This entry comes courtesy of asciident, though most of it has nothing to do with.. her?

[conuly]

Way over on linguaphiles, they're discussing handwriting. And asciident said that she thinks most people who complain about their handwriting are modest, something else, or unwilling to put in the effort to change their handwriting.

I'll be the first one to say that I could change my handwriting if I really tried. Instead, I latched onto typing big time when I realized that I never had to write anything ever again if I didn't want to. In those rare cases where it looks like I do, I can usually get the other person to write down their email or phone number instead. And then promise to email them so they have mine. No muss, no fuss, no ink on my hand.

The amount of effort required to make my handwriting legible? Well, it's slow, and a bit painful for my poor hand, but it's definitely do-able. The amount of effort required to give me an adult handwriting? Oy vey.

Twelve+ years in the public school system gave me handwriting that's somewhat legible, if I remember to make it so. Part of the blame for this has to go towards the teachers, whose attempts at teaching me how to write involved: passing me books and telling me to "do some exercises in your spare time", showing me what the finished product looked like, but not the way it was written, trying to forbid print in the classroom (brilliant maneuver, considering that my cursive is even slower, more painful, and less legible than my print, and that at the time I couldn't even print with any reliability), and at times openly mocking my handwriting (a move which should go down in the annals of pedagogy as a really bad idea). So, basically I had to, like, teach myself.

This usually isn't a problem. I mean, the other kids suffering through this misguided attempt at education came out fine, so why didn't I?

Maybe it's because I'm a lefty. Everybody knows lefties have bad handwriting, right? In my 8th grade English class, the three kids with the worst handwriting were lefties. That's 75% of the lefty population! (The fourth, Andrew Conrad, had the neatest handwriting of anybody I've ever met, excluding possibly his father, the doctor.)

But other lefties still have age-appropriate handwriting. Mine looks like a child's, no joke. (This is why I hate it. Anybody can have messy handwriting, but at least people don't think that it's forged by an erudite kid.)

Well, in the end, it doesn't matter why my handwriting is screwed up, it just is. And I've got my choices. I can live with embarrassing handwriting (um, no thanks), I can work around it (yay), or I can work to improve it.

Based on my attempts to stop spilling food, to cut foods neatly, and to draw, I'd say that the amount of effort required for this would just about equal the amount of effort required to move a smallish-sized mountain. And that's effort every time I write. It wouldn't decrease just because I could do it neatly, I'd have to expend the same amount of effort each and every time I put a pen in my hand.

So. If I stopped thinking about what I was writing, put all my energy into forming letters, and was willing to sacrifice most of my life to practice, I could have nice, adult handwriting.

Or I could just type.

Weirdly, I type a good 90+wpm, with no real mistakes, despite the fact that I have admittedly poor fine motor skills in general. And typing is easy.

So, no, I'm not willing to take the effort to improve my handwriting. It's just not worth it. And that's okay.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I too latched onto typing big time. My brother was diagnosed with dysgraphia, but they never tested me, because my parents were like that. So, I suspect I have it too. My handwriting is nearly identical to his. I started typing in first grade, because we had to repeat the assignment if it wasn't legible, and my teacher said printing out homework was fine if I chose to.

My handwriting isn't that horrible, and I studied calligraphy so I could learn how to write legibly. But there's no way to avoid the issue that every so often, my hand will jerk beyond my control. And every so often when I tell it to go down, it goes up, or vice versa. So I have problems with letters like p,b,d,q.

I also think I was supposed to be a lefty, but I'm a fair bit ambidextrous. When I was young, I asked a teacher, "Which hand am I supposed to write with?" and she (much to my annoyance for the rest of my life) said, "the right". Gee thanks. So, instead of developing whichever one was better at it, I wrote only with my right hand for years. My writing with my left hand is roughly as good, but much, much slower. Probably because I haven't spent years practicing it. But I think I may have had better long-term results if I'd been working with my left hand. Hard to say though.

Most teachers nowadays, I hear, are trained to say something like, "Try both and see which feels more comfortable." But I just got a flat-out, "the right". And I was a good kid, so that was that, and I never asked again.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

My handwriting is, and always has been, atrocious. My teachers knocked themselves out trying to force me to improve, seemingly thinking that I was just being "lazy" or that I didn't want my handwriting to improve. In junior high, my teachers just sighed and said, "Learn to type." So I did. My grandmother bought me a typewriter as a gift at some point, and I've typed ever since.

Unfortunately for me, once in a while I discover a job advertisement that specifies "handwritten cover letter." So I knock myself out trying to write neatly. I can write somewhat legibly, but not neatly.

