DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's National Handwriting Day! I know you're excited! Did you even know there was such a thing? January 23rd was so designated in 1977 by The Writing Instruments Manufacturers Association (that's pens and pencils to us) because January 23rd was the birthday of John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence.
And why should we care, you ask? Lots of reasons. Writing by hand rather than on a keyboard improves your fine motor skills and your reading comprehension. It's calming, it's fun, and it improves your spelling and your knowledge retention. If you want to memorize a poem (Amanda Gorman's THE HILL WE CLIMB, perhaps?), write it down. I also find that my brain just processes things differently, and making notes in longhand can really give me a creative boost. It's lovely to be able to send someone a handwritten card or note, too, as it expresses sentiments in a way typed words never can.
Even though I'm a crazy fan of fountain pens and journals, I've never been happy with my handwriting. Having heard me complain about it too many times, my friend Gigi Norwood gave me two handwriting books for Christmas! I've now learned the difference between italic cursive and Zane-Bloser cursive (probably the lettering you were taught in elementary school.) I don't have aspirations to learn calligraphy, just to have my writing look nicer and be more legible, so I shall practice!
I'm right-handed but don't slant to the right, which you are apparently supposed to do. I don't join a lot of my letters, and I don't form them consistently. Lots of room for improvement!
REDS, do you like your handwriting? Do you write anything these days by hand? (I'm the only person I know who actually writes out grocery lists…) Do you write any notes or parts of your novels by hand? And what do you think your writing says about your personality?
RHYS BOWEN: I like my writing if I have time, such as five words inside a birthday card. I am a fan of sending cards and thank you letters ( British upbringing!). But if I’m writing something in which I try to keep up with my brain my writing is illegible. I still celebrate the day computers were invented. Being able to type as fast as I think is wonderful.
I think it’s sad kids are not taught cursive any more. My youngest grandkids can’t actually read some of the notes I write in cards
JENN MCKINLAY: At the end of every book, I write a short breakdown of the events of every chapter. I’m doing it right now with Killer Research (Nov 2021). I like the methodical pace of writing it down and adding bits and pieces to make sure all of the threads are woven in tight and I haven’t changed any pertinent facts during the long unwind of writing the book.
And I love handwritten notes. I treasure the ones I’ve received from loved ones who’ve passed away. It’s like having a piece of them with you. You can feel a real connection to a note that a person has written in their distinctive style. Penmanship has a personality all its own, I think.
HALLIE EPHRON: When I was in 6th grade, I remember endlessly practicing cursive writing and trying to earn a “Penmanship certificate.” Still, my penmanship is slapdash. My husband describes it as chicken scratchings, and for the longest time we had a New Yorker cartoon on our fridge--a man in the supermarket calling his wife on his cell, trying to decipher a shopping list and asking where he was supposed to find “a dozen hamsters.”
But as part of my writing, I do a lot of drawing and list making and, like Jenn, outlining. Here’s a map I drew of the house in CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. It was important to remember where the upstairs bedroom window was relative to the driveway and the bulkhead door to the basement, and how you got from the bedroom to the basement (through the kitchen). For every book I need a floor plan of a house and sometimes a neighborhood.
LUCY BURDETTE: I do write thank you’s and cards to people, and this summer wrote many many postcards to voters. But the process feels SO SLOW. I no longer write parts of a book draft by hand, unless I’m somewhere without my computer. Even then, I’ve gotten more likely to dictate notes into my computer, which works pretty well. The only other thing I almost always write out is my to-do list. If I put that into a computer, I lose it instantly. Best to have it on the desk looking at me!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, yes, Lucy, I also rely on a handwritten to-do list. It’s always by my side. (Here’s a page of the current one.) And sometimes I can even read it.
My handwriting problem is two-fold. One, back in my Beatle days, I dumped my carefully learned Palmer method, because I had decided it would be cooler to write like a British schoolgirl, all square and straight and careful, not loopy and slanted and American. As a result, my handwriting became illegible.
Then, add to that, years of writing as fast as I possibly could to take notes as a reporter. I can write REALLY fast. And usually I can read it. (For some reason, the words I can’t read are the ones that are obviously the most important. Like: don’t forget! Caoifhaoiha)
I now get emails from readers asking me to translate the inscriptions I’ve written in their books. Truly, honestly, sometimes I can’t figure them out.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I enjoy writing by hand: I do it for to-do lists, cards and letters, grocery reminders, etc. I had at least one child at Bishopswood summer camp from 2001 to 2016, and tried to write to each one once a day, even if only a postcard. They were required to write back (at least once a week, or no lunch!), as well as hand-write thank-you notes. Unlike most contemporary Millennials, mine were taught cursive, thanks to their parochial school education. Youngest was in public school from 4th grade on, but they had returned cursive to her school, and she has practiced her penmanship because, as I said, “You’re going to have to hand-write those thank you cards to your major donors. (She has political aspirations.)
