[inspired by the thread about kids and cursive]
Obviously, that is a generalization, but I have noticed that the vast majority of my compatriots stopped writing in cursive during, or shortly after, their teen years. I stopped around age 16, and now I can’t go back.
Why? Taking myself for example, I was intensively indoctrinated to use cursive writing, and cursive is certainly more efficient. I don’t recall making a conscious choice to start printing again - it just happened.
Is print the “adult” thing to do?
Sua
Well, this may sound strange, but due to my repetetive stress injuries of my hands and fingers (and no, it’s not from what you think ) printing is easier for me to do than cursive.
Although cursive is supposed to be “more efficient” (although I have no idea in what way), I wonder if others find it difficult to do when the fingers start to get old and cranky…
Being a leftie Red Commie sandbox wetter, I stopped using cursive in high school, freshman year - simply for the same reasons as Shiva. My cursive is horrible. If I took the time to do it, I could produce a really nice script; most of the time, however, I need to write too quickly for the cursive to be legible. So I bust a cap - small caps, that is. Actually I’ve gotten compliments on my writing, or at least interesting comparisons with typewriters.
I realize this is anecdotal evidence, but I’d venture the guess that anyone who does revert to print handwriting probably feels their cursive just isn’t readable. The others either do actually have an excellent and readable script or are in the medical field.
Probably a combination of Anthracite’s and Shiva’s answers.
Good cursive handwriting is more legible than good block printing (for more a few dozen words). Bad cursive handwriting is much less legible than than bad block printing, however.
Since many of us cannot, due to injury or whatnot, produce even marginally legible handwriting (I can barely print legibly), printing is the only way to go that won’t leave everyone else going, “Huh?”
Nearly all communication is through voice and keyboard these days. If someone actually has a pen or pencil in their hand, it is likely to be for the purpose of filling out a form (which usually has an instruction to fill it out using “block letters” or something similar–so that it can be more easily keyed by the person recording the hand-written info into the computer).
After a while, the general habit of cursive just falls away by atrophy.
(And, as Shiva notes, a lot of us have pretty dreadful cursive. If we are writing someone a note, we’re liable to use printing for the perfectly good reason that we want the reader to know what we said.)
My handwriting has been officially illegible since the 70’s. Although I can blame arthritus now, the excuse doesn’t explain why my log entries in the 70’s needed translations.
the really scarey thing is: even when I try to make it legible and print, my hand starts speeding up anyhow…
I try to type everything these days. not always possible.
Not really, and not according to my Cartography instructor, cursive handwriting is MUCH more difficult to read. That’s why you don’t see cursive writing on much, at least on maps anyway. I gave it up cause my handwritting sucked really bad. I asked once when I volunteered in an elementary school and was told that the reason they taught it was because they might have a boss that used cursive. In MD they can stop using it after elementary school.
tomndebb, this is just silly. Given the normally stellar quality of your posts, I’m assuming you haven’t had your coffee yet today.
First, your explanation doesn’t deal with people (like myself) who gave up cursive writing before the rise of computers. This group, seeing how people usually don’t give up cursive until their teen/adult years, and seeing how computers have only become ubiquitous in the past ten years, is the majority. Second, even today, people still write things a hell of a lot. Much of what is handwritten these days, however, is written for the author’s own benefit, such a note-taking in class or in meetings. So, atrophy doesn’t cut it.
Furthermore, your explanation actually cuts against the illegibility argument made by you and others on this thread. My handwriting, print or cursive, is pretty bad, but I can read it. I’m sure most people can read their own handwriting regardless of how bad it is, so whether it is illegible doesn’t matter much.
I think your suggestion is right on the mark tomndeb.
IMHO: Essentially cursive is an obsolete method of communication. If I communicate by written word it is done entirely by e-mail(typing) anymore. There just is no way I ever use cursive because it is cumbersome and people can’t read it anyway. If I do use handwriting it is to scribble down something short like a reminder, or a phone #, usually on a dinky little memo pad.
The whole point of cursive I believe is to make it more efficient to put long documents down on paper by hand. Since cursive is obsolete because of the type written word it has fallen out of common use and the average persons skill has fallen drastically because of that. If I remember correctly, letters I have seen that were written in the 19th century generally have absolutely beautiful cursive writing. Why, because cursive was used every day to communicate. They had classes back then specifically devoted to improving cursive. Now we have typing classes specifically to improve the speed and accuracy of your typing.
Am I this far out of the mainstream? I’m a litigator and, because of my profession, I have to (hand)write a lot. Whether meeting with a client, another attorney, or attending a deposition/hearing, I take copious notes. I handwrite them because, even though my typing iz vere fast and akurate (:D) I’m still a faster handwriter, so I don’t use a laptop for note-taking. I don’t deny that my heavy use of computers has weakened my handwriting skills, but again, if handwriting is now mainly used for one’s own benefit, legibility is not very important.
Are we people who are heavy note takers a small minority now?
Sua
I quit using cursive as soon as teachers would accept printed rather than handwritten assignments from me. Long before I typed on keyboards. Two reasons - my handwriting is an ugly scrawl which looks essentially like it did in 5th grade, and printing is more compact anyway. And the slower I print, the smaller I can make it. I can cram an awful lot of printing in a margin note or on a postit if I want to.
I use a mixture of block letters and cursive when I write, predominently cursive. A quick look at notes scattered on my desk shows that I generally use a block letter as the first letter of a word, then go to cursive.
However, I hate writing. I won’t do it unless I really really have to, or unless I’m jotting quick notes to myself. I hate having to write out long things. I much prefer a keyboard, and pretty much have since I learned to type in 8th grade.
I’m like Athena, using a mix of cursive & block lettering. An example, since I can’t scan:
the name “Cheryl”
I start with an uppercase C, that looks like a plain block C, except that I join it with the h,e,and r. The r is a block r (since script r’s are dumb). Then I picked up my pen, and added a script “yl.” The thing is – do you distinguish between joining letters, and actually writing them by the “proper script” I was taught in school? Only rarely are my letters proper, however, I usually join then, with 0-3 breaks within each word.
Am I weird or something? I use cursive all the time, except when I’m teaching and I have to write on the blackboard (I HATE the blackboard). Printing makes my hand cramp up, and I can’t do it neatly to save my life; my cursive writing is a great deal easier to read.
And yes, tomndebb, some people still write – daily, and in large quantities.
We’re taught a form of cursive handwriting that is based on copperplate calligraphy, which in turn is based on a particularly perverse machine-printing method. The cursive we learn is full of strange do-dads and joining rules that reduce speed and legibility.
If you can sucessfully reject these inefficent elements and make your cursive a logical extension of your printed script, you’re more likely to develop quick and readable handwriting. If you stick to the exact method you were taught in grade school, it’s not at all suprising that you’d revert to printing.
) printing is easier for me to do than cursive.