[conuly]

Maybe it's just me, but unless I thought the job would require me to write, I'd just have my sister do it.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Well, most jobs DO require a bit of handwriting as a matter of course - say, taking notes at a meeting, or jotting something down from a phone call. Some of it can be typed easily (phone messages) since you're at your desk anyway, and others can't (say you have to proofread something), but when you're away from your desk, you're out of luck. So, putting an effort into learning to print legibly *is* important to an extant, at least to not look like a kid impersonated you. I, however, do not know exactly how you would go about that. With enough practice (maybe tracing? Calligraphy class? I really don't know.), you could take it up a notch and eventually that would settle in as habit. I'm sure you'd never reach "normal" status, but that's fine.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

I can write fairly neatly, but only if I write slowly (say, less than 30 wpm); and even then, the quality rapidly starts to deteriorate after a paragraph or so. As for writing at the speeds required to take notes in class-- well, let's just say that sometimes I've written class notes that I couldn't decipher a week later!

As for cursive, I never really understood it... cursive isn't any faster for me; in fact, to make it halfway legible, it requires that I write slower. Of course, it doesn't help that I have difficulty reading cursive writing in the first place...

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

My legibility and effort is inversely proportional to speed.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

My question is, why do they make us write in cursive?

I was forced to write in that stuff in 3rd and 4th grade, and then, never again. My cursive is hard to read and wobble, but my print is plenty fine.

I like typing more because, well, you can go back and redo things much easier (CTRL+Z! <3), but I can see the bad handwritiig thing. My brother's a 'probably should have been Lefty but is now somewhat abidextrious' like poster above me, and his looks awful.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I never know what exactly to answer when people ask me my handedness. I can do most things in the manner of either handedness and tend to be better whichever way I've practiced more. I can only use scissors as a righty, but haven't tried much as a lefty. I can only shoot pool as a lefty. Handedness, like gender, is not nearly as clear-cut as it looks like it should be from the surface. I usually just tell people I'm ambisinistrous.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

*nod*

Sinistrous is the coolest word that means soemthing completely different ever.

"I'm SINISTROUS!"

"What?"

"...I'm left handed.*

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Cursive is faster. (Well, for most people.) Since you don't have to lift the pen off the paper except at the end of a word, it goes much more quickly.

My printing looks like my father's, but my writing looks like my mother's. Only sloppier. (She was taught handwriting back in 1945 or thereabouts and her cursive is always beautifully uniform and legible...even for such ephemera as grocery lists. Mine isn't quite uniform and the longer I write the more the legibility suffers.)

I have trained myself to do copperplate (special nib on the dip pen and everything), but I have to go slowly and concentrate to keep it looking good, otherwise it swiftly goes downhill again.

I'm of the opinion that the schools should go back to teaching the Palmer method or whatever it was that produced the handwriting typified by myself and my mother--I remember days of drills and hand exercises, which I suspect had changed very little since 1945. (I went to a small rural school and some of the copyright dates on the textbooks were in the 1960s.)

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

thing is, I print faster than I cursive. er.

Most people I know are the same way.

for cursive, I have to look at it and pay more attention to the formation of the words than the words themselves in order to make them look nice.

[conuly]

That's probably because you weren't taught to write in script properly, nor expected to, so you didn't get to practice at it. That's why some people type slowly, because they aren't expected to, and because as long as writing is faster, they never bother to type at a decent speed.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

True.

that, and I was diagnosed as horribly nearsighted then. I couldn't see the board in order to learn the letters right.

[l33tminion]

I can't write in cursive at all. Heck, I don't even remember how to write in cursive, save for my signature. The school system did manage to make my print handwriting legible after a few years of work, though. Still, I much prefer to type.

[l33tminion]

Also, I wrote switch-handed until they made me choose a hand in first grade. So, now I write with my more coordinated left hand, but for everything else I'm right-handed because my right arm is much stronger.

[ex-chaos-by-699.livejournal.com]

My handwriting is okay, but it degrades fairly quickly if I'm writing a lot very quickly.

Having to take lots of notes very quickly is one thing about school that I don't miss.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I too latched onto typing big time. My brother was diagnosed with dysgraphia, but they never tested me, because my parents were like that. So, I suspect I have it too. My handwriting is nearly identical to his. I started typing in first grade, because we had to repeat the assignment if it wasn't legible, and my teacher said printing out homework was fine if I chose to.

My handwriting isn't that horrible, and I studied calligraphy so I could learn how to write legibly. But there's no way to avoid the issue that every so often, my hand will jerk beyond my control. And every so often when I tell it to go down, it goes up, or vice versa. So I have problems with letters like p,b,d,q.

I also think I was supposed to be a lefty, but I'm a fair bit ambidextrous. When I was young, I asked a teacher, "Which hand am I supposed to write with?" and she (much to my annoyance for the rest of my life) said, "the right". Gee thanks. So, instead of developing whichever one was better at it, I wrote only with my right hand for years. My writing with my left hand is roughly as good, but much, much slower. Probably because I haven't spent years practicing it. But I think I may have had better long-term results if I'd been working with my left hand. Hard to say though.