As for me, I‘ll echo Rhys - my writing is good IF I’m not too rushed. Even in a hurry - say, taking notes at a lecture - I still can’t understand the logic of only teaching printing. It’s faster to write cursive. Okay, maybe no one else will be able to read my class notes, but at least didn’t miss half the seminar trying to print T-h-e T-u-d-o-r m-o-n-a-r-c-h-y...
DEBS: Out of curiosity, are any of us left-handed? Does anyone else write with a fountain pen?
READERS, how's your cursive? Do you enjoy writing in long hand?
Oh, and you can see I'm going to have a cursive practice partner pretty soon!
P. S. Extra points for anyone who can guess which book the opening lines in my sample are from?
I had no idea that there was a national handwriting day . . . it seems so silly to me that they decided to stop teaching cursive writing.
ReplyDeleteI taught printing for many years [in first grade] and now my writing is an almost-legible mixture of cursive and printing . . .
I’m not at all good at journal-writing; I do write out grocery lists [sometimes] . . .
I think handwritten cards and letters are becoming something of a lost art; I send “just because I’m thinking about you” cards to the grandbabies . . . .
Joan, I send cards to Wren, even though she's next door (at least for a few more weeks.) It's so much fun to get mail, pretty cards with pretty stamps. My theory is that if she loves getting cards and letters, she'll love sending them, too.
DeleteMy youngest grandchild was taught cursive writing in fourth grade, which delighted me, though a year later than I would have expected it. The best thing was that though her printing was always a scrawl, the minute she was taught cursive, she was writing neatly and clearly.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm left-handed but unlike most lefties of my generation, I learned cursive from a left-handed teacher who had one sensible piece of advice. She taught me to slant my paper to the right rather than left, which eliminated the whole nonsense of curving your arm around to hold the pen at a right-handed angle.
So I'm not the only lefty who slants my paper to the right? Good to know!
DeleteThis is Celia on phone - I do too. The nuns tried to change me to right handed when
DeleteI was 11. I wasn't biting. I echo Rhys, my computer has saved my life. But I hand write To Dos, shopping lists, thank yous etc. but my paper lies horizontal to my body.
Wow, first time Blogger has recognized me.
DeleteYay, Celia!!
DeleteMy handwriting has evolved into a mix of cursive and printing. I definitely write out lists of all sorts. And I write thank you notes. I hated penmanship class in elementary school. We had to use the special lined paper and I had to exaggerate the size of my letters to fit them up against the lines. My normal handwriting was small and it was pure torture to have to write a certain way for one class. Did anyone else think the cursive capital Q was weird looking? Like a giant loopy 2?
ReplyDeleteOh, Pat, I hated writing big letters, too. And I like writing small because my script doesn't look as messy. I use a combination of print and cursive, too, so no big loopy Qs for me.
DeleteI'm not a fan of my writing, especially since I seem to skip letters every so often when writing by hand. I'm not sure why it happens, but it does. I'm able to keep up with my brain better with typing, although I find every so often I still words out.
ReplyDeleteI'm so out of practice that it takes longer to write stuff out. I can do it quickly for a note or two, but anything more than a few words just doesn't work.
My handwriting is also a mix of printing and cursive and is at least somewhat legible to others, or so I'm told. I was taking lecture notes until just recently, and always took those by hand for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was better retention - I typed them up later.
ReplyDeleteI write a minimal journal, but keep two handwritten. notebooks/diaries/record books related to an estate I am administering, which I find much easier to work with than something on the computer. My grandson is a lefty, and his printing is pretty good for a 10-year-old boy 😂.
Kerry, in the ancient of days when I needed to take lecture notes, there was no option but by hand. For better retention, I transcribed them by hand as well. And, like you, handwritten records for detailed projects are much easier to work with than computer notes.
DeleteI always have my to-do list notebook on my desk and love writing out the day's items in a nice Energel pen. Our grocery list is always on the fridge and gets added to until shopping day. And handwriting while brainstorming a plot issue or the next scene makes ideas rise up so differently than trying to brainstorm while typing. I love writing cards and letters by hand, but I have to really slow down or I make a lot of "write-os" - out of practice!
ReplyDeleteI also write upright (right handed), a purposeful decision I made in college, and it's a combo of cursive and connected printing. There's a whole field of graphology, of course, in which certain aspects of handwriting connect to particular personality traits. My astrologer roommate in college studied it, and mystery author Sheila Lowe is an expert and has a series featuring a graphologist.
thanks for the tip about Sheila Lowe's series; looking that up!
