I’ll do it that way sometimes. Just because.
So did I. When I tried it in the air I thought it was clockwise; but when I actually used a pen it’s counterclockwise every time.
– also counterclockwise with the left hand. (My left hand produces what looks like a small child’s writing, and is much slower than the right. It isn’t always less legible, though.)
Same with zeros; my zeros are indistinguishable from letter-O’s. So, IME, are a lot of the ones people give you if they write down their email addresses.
I also use a single figure-8 motion (and am in the USA).
Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the slight hijack.
I already voted for counter-clockwise (and I also had to imagine myself writing it to know), and I got in the habit of making my 8s like stacked o’s because I liked the way they looked better.
Years ago I also started making the final letter in a word when it’s a T the old-fashioned way. Hard to describe…sorta like crossing itself without making a separate cross slash?
Counterclockwise in “print” or when starting a word, but clockwise when writing in cursive. I think the latter is just due to the general flow of cursive.
Both start from the left side, though.
I can do that – and I must have done it before, my hand knows how – but I don’t usually.
– do you wind up with a kind of loop for the bottom half of the t? [ETA: I do.]
A smallish loop, but, yeah. I like to try to avoid it and make it a point instead.
Counter-clockwise from the top.
Looks like I do a closed circle at the top and a partial one at the bottom, starting at the top circle’s 7 or 8 o’clock and ending at it’s 4 or 5. And that’s why I have a bunch of 8s drawn on a junkmail envelope next to the computer.
People still write? 
On its own, from the top, clockwise.
But when writing my name in script, from top, anti-clockwise. I guess it depends on what precedes it.
Anything old enough is retro/vintage and therefore cool again, so, yes.
I was going to post this. An “O” is not the same thing as a “zero”; at least, I will throw some distinctive loops on the former, like in the Coca-Cola logo, and it typically gets joined up on one or both sides, while I feel like I am just as, if not much more likely to draw an isolated circle or oval clockwise, depending on what precedes it, though am not consciously sure. Jotting some block letters, I feel like it depends on the previous letter.
I suppose some really old-school lettering pens or calligraphic type of nibs may not work on an upstroke and therefore you would need two strokes to complete an “O”, but it is not something I have ever had to deal with.
I’m also a lefty. Counter-clockwise!
Same.
That’s interesting, as we were definitely taught counterclockwise in cursive, especially since you have that little loopy flourish (at least in the Palmer Method I was taught) at the end that leads to the next letter.
Doing it clockwise feels really weird to me – but that’s decades of muscle memory there. In printing, a clockwise O doesn’t feel so odd.
Are 4’s closed like a triangle or open like an field goal uprights?
Counterclockwise, starting at about the 1 o’clock point.
And since someone mentioned number 8’s… I draw them starting at the very top drawing the left half, when I get to the bottom, I continue around and draw the right half going up. Lower circle is larger than the upper.
The way I was taught, the loop comes after I’ve already completed the circle once. I start as shown in your diagram, but then I go all the way around to make the circle, then, when I get back to the top, I add the little loop.
I don’t ever reverse direction the way it is shown in your diagram.
Edit: and for an 8, I draw an S and then connect the end back to the start.
Clockwise, starting at nine o’clock.
Can’t say I’ve ever thought about it before.
Likewise.
Yeah, same here on the 8. I looked at my kid’s notes – because apparently are doing a quick introduction to cursive (3rd grade) – and her “O” is the same as I was taught – I’m not sure what specific method is being used. Googling “cursive o worksheet” I only see the counterclockwise method from a cursory perusal. Was this how you were taught, or your own personal style? My own cursive is a lot different than what I was taught, so I totally get doing it the way that feels most comfortable and sensible to you.
Open!
Open, or else they get mistaken for ugly 9s.