Don’t most people, right and left handed, tilt the paper, perhaps not 90 degrees, but at an appreciable angle as necessary for comfort? If you look at right-handed people writing Arabic, do they tend to hold their hand above the line?
I have a couple of fountain pens that I keep at my desk. The students love the look but they fall in love with them once they use them.
I’ve had a few students, righties and lefties alike, who turn the paper completely 90 degrees while writing, no matter what implement they’re using. It seems odd to me, but hey, it works for them.
Not really. Right handed people can keep the paper at an angle that’s both comfortable to read and also comfortable to write. Lefties can’t do that with an implement that smudges. I think that’s why we write left to right. Because it’s easier for righties. Most languages were written right to left when most righting was chipped out of stone, because righties are less likely to bang their fingers that way.
Obviously, there are other considerations (like tradition, and who knows, maybe even the handedness of some important scribe in history.)
Checking now, as a right-hander, I tilt the paper maybe 20 degrees counter clockwise.
Nope, not for this right-hander, I have my paper oriented exactly at 0° or 90°, respectively, no matter if I write with a ballpoint pen, pencil, felt tip pen or fountain pen.
Ancillary question: and I know this is a bit of a hijack: Do you have your paper directly in front of you or towards the right? When I write, with tilted notepad, the paper is pretty much centered with my body or a little bit to the left. For me to write comfortably without angling the paper a bit, I’d need it on the right hand side of my body.
Maybe it’s about 10-15 % towards the right. Not much.
This lefty never tilted the paper at all. Never saw a need to. I did notice other lefties turning the page at awkward angles, with no obvious purpose other than wanting to twist hands and necks at awkward angles too.
I do remember ink occasionally smudging. But not often enough to see any pattern. If I ever smudged, I would just hold my hand higher off the paper and keep going.
Makes me think of how long it took me to recognize that the object on the Daily News logo was a camera
(And I’m an old guy - would a guy with a smartphone since age 12 recognize an old fashioned camera icon?)