DeleteI know Sheila Lowe, too, Edith, and have read several of her books. She's president of some graphology association but I don't remember the exact title. It's so interesting, what handwriting says about people.
DeleteEdith, Energel pens are a good gateway to fountain pens...
DeleteI have a fountain pen, but I do love my Energels!
DeleteI am unable to print. On those form that require printing, I start out ok, but by the second box, I'm writing in cursive. Because I wrote in patient charts for so long, I tried to make my writing very legible, but that has declined over the years. I rarely write anything by hand either, and I've pretty much given up making to do lists. If I need to remember to do something, I give
ReplyDeleteAlexa the task of reminding me or put it in my iPhone calendar or both. Part of this is because of the arthritis in my hands. They cramp when I try to write. I am right handed, and I haven't owned a fountain pen in eons.
Trying to remember which of Debs' books was sent in January. Hmmmm.
From the description Debs provided, I am a classic Zane-Bloser cursive writer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working at Environment Canada in my last job, I had to write meeting minutes by hand. These meetings lasted anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours so I probably wrote 20-50 pages/day! I know I had calluses on my index finger.
These days, I only handwrite my to-do lists, grocery lists, and short thank-you notes to friends. If I write more than 1 full page, my hand cramps up. So I guess you either use it or lose it (those finger muscles).
HA, I forgot that I started a new 2021 habit of a daily food/gratitude journal. So each day, I do handwrite 2 pages of entries. And guess what, the calluses on my right hand are forming again.
DeleteMeeting minutes are some of the most challenging notes to take, Grace. You must have been very skilled after all those hundreds? thousands? of pages! Did you also have to type them up for distribution?
DeleteAMANDA: The longer biweekly meeting minutes (i.e. 4 hour meeting) were typed up, circulated for distribution and saved in the division's archives. The rest of the time it depended on the project. Sometimes, the notes were just for me (action items), other times they were typed up and sent to the team. Fortunately, I am a FAST TYPER (i.e. 120 wpm).
DeleteAnd yes, I still have all my meeting notebooks from that last job, as well as those used during my research career.
Writing those minutes were tricky at first. It was a 4-hour teleconference call with reps from each province/territory and us in national HQ in Ottawa. Of course, they often did not identify themselves on the call and the discussion was very technical, with jargon I was not familiar with at first. But I definitely got better with doing the minutes each month!
DeleteOmigod, you ARE a fast typist! I bow to your skill, Grace.
DeleteKAREN: I was in the provincial (Ontario) typing competition in grade 9. I averaged over 100 WPM on a MANUAL TYPEWRITER (Olympia), so of course, my typing speed increased when I switched to a computer keyboard.
DeleteHoly cow, GRACE. Amazing speed!
DeleteWow, Grace, I went to secretarial school and never got my typing up to that speed! It's too bad I don't remember my shorthand...
DeleteGrace, that is even more impressive!
DeleteWhen I took typing in high school (grade 10) I struggled to manage the 35 wpm necessary to pass the class. Manual typewriters, of course. I have small hands that were never very strong, I guess. And I always knew when I made a mistake, and that slowed me down, too. Once I switched to a PC, though, my speed doubled!
Have you ever watched the Murdoch Mysteries? In one of the later seasons there is a typing speed contest episode that is great fun.
DEBS: Fortunately, I never had to learn shorthand in grade 8-9 secretarial class. But learning how to touch type was hard since I was a hunt & peck typist. But being a speedy typist was a huge benefit at work since I had to type all my journal articles, book chapters and technical reports myself. I am just thankful that I did not get carpal tunnel syndrome from all that typing!
DeleteKAREN: No, I have never watched the Murdoch Mysteries.
They take place in Toronto, just after the turn of the century, and are what I would consider steampunk in flavor. Great fun, including loads of historic figures. There is a book series, too.
DeleteYes, I know the series is filmed in Toronto. They just had a piece on the CBC yesterday on how they were filming the latest season under strict COVID-19 protocols. And I have read some of the Maureen Jennings books. I am just not a big enough fan to watch the TV series online.
DeleteI hit high school in the midst of the late '60s-early '70s feminist wave, and swore that I would never be a secretary. So I didn't take typing or shorthand. Then I wound up being a reporter, with a need to take fast notes and type up stories. So much for my feminist ideals. I did a self-study course on touch typing, and invented my own shorthand.
DeleteOh I’m left-handed! And I love writing with Blackwing pencils. They are amazing. Quite special— and will make you an instant devotee.
ReplyDeleteLove Blackwing pencils. They make writing by hand so classy and such fun.
DeleteYes, so agree! Why is that?
DeleteI think it's the elegance of the shaft and the quality of the lead. Beautiful and smooth.
