# My handwriting has gone to shit.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 10, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118 "2014-05-10T06:02:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/1 "2014-05-10T06:02:40Z")
I don’t write stuff anymore. Most of my ‘business’ is conducted online and my aunts and grandmas are dead so I don’t have to write ‘Thank You’ notes any longer. I can type like a muthafucker, but I’ve forgotten how to write, on paper, with a pen. When I do write, it looks like I’ve reverted to age 12 or something…the script just doesn’t flow, and I end up scribbling out mistakes. I figure that in 100 yrs or so, handwriting will be an archaic _art_, something relegated to history books and cutesy antique shops! Well, it will be if my experience is anything to go by! kam…who had to write in a birthday card today, and found it ‘challenging’. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/2 "2014-05-10T06:59:52Z")
I wrote something in a sympathy card yesterday, and I had to think about whether I had formed the capital letter “I” properly (I had, fortunately). My handwriting really has gotten awful - even my signature has deteriorated. Also, on those rare occasions when I’m forced to write more than a few lines of cursive I tend to get writer’s cramp. A lot of elementary schools no longer teach cursive. We don’t really need it any more, since more efficient and legible means of writing are so common. The only downside I can see is that future generations may have a hard time reading historical documents. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/3 "2014-05-10T07:19:48Z")
Welcome to the club. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/4 "2014-05-10T07:23:43Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > The only downside I can see is that future generations may have a hard time reading historical documents. Maybe, but I’ve never seen a historical document written in anything close to the textbook publisher version of cursive I learned. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/5 "2014-05-10T07:27:54Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > … - even my signature has deteriorated. Mine used to be quite a work of art…nowadays it looks like some sort of spoofe of post-expressionist expressionism! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/6 "2014-05-10T07:31:19Z")
It also happens if you write too much, so at least you let yours deteriorate the easy way. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/7 "2014-05-10T07:40:33Z")
Well (unlike myself) you people can still read what you have written. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/8 "2014-05-10T09:41:56Z")
Not only has my handwriting badly deteriorated, even my printing is quite a bit shakier than it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/9 "2014-05-10T11:07:58Z")
My handwriting used to be quite good. Not copperplate but legible, neat, even and adult. It’s deteriorated to the point of being a mongrel of printing and ‘proper’ writing and I find myself making mistakes which make it look even more childish. My signature used to be discernible as my name. Now it’s just J + squiggle. I have to handwrite notes at work and I’m thoroughly ashamed of my writing. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/10 "2014-05-10T12:29:11Z")
My handwriting was always shocking. Now it’s virtually illegible even for me. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/11 "2014-05-11T00:49:25Z")
there are many times, I’ll write something and try to read it 30 minutes later only to discover I can’t ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/12 "2014-05-11T00:52:19Z")
practice and watch your Ps and Qs. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/13 "2014-05-11T00:54:58Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > I figure that in 100 yrs or so . . . More like 20, or sooner. The only thing I ever “write” is my signature, which is virtually illegible. I once had a bank teller reject my signature, based on my penmanship. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/14 "2014-05-11T08:45:28Z")
Yup, my handwriting has gone to shit as well. When everything is electronic you forget how to write. I kid you not - just a few days ago I had to manually sign my own autograph on a “Certificate of Conformance” for an unusually fussy customer. I ended up printing and signing the damn thing like 7 times. Every time I signed it looked like an amateurish forgery of my real signature, which I do actually remember from high-school (15 years ago.) I can still scratch out notes with a pen and paper, but man - proper writing is gone for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/15 "2014-05-11T10:35:34Z")
I used to fret over the loss of my penmanship, mainly because my writing was very neat way back when (something which I was particularly proud of because I’m left-handed and people expected my handwriting to be poor). Now I just think of it as yet another useless skill I no longer require, like using a slide rule or logarithmic tables. Also my typing can just about keep up with my brain when I’m composing something, whereas my writing never could, so I choose to see it as a positive advance. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/16 "2014-05-11T11:36:13Z")
Here’s how bad my handwriting is, as well as how bad a Korean friend’s handwriting is. Once while he and I were in our ward’s bishopric meeting (I was the only foreigner in our ward in Korea), the bishop stated a topic and I wrote the topic in English in longhand, my friend wrote the topic in Korean longhand. The bishop stopped mid-sentence. He looked at my notes, he looked at the other counselor’s notes, then he shook his head and said, “Unbelievable. They look exactly the same.” Sad, but true. In case you’re wondering, the word in question was: (English) Seminary; (한글) 세미나리. Come to think of it, the bishop’s handwriting wasn’t much better than ours, but his was at least better. I would dearly welcome good suggestions on how to improve my penmanship. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/17 "2014-05-11T12:10:42Z")
I went to Catholic School starting in 1959. We were graded on penmanship, and were expected to write in the “Palmer Method.” Any individuality of style was strongly discouraged. If Sister Mary Claver could see my handwriting today, she would be beating my hands with a yardstick… ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/18 "2014-05-11T18:44:13Z")
I like to use tasks like writing shopping lists to practice my handwriting, I go slowly and try to make each letter beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/19 "2014-05-11T22:45:32Z")
Well, at least my signature is not deteriorarting further, due to having to use it every often (government work – they show no intent to ever get rid of signing an actual piece of paper at some point in the process). But yes, I find that I have to practice every so often to keep the handwriting legible. However, while back when I had two modes, one a very fast scrawl for taking notes on the run, and one for when I had time and it was something I’d have to show someone else or that would go into a record, now it all seems to have melded together. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118/20 "2014-05-11T23:02:18Z")
My handwriting STARTED terrible! Fine motor issues AND lefty. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-handwriting-has-gone-to-shit/688118.md?page=2)