# cursive literacy **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305 "2016-09-07T23:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/41 "2016-09-08T15:45:36Z")
I have never had nice handwriting, but it is legible, and mostly cursive, if I make the effort. If I want to write something quickly, always cursive. If I want someone else to be able to read what I’ve written, I print, often in all caps for added legibility. Printing tends to slide into cursive, unless I slow down and make a special effort to form each letter. Same with cursive - if I go quickly, it becomes something only I can read, and sometimes, even I’m not sure what I wrote. I never realized reading cursive was a special skill. I find it hard to conceive that there are people who can’t read clear, neat cursive. I was listening to the radio about this topic the other day. One point they brought up was that inability to read cursive for academics means that original, handwritten documents, like letters and diaries, will no longer be accessible to a generation that cannot read them in their original form. Perhaps one day there will be a job translating cursive into print. At least I have one potentially useful skill. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/42 "2016-09-08T15:48:19Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I can write in cursive. And I can read it. It’s quick and fast and perfect for taking notes in meetings, lectures, etc. My colleagues who use computers aren’t nearly as fast as I am, when taking notes; I’d love to have a note-off with you, you with cursive and me with a laptop. Admittedly my years working as a secretary and transcriptionist might give me an unfair advantage, but at 80 wpm, I’m pretty sure I keyboard faster than you cursive :). ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/43 "2016-09-08T17:34:29Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’d love to have a note-off with you, you with cursive and me with a laptop. Admittedly my years working as a secretary and transcriptionist might give me an unfair advantage, but at 80 wpm, I’m pretty sure I keyboard faster than you cursive :). Yes but the rest of the room doesn’t have to listen to the click click of \*\*Spoons’s \*\*keyboard 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/44 "2016-09-08T17:55:13Z")
Most of what I write is short reminders to myself, so I rarely write in cursive (although I do remember all the letters). In fact, I rarely write much of anything anymore; mostly I type on a laptop or my phone. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/45 "2016-09-08T20:06:12Z")
I stopped writing all in cursive when I was in high school, just because my cursive looked so much shittier than my printing, which was all nice and neat. Eventually it evolved into kind of a cursive/printing mix. (Funny, I remember when I was in second grade and I was sooo excited to finally learn cursive. Go figure) ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/46 "2016-09-08T20:22:56Z")
_Oh, I thought this was about_ being able to read _cursive. I have big problems with that. The faster it dies the better._ ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/47 "2016-09-08T21:03:36Z")
I found this ted talk to be illuminating on the subject. [Why write? Penmanship for the 21st Century | Jake Weidmann | TEDxMileHigh - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bqT904VWA) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/48 "2016-09-08T23:59:41Z")
I can read it with a bit of difficulty. But it’s always been harder to read than print. I’d expect this to be true for everyone who knows cursive, since we mostly read print, and have less practice with cursive. I can write it, but I don’t, generally, except when just doodling for fun or making pretty signatures. I can do it neatly, but that makes it take longer to equally legibly print. I have never forgotten a single letter. I actually find it strange that people do. I can only guess they didn’t have handwriting drilled into them as much as I did, or weren’t forced to write in cursive as long as I was. I’ve never had to “cheat,” which I would define as making up my own character instead, **Ascenray**. I fully get that people don’t learn it now, and don’t see a huge problem with that. It’s really not that important. And if it actually taught motor skills, I think people would write better with it. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/49 "2016-09-09T01:21:06Z")
I can still write in cursive, but I almost never do anymore, largely because I almost never write by hand anymore. Probably the last time I really used it was when I had to take exams in college that required essay answers. The reason it was useful for that purpose is that I could write in cursive faster than I could print, which is why it’s always mystified me that cursive has fallen out of favor. Was I an odd man out in being one of the few who could write cursive faster than printing? I went to elementary school in the early 1980’s, and we learned cursive in school. To be honest, I always liked it (because I could write faster that way) but my use of it soon began to trail off only because I was very self-conscious about what other kids thought, and it seemed like none of the other kids liked it. I had the general impression cursive was seen as uncool, feminine, “gay,” or something like that, and that I would be perceived as a dorky wuss for writing in cursive. Part of the problem, though, may be that I never learned to print properly. This was because in my school system, they didn’t teach us true printing, but rather the [D’Nealian print method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian), in which the letters all have these cursive-like tails on them and are all curly like cursive letters, you just don’t connect them together without lifting the pen. This was done to make it easier for us to learn cursive. It worked on me, but seemingly not on the other kids, who somehow reverted to a more old-fashioned way of printing we were never actually taught in school. To this day, I still wonder how all the other kids learned to print that way. I’m seeing a lot of cursive-hatred in this thread. Where does this come from? Did a lot of people just never learn it properly? Because my experience, as I said, was that if you can do it right, it’s faster than printing. What’s not to like about that? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/50 "2016-09-09T01:24:42Z")