DeleteHank, I didn't know you were a lefty. So is Gigi (who had much better handwriting than me) and Rick, who prints and doesn't write in cursive at all.
DeleteOh, and I love Blackwing pencils, too, but usually write with one of the (many) fountain pens.
DeleteDebs has already outed me as a handwriting fan. My own handwriting has gone from painfully legible to a total mess and is now heading back to the legible side, but it's quirky. Most of the letters connect, but my capitals and descenders are pretty much of my own design. Printing is large and small caps. Like PlumGaga, I'm a lefty, but I slant my paper to the right, so I don't smear my hand through the ink or graphite.
ReplyDeleteI write in a journal with a fountain pen. Yes, I am a gleefully bad influence on Debs, having hooked her on Iona journals and re-hooked her on fountain pens. The rest of her Christmas present was a pair of pen cases--one of which is really large--so she'll have an excuse to buy more pens! Did you know that, if your home is your office, the IRS classifies the pens you buy as office supplies?
In addition to fountain pens and swanky journals, I love beautiful note cards. As a result, I am required to send handwritten notes to folks from time to time, just to use up the stationery stock. In fact, I owe a note to a friend today. She's a long-time critique partner who broke up with me over a political squabble back in 2016. Facebook might be too inflammatory for the two of us, but we still stay in touch via a handwritten notes. It has saved the best parts of our friendship.
I'm going to guess the excerpt is from The Sound of Broken Glass. But that's only a guess.
"It has saved the best parts of our friendship." Gigi, what a wise understanding of how the form we choose for our communication can have a significant impact on the message being delivered.
DeleteI thought long and hard about the whole situation, Amanda. I decided I didn't want to lose her friendship, but I knew her well enough to know that she'd need some time and space. She writes historical romance, so I opted for a formal, traditional approach. Luckily for me, that worked for her, too.
DeleteSo smart, Gigi! I've written a few notes to precarious or former friends as a way to salvage the relationship. While it hasn't always resulted in a positive outcome for the friendship, the process of writing out my thoughts has always helped bring me to better understanding of myself in the process.
DeleteGigi, you are my best enabler:-) And, yes, it was The Sound of Broken Glass. It just happened to be topmost on the teetering pile on my desk yesterday.
DeleteI never learned to hold a pen properly (how did that get by the nuns in elementary school?)so my hand cramps if I write for too long a time. But I do keep a very simple version of a dot journal each year with my calendar, to-do lists, notes from meetings, bird lists, etc. in it. I can read the entries but am not sure anyone else could.
ReplyDeleteDebs, that quote is from The Sound of Broken Glass. I remembered it, and the character, right away. Although I can't remember her name.
Hooray, Chris! And it's Nadine.
DeleteMy cursive has never been beautiful, but hand writing is such a pleasure. Unlike several of you, my brain flies ahead of my typing or dictation. Texting and emailing are a regular part of my day to stay in touch with friends who, because of distance and because they are not retired, have stricter and different schedules to keep than I. But there are words to say that demand handwriting, the feel of paper, no emojis. In grade school, I could not wait to be in 5th grade — that was when penmanship no longer was part of the grade on spelling tests and I finally got the 100 I deserved on every test!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I love "there are words to say that demand handwriting, the feel of paper..." So eloquent and perfect!
DeleteI still write, my to-do list, list of business meetings, and notes to myself. I have cursive writing styles, neat as let me take my time and sign this form and non-readable as in you want me to sign this?
ReplyDeleteDru, I developed a signature scrawl over the years of signing books. Every once in a while I run across a signed copy of one of my very early books and I think, was that really me? I had perfect, round letters, like an elementary school excercise.
DeleteI agree with Rhys that it's sad kids are no longer taught cursive. Just think: that means a whole generation who won't be able to read the original Declaration of Independence!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that, like sight word vs phonics, someone in education will eventually figure this out and they'll start teaching cursive again.
I have a friend who teaches 6th grade and still keeps the cursive letter cards on the wall above the chalk board (or maybe it's a whiteboard by now).
Lots of handwriting in my daily life, from to-do's in my work note book to my entries in my Daily Log; also, note cards to friends, and grocery lists on the fridge (though I can appreciate the convenience of that list on one's phone, as it's likely less-often forgotten at home!)
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I keep my groceries lists in a small spiral notebook. I usually have lists for more than one store, and I like the continuity of it. I can look back and see what I bought or cooked. On the very occasions I've forgotten my notebook, I've remembered every single item on the list.
DeleteI like cursive handwriting and use it all the time. It helps me to remember things. I take no chances, I write to-do lists, groceries lists, meetings and once down on paper, it stays in my mind.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that when I handwrite a card or a letter, what's in my heart flows through more easily.
I attended some biography writing class and I'm still writing it cursive hand.
