Handwriting | Pad Patter 1.23

[IntenseMagic]

Today is Handwriting Day, so I'm curious...

Do you like your handwriting?
Do you do a lot of writing?
Cursive or Print or a mix?
Left handed or right handed?

I do like my handwriting if I am trying to write neatly, like on the board at school. Otherwise, it's a mess. I write a lot, at work and at home and it's usually a mix of print and cursive. I jokingly (kind of) say that one day there are going to be jobs where people do nothing but translate cursive because there are so many kids these days who cannot read it at all.

 

[Cherylndesigns]

I used to - LOL The older I get, the worse it gets - my dad used to say the same thing.

Also, with all of our devices, I don't WRITE very much. I've really been trying to make myself write more. I started block printing several years ago - my hubby is an engineer and he has beautiful block printing and I practiced it until I perfected it. I probably print more than I write, still.

I'm trying to journal by hand and am listening to a series of audio books called "The Artist Way" where the author encourges us to really write - old school. She swears that it releases our inner artist. i haven't had that ahh haa moment yet, but it might come.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Like @Cherylndesigns my handwriting has gotten worse.

I used to love my handwriting, and yes I wrote in cursive quite a bit. At times it was a mix of cursive and printing but my signature has always been all cursive. And, it doesn't look as nice as it used to these days. I don't write much anymore now that I'm retired. Notes for me are about it. I am right handed but in my younger days I practiced writing with my left hand and didn't do to badly at it.

My mother always said that I was probably destined to be a leftie since I always picked up everything with my left hand including forks and spoons. But her mom always switched them and made me eat right handed. She was from the era that you did not do things left handed. Grandpa was a leftie but teachers hit his knuckles with a ruler to get him to change when he was young. He had horrible handwriting all his life because of it. So Grandma wanted to avoid that!

I noticed my handwriting start to change about 20 years ago when I had the rotator cuff problem on my right side. I have trouble holding really thin pencils and pens and was advised to get fat barrel pens to use. I found a brand that works and just pray it keeps being manufactured!

 

[michelepixels]

Do you like your handwriting? I'm fine with it. It has gotten a bit messy since the digital age has given us so many typing opportunities, but my typing is excellent!

Do you do a lot of writing? I assume this means by hand. No. Hardly ever anymore. My lists, my notes, my journal . . . everything is on my phone or computer now. I love it. I do a lot of writing every day; just not by hand. I also still love handwriting letters and do so with one friend who also finds time to write. (I've tried writing snail mail with other friends, but rarely get letters back.)

Cursive or Print or a mix? Mostly cursive. Long ago, however, in high school in the late 1980's, for some reason, my capital letters evolved to be more print-like than cursive. When I studied to be a teacher in the mid-1990's, I tried to correct that, and I did while teaching, but it's something that has persisted to this day.

Left handed or right handed? Right

I'm trying to journal by hand and am listening to a series of audio books called "The Artist Way" where the author encourges us to really write - old school. She swears that it releases our inner artist. i haven't had that ahh haa moment yet, but it might come.

This amuses me because when I was handwriting all the time -- in the 1980's and 1990's -- I would not have called myself creative. Now that I rarely handwrite, can make scrapbook pages digitally, and write so much more easily any time and any where on my phone, etc, I do consider myself creative.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

This amuses me because when I was handwriting all the time -- in the 1980's and 1990's -- I would not have called myself creative. Now that I rarely handwrite, can make scrapbook pages digitally, and write so much more easily any time and any where on my phone, etc, I do consider myself creative.

I hadn't heard about creativity either but I have heard that taking notes by hand helps to reinforce what you are listening to in a classroom setting. I was in an online course a few years back that the instructor wanted us to take all of our notes from the readings and videos by hand and to turn those notes in at the end of the course when she reviewed everything to earn the certification. Like you I type faster than I write (I did train to be a typing teacher after all). I tried to do the note taking by hand but I missed so much because I was slow! I gave up on the course when they switched the school portal software 4 times.

 

[gonewiththewind]

Do you like your handwriting? Yes
Do you do a lot of writing? No. Most of my writing is on Post It notes or in my planner or on lists.
Cursive or Print or a mix? I use a block print and cursive
Left handed or right handed? Right handed

I do most of my writing using a keyboard. I don't even like texting that much, but when I do, I use the swipe keyboard so I'm not really typing.

I'm about 70 wpm with a keyboard.

 

[michelepixels]

I hadn't heard about creativity either but I have heard that taking notes by hand helps to reinforce what you are listening to in a classroom setting. . . .

I've read that too. I don't feel it's right for me. I remember things better writing them down either by hand or by typing. I make digital notes all the time now, and just like in the old days just writing it down, even digitally, makes it likely I'll remember it, even without needing to get the pop-up notification from my phone. Maybe it's the concentration/focus needed to compose the note that makes us remember, not the method we use make the note.

 

[rach3975]

Do you like your handwriting? When I take the time to write neatly and use my "teacher writing," yes. But who has time to write like that all the time?
Do you do a lot of writing? I still like to keep lists and a planner on paper, so I do some writing every day. Anything substantial I don't handwrite.
Cursive or Print or a mix? Print when I'm writing neatly (and slowly!) for others to read. A mix when I'm scribbling something down quickly for myself.
Left handed or right handed? Right

I hadn't heard about creativity either but I have heard that taking notes by hand helps to reinforce what you are listening to in a classroom setting.