Cursive writers: is there a preferred penknife for whitling your quills? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/51 "2016-09-09T02:14:30Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Yes but the rest of the room doesn’t have to listen to the click click of \*\*Spoons’s \*\*keyboard 😉 scritch scritch scritch ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/52 "2016-09-09T02:18:05Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I’m seeing a lot of cursive-hatred in this thread. Where does this come from? Did a lot of people just never learn it properly? Because my experience, as I said, was that if you can do it right, it’s faster than printing. What’s not to like about that? My dislike of it mainly stems from the fact that I have to spend so much time teaching it, when I could teach other things. Every year I begin third grade by asking students to write one goal for the year on a star and decorate it; it becomes my first bulletin board. As usual, about a quarter of the class wrote, “I want to learn cursive.” But for the first time this year, one wonderful child, after watching me touch-type student suggestions onto our screen, wrote, “I want to learn to type really really fast.” 🙂 If I switched my cursive-instruction time over to keyboard-instruction time, those kids would be much better prepared for the world that will exist until keyboards become obsolete (sometime in the next two decades, most likely). ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/53 "2016-09-09T02:48:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Cursive writers: is there a preferred penknife for whitling your quills? Preferred pen knife?! Don’t you have a house boy for that? Oh yeah… _Thanks Lincoln_ ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/54 "2016-09-09T05:02:37Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Cursive writers: is there a preferred penknife for whitling your quills? I was wondering if anybody would mention fountain pens 🙂 If you want to write cursive, you should be using a roller-ball pen, or a nib pen of some sort. I’m told that nib pens are even better than rollar-ball pens, but, being left handed, it’s all wasted on me. Normal ball-point pens use a thick oil-based ink. It works alright for printing, but requires more force and presure. This facours draw-strokes over push-strokes, and like carving stone, favours straight lines over curves. Buttom line is that, with a ball-point pen, cursive doesn’t offer advantages of speed, calrity, and reduced effort. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/55 "2016-09-09T10:01:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Cursive writers: is there a preferred penknife for whitling your quills? I usually used an xacto-knife back in the days I was doing serious calligraphy for that sort of thing, though really I found metal-nib pens much better for consistent work as organic nibs wear out much, much quicker. > [@Melbourne](#): > > If you want to write cursive, you should be using a roller-ball pen, or a nib pen of some sort. I’m told that nib pens are even better than rollar-ball pens, but, being left handed, it’s all wasted on me. There are left-handed nib pens, but you have to really look for them. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/56 "2016-09-09T10:58:25Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > until keyboards become obsolete (sometime in the next two decades, most likely). Suuure. Maybe today’s kids when they grow up will be ok with typing on glass rather than needing to feel the keys to be able to press the right ones, but even then it’s still a keyboard. It’s criminal that schools don’t learn kids to touch type. It’s the most important skill to have in the information age. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/57 "2016-09-09T11:56:06Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > My dislike of it mainly stems from the fact that I have to spend so much time teaching it, when I could teach other things. > > Every year I begin third grade by asking students to write one goal for the year on a star and decorate it; it becomes my first bulletin board. As usual, about a quarter of the class wrote, “I want to learn cursive.” But for the first time this year, one wonderful child, after watching me touch-type student suggestions onto our screen, wrote, “I want to learn to type really really fast.” 🙂 > > If I switched my cursive-instruction time over to keyboard-instruction time, those kids would be much better prepared for the world that will exist until keyboards become obsolete (sometime in the next two decades, most likely). I think everyone I know who writes cursive, types proficiently. But many of those who type can’t write cursive (well). If one skill is blocking out the other, it’s early keyboarding that’s the problem. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/58 "2016-09-09T12:46:19Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I’m seeing a lot of cursive-hatred in this thread. Where does this come from? Did a lot of people just never learn it properly? Because my experience, as I said, was that if you can do it right, it’s faster than printing. What’s not to like about that? It’s faster than printing if I want the end result to be a mass of meaningless loops. If I want to produce text that is actually legible to the human eye, it is far far slower than printing. Yes, I can still write cursive if need be, and can read it if it’s written neatly. But as I said, to write it neatly I have to take my time and do it very slowly. And really, the key words are _if need be_. For life in the age we now live in, the need simply does not be. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/59 "2016-09-09T12:51:00Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > scritch > scritch > scritch 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305/60 "2016-09-09T22:08:16Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > The reason it was useful for that purpose is that I could write in cursive faster than I could print, which is why it’s always mystified me that cursive has fallen out of favor. Was I an odd man out in being one of the few who could write cursive faster than printing? The world is divided into two sorts, of people - those who can cursive faster than they print, and those who can print faster than they cursive. Obviously you’re going to see A Lot of the second type of people in a thread like this. We’re the ones with a great big grudge (forced to spend years grinding away at an ultimately useless skill!) and a gigantic shoulder-chip on the subject. It’s not that there’s more of us necessarily, but it _matters_ more to us. Also, this board does skew Geek, and cursive is obviously particularly useless if what you tend to write contains a lot of numbers. No script form for digits (and now it comes to it, I wonder why not…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cursive-literacy/765305.md?page=4)