How's your handwriting?

[gogoblender 3,072]

Mine's just plain awful. It's a kind of eyeball torture, and I've just come to understand the kind of pain I had to put my teacher's through through grade and high school with them having to put up with it when I was growing up. It got me to thinking about how teacher's must wince everytime they know they have to ask for essays because of all he pain they have to endure with reading children's scribbles. And mine was especially bad...in fact a teacher once called me over to their desk after to read out what I had submitted to her...while reading it out in front of the class.

Result?

I couldn't read it. And the ensuing embarrassment, stuttering and near-tears it brought to my eyes was a horrible memory that almost cured me of lazy handwriting...almost My teacher then called my parents and for a few months afterward my dad used to sit by my desk once a week and make me write out a page of text...after which he'd put a ruler to the sides of written letters to make sure they were perfectly parallel against the margins. Many weeks of tears, yelling, crying et al brought this draconian approach to teaching a child better handwriting quickly ended...with me having as illegible a penmanship as before. My brother (hate him) of course was born with the blessed writing "rolls eyes" Nothing he wrote could ever be ugly, a fact my parents made a point of telling me everytime he wrote them a note of appreciation or submit an essay in school uppn which the teachers would stick notes of:

 

"My what wonderful writing your son has!"

"Y'all must be so proud..."

 

 

This, of course, did not make for good brotherly relations and the war was begun. His handwriting had quickly become a target of mine, with attempts at spilling hot milk, water, or purposefully wrinkling and tearing anything he wrote and left upon the kitchen table for my parent's vote of approval the object of a then ongoing vendetta.

 

"Hey, where'd my essay go!"

 

 

I feel much better these days and am now at peace with the gifted writing of others...just don't leave it on my kitchen table.

 

gogo

[myles 2]

oh no you didn't talk about handwriting gogo. Oh well fellow sufferer of dam penmanship, I hear you.

 

It has been ages until I realize I in fact have very legitimate writing. Y? Everybody in my family has excellent penmanship. I said it in this other thread.

 

ever since I was in kindergarten my teacher has complemented me on my mothers' writing that I have lost hope in ever getting complement on my handwriting. All people told me was, I have a long way to go. Don't you think I fxxxing know that? As if a five years old can have decades of writing experiences.

 

My handwriting is very legitimate, mind you, but never talk to me about my handwriting, I explode on that count every single time. Now you know.

 

Oh it was painful alright. Its worse because I know that the teachers meant well by complementing the penmanship of my mother (and later my sister, yeah same school for us). But its absolutely awful for me, no one ever consider. I'm a leftee, and it was harder for me improving handwriting than my peers (since you know everything about penmanship was designed for rightees).

 

Just how many times teachers yell at me to line up my paper, while I know that they have no idea they are dead wrong (that it is a more natural angle for leftees by tilting the paper to the right when writing). All for what? so that I got complements for someone else's writings?

 

Yeah they have to give me my rabbits (not piggy). But I felt like crap all the same.

 

I don't give a dam about anyone's penmanship. Awful penmanship? I say good for you.

 

There I said it.

[erialc 2]

hmmm....well I know there is one person who has seen a snipet of my handwriting lol as in I signed it and printed the rest.....I think...but it's pretty terrible and I mix captals all over the place....thank goodness for the keyboard though I am pretty shabby at that too!...haha once someone asked me to write a card for them and after they said oh the hieroglyphic's were nice but where was what I asked you to write :S

[Erling 3]

awfull...

[Timotheus 416]

I agree with erling here, mine's plain awful as well.

[Blade 1]

lol thats funny. When I write something down that isn't important, my handwriting is average, but very fast. I can write and type very fast, it helps for getting school assignments done quickly. About the quality of my handwriting, I'd have to say it is very good, my friends seem to comment on how nice it is quite often. I guess you could say I have near-perfect handwriting when I really need to make something look good. (Formal card, invitation, Essay) However, I really don't think it is that important, as long as it is legible. When I do homework I just slop it down on paper and turn it in. However, when I do a written essay I make sure it is of the top quality of my penmanship, it is true that the student with nicer handwriting will appear more educated his counterpart, and most likely get the best grade.

 

Practice sure helped my handwriting much, but some of it is coordination. If you don't have good hand-eye coordination, you just are not going to be a good writer. Thats ok though, writing will not help you much in the professional world unless you are an artist, I suppose.

[Funkilicious 1]

Can I be the first to say my handwriting is not bad, those Nuns made sure we had beautiful cursive writing after all we had to gain our pen license somehow.

 

Most people only see my signature these days but I have been complimented on it quite a few times. And if it comes to Christmas and Birthdays Cards even though some might be on my Partners side, I have to do all the writing, even if I am under protest. Doesn't every Mother want to see their own Child's writing on the cards:) well I know I would even if it is illegible.

[gial 2]

My writing is barely legible when I take a little time. Of course, these days, if I have time, I put it in the computer. When I am strapped for time, my writing is very hard to read. So when I take notes at meetings, if I do not go over them right after, they are worthless -- which is quite often.

 

Seems to have gotten worse as time passes, too. Maybe all the repetition in school was good for it. I rarely handwrite any more though, so it has taken a turn for the worse.

