Cursive question

In My Humble Opinion
41

Alright, here are samples of my handwriting:

Discrete Math notes This is a homework problem from my Discrete Math class (this and the next image are darkened to show the pencil marks better than they originally looked)

Calculus 3 notes This is homework from my Calc 3 class. No, don’t ask me to do this problem again. :wink:

World War notes Lecture notes from my World War I/ World War II class. Apologies for the poor quality of the scan (of this one and the next), but I believe you can still see what my writing looks like.

American Lit notes Lecture notes from my American Lit class.

As you can see, I have different handwriting styles depending. On what, you ask? Eh, basically how I feel. Sometimes I wish to print on a more angled line, other times I want to print straight up and down. If you look at the bottom of the World War notes, you can see a parenthetical insertion that’s in cursive; it’s my “personal” cursive which I admit is more difficult to read (which is why my “public” cursive is a bit larger).

As you can probably tell from the scans, I generally write very tiny letters. The lecture notes are written on College Ruled paper, and my math is done on Narrow Ruled paper (the lines are narrower than College Ruled). I always make a point of (in the beginning of the semester) showing the professor how I write and asking them if they would like me to increase the size of it for easier readability. Most times they say that yes, it is small, but it’s neater than everyone else’s writing, so they don’t care. :smiley:

42

Here’s some graphology on your handwriting (BTW - I am an amateur :smiley: )

1> You have normal (even low) Id which means it may be normal (even low) sexual desire or low basic instincts (ambition, money, etc. etc.)

2> Small handriting usually means big hands and or strength. So I wont be surprised you are big :D.

3> You have a healthy ego. In handwriting terms it means you care what you wear how you look like and things like that.

4> You are not too big on abstract philosophy or art. “Higher Thinking” is not your cup of tea.

5> You usually are an emotional person. You make more decisions with your heart than your head (So you do not always are not the diplomatic person :smiley: ). It may be easy for someone to take advantage of this aspect. When your slant fluctuates your emotional makeup is fluctuating - that is you are emotional one minute and trying to hide it the next. In short indecision.

6> You are a person who follows the “traditional” life and easy going with friends. You’ll probably never do anything wild or out of the way. You like order in your life and organization.

7> You are very controlling of yourself , never quite loosening up. Anxious may be a way to describe.

I can go on and on. But thats the gist. Better understanding is obtained by checking writing pressure (thats why Banks prefer you don’t use a felt pen to sign). And of course a signature of a person is his impression of what he/she appears as, to the world.

I can explain all of the above deductions, if you are interested. :smiley:

43

They did about two months ago when I took it computerized. Before I got near a computer, I had to copy a statement - but didn’t check whether or not it was to be in cursive.
hmmmm…

44

andy_fl, I also am an (extremely) amateur graphologist. I like comparing what others see in my handwriting to what I can see in it myself!

1 – Pretty accurate, since I’m almost asexual most times. Heh

2 – In my studies, I have learned that small handwriting is supposed to mean either of two things: either a deep thinker (if the handwriting is neat), or a deeply disturbed person (if the handwriting is completely illegible). Good thing it’s neat, then! :wink:

3 – Well, I do care how I present myself; to a point anyway.

4 – That, I’m sorry to say, is way off base. I’m not taking what you said as an insult, if that’s what you’re wondering. But in one of my majors (Humanities), the main emphasis is on philosophy; I’m also on the Artists’ Guild at school and work on the art/literary publication there. Those are actually the areas of study (along with history and languages) that interest me the most.

5 – I, unfortunately, am much more emotional than I would like. However, that often leads me to try to be too diplomatic (“Well, if I do THIS, (blah) might feel bad, but if I do THIS instead, (bleh) could be hurt”, then I waste time trying to find whichever one will hurt whoever the least). And yes, my slant depends on my mood. Usually if I’m feeling either blah, or calm and collected, it’s straight up; if I’m in a good mood it’s slanted.

6 – Depends on what “traditional” is. I admit I prefer to stay in and watch movies instead of going out to clubs. And my “order and organisation” is a study of contrasts: my room is extremely messy, but my notes have to be EXACTLY PERFECT or I can’t study from them at all.

7 – Spot on. You shoulda seen me two years ago; I was so tense I was ready to snap. When I was taking notes, if I made a single mistake, I had to start over. I couldn’t just use Wite-Out; I had to re-do the entire thing so the sheet was perfect, even if I had been on the last line of paper. Now I just use Wite-Out. :wink:

45

This is really more an IMHO thing. I’ll shoot it over there.

46

[Bart] I know ‘hell’, ‘damn’, ‘bit-’ [/Bart]

47

zweisamkeit, you have much better handwriting than I do. But I still think that your print is way more legible than your cursive.

As for doing math in cursive, it’s legible enough, so you could read it yourself, but don’t show that to anyone else. Your z’s look like 3’s, and I can’t tell your n’s and m’s apart. If you’re very familiar with it, fine. But a tiny transcription error on any of these points can ruin your whole problem.

48

I’m bemused - some people don’t know how to write in what we used to call ‘joined-up writing’? How on Earth did you cope before you had computers? At my school (in England) we were ‘taught’ joined-up writing from the age of seven or so, but there was no strict emphasis on particular ways of joining up letters. You simply do it in the way which is most comfortable for you.

I do remember reading an article many years ago (sorry, no cite) about the different systems of handwriting in different countries; in Germany and Eastern Europe, for example, they teach cursive from the very beginning, and thus the handwriting of adults who have grown up with this system tends to be pretty similar. In the more flexible British system, there’s much more variation in handwriting styles - including pretty messy styles like my own. Even though mine is messy, it is very fast - which has probably gained me a few grade levels in exams all the way through school and college.

Despite what andyfl says, I can’t see how print can be faster than cursive (in general; some individuals may find they print faster, of course). Cursive has less stopping and starting and is far more fluid than print. How can it not be faster? And if it is, that’s a pretty good reason to keep it.

49

I was taught joined (cursive) writing in first grade. I can remember how much fun I had writing continuous rows of joined e’s! Now it takes a little more than that to amuse me…

Anyway, I developed a style of cursive that is almost upright and almost slants backwards at times. When written neatly, it looks a bit like joined printed letters. My actually printed writing looks the same, just without the joins. Most people have no problem reading it. I have never used my handwriting much, so it hasn’t really developed over the years. Recently, during a trip to Ecuador, I wrote an (estimated) 15,000 word journal by hand. This is the one time where it has been of most use.

One the following page are some examples of my handwriting. Just for the sake of it, there is also some text written in a computer font based on my handwriting!

http://www.geocities.com/insecta4o4/handw.htm

WARNING: My k’s have a habit of looking like R’s or b’s!

I hope this is an interesting addition to this topic.

50

I haven’t written in cursive since high school over 27 years ago. My legal signature is even in printing. In the past I have had businesses not accept checks and when my wife and I bought our house, the lady at the title company office where we signed most of the papers did not want to accept them because my signature and printed name were the same. She refused to comprehend that there are folks that do not sign their names in cursive. She said the title insurance company and mortgage company probably will not accept the paperwork as signed. Of course it was all accepted, we never heard anything from them.

51

I picked up an application for the fire department for a friend awhile back. They require you to write an eassy in cursive. I assume it’s so they can send it to a graphologist.

I also had quite a few professors that required papers be written in cursive. They would not take printed or typed papers. Many of my math professors did not let us use calculators either. Try finding a slide rule in the mid 1990’s. I’m glad my father still had his.

Children should be taught cursive. They may not like it or ever use it. But it could prove useful.