Another wonderful quote this morning, "what's in my heart flows through more easily." I love that!
DeleteDebs, THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS...?
ReplyDeleteI also thought of The Sound of Broken Glass immediately, Debs. Whenever I think of that book it makes me cold!
ReplyDeleteAfter a rocky start as a Catholic grade school kid, where the Palmer method was the gold standard, and the nuns would whack the boys' knuckles for not writing correctly, I have pretty good handwriting. It used to be better, so good that people paid me to address envelopes in the 1970s. I've been asked to do that for a friend's daughters wedding invitations in recent years, but I declined. My tremor is unpredictable, and periodically causes bizarre meanderings from my intended path.
My oldest daughter has a perfect combination of her dad's quirky but elegant handwriting and mine. It's so distinctive. My other two daughters' handwriting looks like everyone in their dad's family, although one's writing is actually legible. I have to sometimes ponder over what the other is trying to say. She takes after my husband, who basically writes in hieroglyphics, which I have learned to read. Talk about brain exercise.
When my grandson was in second grade the schools were not teaching cursive, but his classroom had the printed and cursive alphabet in a border over the blackboard, just as mine had in the 1950s. When he wasn't doing anything else he would practice the cursive letters, and basically taught it to himself. His district has now brought it back, but there is a whole clump of kids now in their teens and twenties who can neither read it nor write it. How silly is that.
Karen, I wonder how Palmer differs from Zane-Bloser? I love that your grandson taught himself cursive. And it's interesting that you can learn to read very difficult handwriting. My daughter's paternal grandmother was German. She loved to write notes and letters but they were maddeningly difficult to decipher. I think the European cursive method must have been quite different from what we were taught. I did learn to read her handwriting, but my daughter never did.
DeleteGood question, Debs. I don't know the difference, and even looking it up online I'm mystified.
DeleteMy kids learned the D Nealian method, which teaches kids to first learn a kind of sans serif version of calligraphic printing, and then to join it together. It's not nearly as pretty as the Palmer or Zane-Bloser methods, because it doesn't have any flourishes at all, except for the little curves at the bottoms of the letters with legs (like "n" and "m"). I think it was easier, although my middle daughter still makes her "o's" backwards. I could never get her to change it.
More and more I find that when I write by hand I print, and fairly large letters at that. I think it is the old teacher in me.
ReplyDeleteNo one has mentioned recipes. I still love seeing my mother's hand written recipes, even if I do have trouble reading them. As a bookkeeper she wrote very small, with a fine tip pen.
Yes, so true! I was thinking of how we can recognize someone's handwriting, even years after we saw it last. My mother still has lovely writing, even at 91, and since she has sent out handwritten birthday, anniversary, and Christmas cards for decades to our large family, everyone recognizes "Aunt Joan's" handwriting. Recipes are another way to jolt our memories.
DeleteYes, absolutely..it is such a twinge of emotion when I see my mom's handwriting, or my dad's. Very recognizable.
DeleteYes, I also get a twinge of happiness when I come across one of my mom's handwritten recipes in my huge recipe file.
DeleteYes, I love seeing my mom's handwriting, and my dad's. So interesting that it is immediately recognizable, even after years.
DeleteI didn't know there was a National Handwriting Day, but I suppose if there can be a National Cheeseburger and a National Baconcheeseburger Day, who am I to quibble about a day celebrating handwriting.
ReplyDeleteHow's my handwriting? Well, atrocious comes to mind. I was never very good at writing stuff longhand. I mean I could do it but if handwriting was a foretelling of your future career, I should be making bank as a highly paid and totally arrogant doctor.
I don't really write many things out longhand anymore. My mom was notorious for that. She'd write long letters to a friend of hers...even though she spent hours on the phone with her each week.
But like Deborah, I still write out my grocery list by hand. PRINTED, not cursive. I've got the regular groceries, the stuff I buy at the Walmart grocery because it's cheaper than the regular store and the stuff I want to get at BJ's Wholesale Club (like I'm prepping for the apocalypse or something).
Jay, do you think maybe doctors are TAUGHT to have such terrible handwriting??
DeleteI also wondered if pharmacists are also taught how to READ the terrible handwriting by doctors on prescriptions? It would be scary if you got the wrong drug/medicine because they misred the prescription!
DeleteIt does happen, unfortunately.
DeleteHandwritten cards to friends (I'm using up my entire stock of pretty notecards), grocery and to-do lists. I write 2-3 sentences in my new "Jane a day) five year journal, each day with a different Jane Austen quote. The next five years are going to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI do plot storm, draw elaborate diagrams with circles and arrows, and design gardens and floorplans in a large newsprint pad. And I make most of my edits on a paper copy.
