(no subject)

[plonq]

Something got me on to the subject of cursive writing this morning, so during our weekly meeting I sat there and practised my writing under the pretence of taking notes.  I can remember a time when I had halfway-readable hand writing, but I guess it must fall under the heading of "use it or lose it".  If I work my way through it very slowly I can produce something slightly more readable than chicken scratch before my wrist seizes up.  It seems that typewriters and keyboards have thoroughly destroyed my ability to write.

I plan to reclaim the skill.  I have no good reason for this other than the fact that it irritates me that I can no longer do it.  I can still print, of course, but I finally had to stop and find a web page tutorial showing the proper cursive letters.

[quick edit before I post: I've managed to relearn the letters, and I am actually starting to get back into the groove again.  I guess some buried part of my brain that I haven't managed to damage with alcohol still remembers the right moves.  With my luck, once I manage to perfect writing again I'll forget how to type.]

Comments

[furahi.livejournal.com]

With my luck, once I manage to perfect writing again I'll forget how to type

Get a handwriting recognition device thingie then? ^^

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I've read elsewhere (can't find the source) that Generation X (up 'till people born about 1973 or so) is the last generation to know cursive writing. Most people born after that use typing to quickly write, and that most people entering the workforce nowadays don't know it. (They may have learned it in school, but they don't use it.)

[dronon.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if that was indeed the case. I was born in 1972 and we learned cursive handwriting in school. I remember still being asked to use as late as in grade 8. There was someone else in my class that year whose cursive writing was so terrible (the son of Toronto radio DJ Tom Rivers), the teachers were trying to pressure him to get a tutor for it.

In high school though, the preference was for legibility, and since my cursive was legible but not pleasing to the eye, I switched to printing. This was in the 1988-1991 period, and home computers, printers and WordPerfect 5.1 had made enough inroads into lower-income households that typed dot-matrix assignments were getting handed in, but I can't remember how prevalent it was.

By my first years of university around 1992-1993 the pressure was on for every assignment to be computer-printed, no more hand-written papers. And frantic note-taking in class reduced my handwriting to an even worse scrawl than before, so needless to say my ability to write by hand is much uglier than it was in my days of youth.

It's certainly true about the use-it-or-lose-it aspect. For a couple of years, I hated signing my name, and avoided it if at all possible. The result of this is that now, my cursive signature is not entirely consistent. The bank hasn't complained, thankfully.

[elfasi.livejournal.com]

Is cursive handwriting the same thing as joined up handwriting? I can't imagine not being able to do that, I learned it at a really young age. The only time I ever write letters seperatly is if I'm filling out forms and stuff. I do find sometimes if I've been using a computer for ages, the ability to write at all, does get a bit rusty, which is pretty disturbing :)