughts about reestablishing some emphasis on teaching handwriting in schools?

I mean, I think people certainly have to still know how to write/print something down on paper easily, obviously. You can't get through school as a kid without it. But cursive? I like the idea of it, like on an artistic level.... But when thinking about it objectively, there probably isn't any point anymore. Hardly any adults even use paper and pen extensively, and when they do, it's usually the grocery list or a quick note on a post-it, or jotting a few notes down for oneself to refer to later, or filling out a quick form somewhere, etc. I think the entire point of nice cursive is mostly dead, so why take up a lot of time in school learning it? The most meaningful purpose of cursive that I can think of right now, for this day and age, is writing addresses on wedding invitation envelopes, and for greeting cards, lol.

mace1229

My parents have always said I was meant to be a doctor, based solely on my writing.

F Me In The Brain

My handwriting looks like a drunken 4 year old's.

(I hope there is not such a thing)

oftenreading

F Me In The Brain said:

oftenreading said:

My handwriting and printing has been crappy from the very start, consistently mentioned in my report cards. I still do an awful lot of note taking by hand, and if anything it's getting messier. Nothing has ever made printing or writing feel natural or easy. 

How stereotypical. 

Yes, I am a clutz.

F Me In The Brain