Margaret, I draw floor plans and gardens (at least for A Bitter Feast I drew the garden), and I always edit with a pen on a paper copy. So does my editor, but I can't always read her comments!
DeleteDear Reds, you have hit on a subject I talk about often. I have embarrassingly bad handwriting. But unlike most adults, mine isn't bad because I have slipped away from the skills learned as a child. I was never able to master making the letters the way I was taught. I have two sharp childhood memories related to this topic. The most vivid memory is sitting in a classroom while all my peers were doing math problems with the teacher telling me, "I know you've already mastered the math, Susan. Just keep practicing your handwriting." The other is my mother coming home from a parent-teacher conference and telling me the teacher told her "I gave her a C in handwriting but honestly, she deserved worse. I just hated to put anything lower than a C on that grade card where everything else was an A." I am honestly convinced that if I was a child in school today, they would have diagnosed me with some kind of small-motor-skill disability.
ReplyDeleteI started typing my papers to turn in when I was still in elementary school, and I have done all major writing on a keyboard for so long that I actually THINK better when writing that way. Yet as a fundraising professional, I completely respect the power of a handwritten thank you note. I am probably the only one who actually types the message on screen first then methodically hand copies it into the card.
Susan, that's so interesting. I am somewhat dyslexic and have always suspected that contributed to my bad handwriting. I just read, however, that writing in cursive improves dyslexia!
DeleteSusan, do you think all that pressure also contributed to your disinterest? How awful to get such negative feedback. Like me being told I was a klutz all the time, when all along I had such poor eyesight that my glasses distorted my view of the ground in front of me.
DeleteSusan, It is funny how a teacher's remark can stick with you forever. When I was in 7th grade my gym teacher saw me writing and called over another one to see how I held my pen. Evidently I wasn't doing it right. Who knew there was only one approved way to hold your pen?
DeleteCursive improves dyslexia?
DeleteThat's what I read, Deana, and it makes sense. Exercises that improve both gross motor and fine motor skills help rewire your brain.
DeleteNational Handwriting Day - I love it.
ReplyDeleteI am a fountain pen aficionado. Back when the earth was cooling we were given Esterbrook pens and learned how to use the ink well in our desks. See, there's a whole lot of people scratching there heads over that ink well reference :). I still have Esterbrook pens, and many others. Of course I still write thank you notes by hand. I have recently purchased letter paper. My friends will need to let me know if they need a decoder ring.
I was a lefty from birth, but thanks to the good sisters, I'm a righty these days. Much neater, I suppose. Especially given my ink pen fetish!
Hank, we learned both cursive and what we called boarding school backhand. I don't know why we learned both, but it's the backhand that has stuck with me. My husband cannot read it at all (sometimes neither can I), but others have less trouble.
Boarding school backhand! Oh, I've never heard that! xx
DeleteKait, Gigi has an Esterbrook pen, but so far she hasn't enabled me to buy one:-) Now, I want to see what boarding school backhand looks like.
DeleteKait, all the desks I grew up with in grade school had inkwell holes! We only used pencils until high school, though, and by then we had ballpoint pens.
DeleteHi all, Yep, boarding school backhand - it's basically printing with connected letters and it slants to the left. I love my Esterbrook pens. They have a lever fill that makes is so much easier. Karen, the inkwell holes in our desks perfectly fit scripto inks. I still have a few of the old jars with the built in fill dip. I miss those inks. Levenger has a good selection of ink colors.
DeleteI got up late this morning and have just realized that it is a day to celebrate handwiting. Who even knew?
ReplyDeleteMy handwriting is always legible and I am frequently complimented on it. I call it "school teacher handwriting." My cursive is usually very precise although I do mix it up from time to time using cursive and print together or even slanting in different directions. It's a mood thing. But I handwrite all of the cards and envelopes I send, I handwrite thank you notes (thanks, Mom), I make written lists. I have a handwritten journal for wines and a handwritten journal for breads that I bake and I hand write notes about the books that are recommended here.
I handwrite my Hebrew assignments in Hebrew cursive, going right to left, and I can always read what I've written in either language.
It's really fun to read your personal handwriting stories and even see samples. Hallie, you cracked me up with your New Yorker cartoon on the fridge. Love it.
Debs, The Sound of Broken Glass was the first book of yours that I read. It was the only one of your books in my little library branch. I immediately sought out your books from the beginning and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ha, Judy, I knew you would get it!
ReplyDeleteJudy, I have enough trouble with one alphabet. I really admire your Hebrew study.
DeleteI love to write by hand. I hand write lists, cards and notes, everything I can. I am left-handed but was taught to turn my paper to the right. In the fourth grade, my handwriting was so bad and messy (from my hand dragging across what I had already written) that my teacher send a cursive writing notebook home with me over summer break s told my mother to make me practice. As a result, my handwriting improved a lot. Now I use a combination of cursive and printing...and I’m always on the hunt for the perfect pen.