[Seductive_Vampie 0]

I have good handwriting I think and as a matter of fact I recently had a customer ask me what the heck I was doing working at Walgreens with such nice handwriting and he gave me a card and said to call and make an appointment for a job interview which I have yet to do LOL!

[EvilMale 7]

I have crappy penmanship I will be the 1st to admit it I AM A GUY lol I don't write letters to family. If I have something to tell them I tell them over the phone or face to face in fact I hate to write at all. go figure

[FrostElfGuard 9]

My handwriting is pretty awful.

 

I have studied different techniques, and even took calligraphy lessons--I was trying to learn calligraphy so I could make scrolls (in the Medieval recreation club called the Society for Creative Anachronism people earn Awards and someone has to do the calligraphy (writing) and illumination (pretty pictures) for the parchment/sheet (called a scroll).)

 

It's been years, but I've found the secret.

 

Why my handwriting is bad.

 

It's simple.

 

I'm too rushed.

 

My mind operates at 100 mph (or 160 kph for Canadians and Europeans), and my hand operates at 25 mph (40 kph).

 

If I slow down, I have complete control over how I write.

 

Take some time and observe how fast someone who writes beautifully writes. It's probably a fraction of the speed of the messy writer.

 

The same people who can write neatly can also do archery and bowling better than average. Again, these pursuits reward someone who slows down and takes the time to get it right. (They also make better parents and coaches. Patience is a marvelous thing in a teacher!!)

 

So, caffeine-loving peoples (and I guess soda-pop lovers too) of the world: despair!

 

or...

 

at least...

 

Slow down and smell the roses, cross the ts and dot the I's.

[Genenut 8]

I used to work in a department where I routinely had to read ER doctors hand written notes... they were a bad influence on me and my handwriting has gone from okayish to totally illegible unless I slow down and think about it alot... I write like a DR without the degree or college loans ..

[Wankers 0]

My handwriting is barely legible .... mainly b/c I mix a bunch of different styles together ..... It is comical to play games that involve writing stuff out or whatnot .... cheers to all of us that have bad penmanship but good typing skillz (passes around a shot for everyone)

[Knuckles 904]

My cursive is atrocious...looks like chicken scratching

 

The only time I write cursive is signing my name. Otherwise it's all printing. My printing is pretty darn good and I used to do Calligraphy all the time

[Totalimmortal 0]

I cant hand-write warrants. I'm not allowed. sarge says he'll give me midnight shift one day a week for anything I handwrite. thats how bad my handwriting is. he jokes around I should have been a doctor. so yes, my handwriting is awful.

 

-Total

[OuttaTown 0]

depends on the type of pen I use - and for what I am writing for. also the quality of the paper that tells you how nicely you should write.

 

it varies from "no one can read it but me" to "wow you have nice handwriting for a guy" to "are you sure you wrote this?" (notice because of the french republic system, they normalized all students in the world on penmanship, in quebec there is no difference)

[Epox 2]

my hand writing is like a toilet flush swirly

[gogoblender 3,072]

Gawd

That's horrible Epox

 

 

yes, I'm laughing (sigh )

 

Guys I'm actually trying to pay more attention to all of the writing I do now. I've kind of turned it into a project of mine. Good penmanship...possible?

 

Let's see

 

 

gogo

[fRACTAL 0]

Mines a bit like OuttaTown's depends on me, if I'm hurrying its like I have my own alphabet, but if I take some time it surpasses most of my (male) friends.

~Doom

[bhj 24]

let me put it like this If it wasn't for all the medical knowledge I could very well have been a doctor

[Timotheus 416]

*nods reading all the DR related posts*

 

seems like there's more than one of me out there

[DreDBanGeR 32]

yup that sounds very familiair, as some others here I'm a lefty too, and I never got the hang of writing with pen... tbh in my first year of school I was hit on the fingers and forced to write with my right hand.. which I couldn't then and still can't now.

 

I really should have gone to medical school, I have the writing down

 

I still bless the day that I left school, no more writing, everything from then on was done on the computer.. or in a quick writ and then transferred to the computer ( within a certain amount of time or I'd loose the ability to read my own scribling )

 

yup final writing rating... 1 out of 10 ( but they never did give lower allthough they'd love to )

[myles 2]

Oh fellow lefty. Righty just doesn't understand how it is different, from opening jars to writing to everything. Okay maybe a little exaggerated, but its true.

 

That said, that does not mean penmanship is a righty world. A sizable number of great calligraphers are lefty, certainly more than 10% (as in the percent of lefty in the general world). So its never too late to start, lefty or righty.

 

I just wish designing can be geared toward everybody that's all.

 

(Oh its a month or so before, but I found these scissors that you can break apart and rebuild, whichever size you wish. I was so amazed, its a little thing really but I am totally awed by the simplicity and flexibility of it.)

[Knuckles 904]

Another lefty here

 

I hated erasable pens. I would smudge everything I wrote

 

Also 3-ring binders and spiral ring notebooks were a pain. You would always get ring marks on your forearm. I protested by writing on the back side of pages until my english teacher kept dropping my papers by one grade to get me to write on the 'proper' side

[gogoblender 3,072]

I'm taking some time these days to write down lists for sundries like groceries etc.

My writing's actually improving!

 

 

gogo