Most teachers nowadays, I hear, are trained to say something like, "Try both and see which feels more comfortable." But I just got a flat-out, "the right". And I was a good kid, so that was that, and I never asked again.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

My handwriting is, and always has been, atrocious. My teachers knocked themselves out trying to force me to improve, seemingly thinking that I was just being "lazy" or that I didn't want my handwriting to improve. In junior high, my teachers just sighed and said, "Learn to type." So I did. My grandmother bought me a typewriter as a gift at some point, and I've typed ever since.

Unfortunately for me, once in a while I discover a job advertisement that specifies "handwritten cover letter." So I knock myself out trying to write neatly. I can write somewhat legibly, but not neatly.

[conuly]

Maybe it's just me, but unless I thought the job would require me to write, I'd just have my sister do it.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Well, most jobs DO require a bit of handwriting as a matter of course - say, taking notes at a meeting, or jotting something down from a phone call. Some of it can be typed easily (phone messages) since you're at your desk anyway, and others can't (say you have to proofread something), but when you're away from your desk, you're out of luck. So, putting an effort into learning to print legibly *is* important to an extant, at least to not look like a kid impersonated you. I, however, do not know exactly how you would go about that. With enough practice (maybe tracing? Calligraphy class? I really don't know.), you could take it up a notch and eventually that would settle in as habit. I'm sure you'd never reach "normal" status, but that's fine.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

I can write fairly neatly, but only if I write slowly (say, less than 30 wpm); and even then, the quality rapidly starts to deteriorate after a paragraph or so. As for writing at the speeds required to take notes in class-- well, let's just say that sometimes I've written class notes that I couldn't decipher a week later!

As for cursive, I never really understood it... cursive isn't any faster for me; in fact, to make it halfway legible, it requires that I write slower. Of course, it doesn't help that I have difficulty reading cursive writing in the first place...

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

My legibility and effort is inversely proportional to speed.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

My question is, why do they make us write in cursive?

I was forced to write in that stuff in 3rd and 4th grade, and then, never again. My cursive is hard to read and wobble, but my print is plenty fine.

I like typing more because, well, you can go back and redo things much easier (CTRL+Z! <3), but I can see the bad handwritiig thing. My brother's a 'probably should have been Lefty but is now somewhat abidextrious' like poster above me, and his looks awful.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I never know what exactly to answer when people ask me my handedness. I can do most things in the manner of either handedness and tend to be better whichever way I've practiced more. I can only use scissors as a righty, but haven't tried much as a lefty. I can only shoot pool as a lefty. Handedness, like gender, is not nearly as clear-cut as it looks like it should be from the surface. I usually just tell people I'm ambisinistrous.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

*nod*

Sinistrous is the coolest word that means soemthing completely different ever.

"I'm SINISTROUS!"

"What?"

"...I'm left handed.*

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Cursive is faster. (Well, for most people.) Since you don't have to lift the pen off the paper except at the end of a word, it goes much more quickly.

My printing looks like my father's, but my writing looks like my mother's. Only sloppier. (She was taught handwriting back in 1945 or thereabouts and her cursive is always beautifully uniform and legible...even for such ephemera as grocery lists. Mine isn't quite uniform and the longer I write the more the legibility suffers.)

I have trained myself to do copperplate (special nib on the dip pen and everything), but I have to go slowly and concentrate to keep it looking good, otherwise it swiftly goes downhill again.

I'm of the opinion that the schools should go back to teaching the Palmer method or whatever it was that produced the handwriting typified by myself and my mother--I remember days of drills and hand exercises, which I suspect had changed very little since 1945. (I went to a small rural school and some of the copyright dates on the textbooks were in the 1960s.)

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

thing is, I print faster than I cursive. er.

Most people I know are the same way.

for cursive, I have to look at it and pay more attention to the formation of the words than the words themselves in order to make them look nice.

[conuly]

That's probably because you weren't taught to write in script properly, nor expected to, so you didn't get to practice at it. That's why some people type slowly, because they aren't expected to, and because as long as writing is faster, they never bother to type at a decent speed.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

True.

that, and I was diagnosed as horribly nearsighted then. I couldn't see the board in order to learn the letters right.

[l33tminion]

I can't write in cursive at all. Heck, I don't even remember how to write in cursive, save for my signature. The school system did manage to make my print handwriting legible after a few years of work, though. Still, I much prefer to type.

[l33tminion]

Also, I wrote switch-handed until they made me choose a hand in first grade. So, now I write with my more coordinated left hand, but for everything else I'm right-handed because my right arm is much stronger.

[ex-chaos-by-699.livejournal.com]

My handwriting is okay, but it degrades fairly quickly if I'm writing a lot very quickly.

Having to take lots of notes very quickly is one thing about school that I don't miss.