ReplyDeleteFountain pens, Chris? Gigi and I can help you with that, hee hee.
DeleteQuite a few of you have talked about better retention with handwritten material. I read about a recent study with college students where some assigned to take notes on a keyboard (tablet or laptop) and some by hand. The students with handwritten class notes had immensely better retention.
ReplyDeleteAlso, about half the states in the U.S., including Texas, have reintroduced cursive to the elementary curriculum. Unfortunately, and really, really stupidly, it's become highly politically charged. And apparently teachers complain that it adds one more thing to their already overloaded days.
We've had Jay and Mark comment today, neither big cursive fans. My husband prints. I'm curious if any of you know men with good cursive writing? There are lots of men buying fountain pens these days, and lots of little American start-up pen companies.
ReplyDeleteMy first husband had lovely cursive handwriting. And when we were diving through 60 years worth of correspondence from and to my father-in-law, I read hundreds of handwritten letters from dozens of his friends. Some of them lived less than 30 miles away, but it would have a long-distance phone call, and they kept in touch weekly, some cases more often.
DeleteMy father-in-law most typed his letters, and he kept the carbons or flimsies, but most of his pals hand wrote theirs with pen. One man, a lawyer, wrote an exceptionally legible and elegant hand.
The second most interesting part of this deep dive into the archives was the progression from handwritten notes/typed with carbons to emails printed out and saved. Now with texts or instant messages, so much correspondence is in the ether instead of saved for posterity.
DEBS: Several of my male professors and bosses at Environment Canada had beautiful cursive writing. Most of them emigrated to Canada from Europe, so I wonder if the school systems in those countries had stricter standards on how to teach cursive writing?
DeleteMy husband's cursive looks like a fourth grader's. One who is getting C's in penmanship. My son's isn't much better. He mixes it up like me but I see his is more printing than cursive.
DeleteMy younger son (32) and his father are both lefties, and they both have lovely cursive. My son held a pencil correctly at 18 months and made intricate tiny scribbles.
DeleteHis big brother had terrible fine motor skills. He went to kindergarten still gripping a pencil in his fist and had such a hard time with printing later. He still writes certain letters and numbers in reverse (they come out correct, but if most of us start at the top, he started at the bottom). I could never get him to change that. I'd read that cursive could help because it flows, but he never got the hang of it. He's an excellent typist, thank goodness!
So interesting, Edith!
DeleteI am reminded of our cursive lessons whenever I "sign" electronically. That scribble makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteBeing left-handed I was never writing the way they wanted. Turn the paper. Twist your hand around. Stand on your head! And the then new Bic pens?! Horrible. They glopped up the ink and our left hands dragged through it across the page. (The same with pencils. No glop, just smear.)
I didn't use the backwards hand technique of many lefties. Eventually I shifted to a hybrid script-print. When I write at a leisurely pace, it's pretty darn nice looking. As soon as I get tired or rushed, I'm ready for writing out doctors' scripts. As in, illegible!
Libby, my son is a leftie, and whenever I saw him write the way he'd been taught I always wondered if it wasn't a recipe for future carpal tunnel syndrome!
DeleteOh, handwriting. What fun to read about everyone's experiences. I was taught the classic Palmer method – lots of circles on lined paper – and still always had poor handwriting. Now, if I am not very careful,my writing is incomprehensible to most people. Sometimes that includes me. I am also a barely mediocre typist, and wrote three early books by hand in notebooks. Now I can type – badly – directly to the screen. Since I remember when “cut and paste” really meant finding the scissors and Scotch tape, I do appreciate technology. I do! But I still find there is a mysterious connection between brain and pencil in my hand. I write shopping lists, chores lists, memos to self, greeting cards. I keep a paper calendar! (Week At a Glance) How can this not be easier than that annoying teeny keyboard in my phone? And when I need to think through a writing problem – have a conversation with myself about what’s wrong and brainstorm where I might go – out comes the pen and a stack of scrap paper, saved from single-side printing, Does anyone laugh at me for all of this? Ah, yes. But it works for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Triss. Plotting, planning and problem solving all require brain to hand to pen to paper for me.
DeleteYes, me, too, Triss!
DeleteI have kept a journal since I was fourteen and I use a fountain pen - turquoise blue ink! My teens did not learn cursive, which I find tragic. :(
ReplyDeleteEeek, Jenn, maybe they will learn. It seems like fountain pens are becoming a sort of cult thing with a lot of younger men.
DeleteSo share your fave fountain pen and favorite turquoise ink! Mine is Levenger Blue Bahama. Lovely color.
Jenn, it does seem to be coming back in schools, which means we'll have a generation of non-cursive writers squeezed in between the rest of us.
DeleteMy dad was an auditor so he had little, squishy, barely legible writing. My mother's writing was large but all in cursive. My handwriting today is a combination of cursive, printing from a right handed dominate person with left handed tendencies. I tend to cross my "t's and f's" from right to left. Both my grandfathers were lefties forced to go right handed. I enjoy the computer because it tells me when I'm spelling incorrectly, which helps with my dyslexia - never did get phonic spelling figured out. Like Mark, I leave words out no matter if I type or handwrite.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started my current job, I typed up handwritten medical notes to create care plans from home care visits. There was one nurse, he's writing was so bad, that after a survey by a accreditation company, he was instructed to print. Some of those medications are very similar in spelling but are used for entirely different conditions.
Oh, my best friend's mother is from Europe. I think her handwriting is very legible but just has lots more curls and is very upright as opposed to the slanting style of cursive writing I was taught, but never mastered.
I taught special education, elementary. That included both writing, both printing and in some few cases cursive. There are so many connections that must be made for reading and writing that people with normal abilities take for granted. Let me just say here that every letter learned was a triumph for some students.
ReplyDeleteI remember when a left handed pre-kindergartener finally wrote her own name. No one realize her parents so were completely right handed that they hadn't figured out how to help her. Just showing her how to twist her paper the other way and putting the pencil in my left hand made her feel so good, there was someone to follow, at least for a little while, I was the substitute.
DeleteJudy, I wondered if you used the sandpaper cutouts of the letters to teach reading and writing? I asked because my teacher taught deaf children, including me, to read and write using that method.
DeleteDiana
Deborah, this is a wonderful post. My grandmother was left handed. And one of my cousins is left handed like our grandmother.
ReplyDeleteWhen my grandmother was in school, she had an awful teacher who tried to force her to write right handed. My great grandmother was formidable and made it clear to the teacher to let her kid write left-handed. This great grandmother could speak, read and write in SEVEN LANGUAGES, including English.
Writing notes is so fun. I learned cursive writing. I also like being able to type on the computer because the words automatically shift. Despite having a computer, it is still fun to write notes. As long as I can read my handwriting, I figure that my handwriting is good enough.
Sometimes I see cooperplate handwriting. I had a children's book Cinderella and I loved how the artist drew the cursive R so I copied that for my handwriting.
Diana
Diana,
Deletehad a great-aunt, born in 1906, who was left=handed. At school, they teacher TIED HER LEFT ARM DOWN in order to force her to work with her right hand! I don't recall her handwriting, but she was the most skilled needleworker and knitter I ever knew, so it didn't harm those skills.
Julia,
DeleteI'm so sorry that happened to your great aunt. My grandmother was born in 1909. I wish that your great aunt's mother scolded the teacher for doing that! I often hear that left handed people are creative.
I have always been fascinated by handwriting. I loved learning cursive in school, and I strove to do my best and achieve high marks in my handwriting grade. It was a source of pride for me. I have had compliments over the years that I have nice handwriting, and that made me feel good. I think my handwriting is on the decline though, along with so many other parts of me (haha). I somehow started inserting print into my handwriting at some point, like in the "s" and the "e." I don't know why. I'd be interested in what a handwriting analyst had to say. In fact, handwriting analysis is such an interesting study, and being an avid reader of mystery/crime, I always love when it comes to play in a case. And, in keepsakes, some of my most precious keepsakes from my mother are her handwritten letters and notes and cards and recipes, really anything she wrote. I think I would recognize her handwriting anywhere. It's rather amazing that even if we've learned cursive the same way, there is an individuality to each person's writing, too, like their DNA.
ReplyDeleteKathy, in italic cursive, you can use that capital S, just a smaller version. That's the way I write mine, too, although I do use traditional cursive Es.
DeleteWe used to have handwriting right after lunch...feet on floor, two hand widths from desk and paper tilted to right. I loved handwriting but have lost any skills I may have had. I write to do lists and can’t understand my writing!
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry when I get a handwritten note by a young person and it is printing that is on a second grade level. I think handwriting should be a life skill.
Mary, agreed!
DeleteI agree, Mary!
DeleteCheck out #nationalhandwritingday on Instagram! Lots of fun stuff!
ReplyDeleteI hand write to do and grocery lists and other things for myself. Since my handwriting isn't that great, I usually use the computer to write letters or notes, although I may add something handwritten and always sign in handwriting.
ReplyDeleteI spent 25 years changing names and addresses at a bank and used to be able to read most handwriting but that skill has lessened, too. I have trouble reading handwritten notes from friends. Stay safe and well.