I started working on a masters this fall, so since I hadn't been a student in 20 years I did some research on notetaking methods to decide what I'd want to use. The reason taking notes by hand is supposedly the preferred method is because it's slower--there's no way to get everything down, so you have to process what you're hearing and only write the most important things. I understand the reasoning, but I can't do both at once--by the time I've processed and written, the teacher has moved on and I've missed something. Give me my laptop, and I take excellent notes and remember what I learned.

 

[littlekiwi]

Do you like your handwriting? Nope, in fact I hate it
Do you do a lot of writing? No, to the point my hand hurts if I have to write too much
Cursive or Print or a mix? Mix, we were taught "cursive" at school but it is nothing like the cursive my family and friends that I know were brought up in Canada do so its really just printing with a few tails or flourishes
Left handed or right handed? Right handed

 

[StefanieS]

Do you like your handwriting? No, not really.
Do you do a lot of writing? Not much anymore.
Cursive or Print or a mix? Cursive
Left handed or right handed? Right
I have so many hand writing fonts though - even my own hand writing as a font (which I still don't like) I know it's important to leave some things in my own hand writing but most journaling on layouts is DJB's Smarty pants.

 

[Angela Toucan]

Do you like your handwriting? yes
Do you do a lot of writing? yes
Cursive or Print or a mix? mostly print
Left handed or right handed? both, but as I was forced to only use my righthand at school, my right is my primary writing hand. My handwriting is different depending on which hand I use.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I started working on a masters this fall, so since I hadn't been a student in 20 years I did some research on notetaking methods to decide what I'd want to use. The reason taking notes by hand is supposedly the preferred method is because it's slower--there's no way to get everything down, so you have to process what you're hearing and only write the most important things. I understand the reasoning, but I can't do both at once--by the time I've processed and written, the teacher has moved on and I've missed something. Give me my laptop, and I take excellent notes and remember what I learned.

Agree with you. 25 years ago when I returned to school, I took a portable tape recorder to class. I recorded the class and took notes. Then I went over those notes while listening to the recording. I missed a lot including important information. Had I been able to use a laptop I would have been much better off. I was able to type 75 to 80 wpm back in those days. Typing was second nature to me (still is). I can't even read notes that I hand write these days if I'm in a lecture type setting!

 

[Memaw2Wm]

Do you like your handwriting? Mostly
Do you do a lot of writing? No, as a legal secretary I mostly type/keyboard/
Cursive or Print or a mix? A mix
Left handed or right handed? Right handed, but I used to be able to right left handed too.

Like @Cherylndesigns
My mother always said that I was probably destined to be a leftie since I always picked up everything with my left hand including forks and spoons. But her mom always switched them and made me eat right handed. She was from the era that you did not do things left handed. Grandpa was a leftie but teachers hit his knuckles with a ruler to get him to change when he was young. He had horrible handwriting all his life because of it. So Grandma wanted to avoid that!

My mother was a lefty, and hated the way she'd been treated in school. So her solution was to put everything in a child's right hand. It was okay if they switched it to their left hand, but she always put it in their right to start ... I do the same thing. I write right-handed, but hold a baseball bat left handed, skated left-footed and so forth.

Agree with you. 25 years ago when I returned to school, I took a portable tape recorder to class. I recorded the class and took notes. Then I went over those notes while listening to the recording. I missed a lot including important information. Had I been able to use a laptop I would have been much better off. I was able to type 75 to 80 wpm back in those days. Typing was second nature to me (still is). I can't even read notes that I hand write these days if I'm in a lecture type setting!

I tried using a laptop when I went back to school in my 40s (1994), but found I couldn't type and listen, so I switched to handwritten notes, plus a mini-tape recorder, then I'd go home and transcribe my notes on the computer using my notes, the recording and the textbook. By that point the info was pretty well stuck in my brain.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

@Memaw2Wm

In my younger, more "athletic" days (I wasn't an athlete at all!) I noticed that I did a lot of things different than the other girls in gymnastics. Everyone else would do a cartwheel with their right hand down first. Not me, left hand first. They would do splits with right leg in front and left leg in back. Not me, left leg in front and right leg in back. I have a cousin my age that is left handed. When we would do cartwheels and stuff playing, we were always in sync. She would do left hand first. So that always made me think (along with Mom's stories) that I could have been a leftie.

As for a laptop for schooling... I didn't get my first laptop until after I had already gotten my degree! I was getting my accounting degree in 1991-1993. I got the laptop for genealogy which I started working on after I had gotten the degree.

 

[fruitysuet]

I'm old enough to have been taught cursive in school (in the UK I don't think it's been a requirement for years) and used to have quite neat handwriting. Then I went to secretarial school and spent years being a secretary with shorthand and typing. The more I did that, the less neat my own handwriting became. I now write with a scrawly mixture of print and cursive, but I still tend to miss out vowels and use abbreviations and even keep in some shorthand squiggles when writing notes for myself.

All in all, it's rather a mess. I'm not even sure I would recognise my kids' handwriting anymore either as I rarely get anything written from them.

ETA I am right handed naturally, even though both of my parents are left handed naturally.

ETA again I wish I had had my handwriting done as a font, I've Googled recently and can only find online tools which I'm not really sure would be good enough, anyone try? I tend to use the Two Peas font Bhea/Bhea Script as a close version, but I did find a couple of paid ones that were similar. I have such a mish mash of loops or not loops, print or cursive, that finding a font that's a good match is proving difficult.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Then I went to secretarial school and spent years being a secretary with shorthand and typing. The more I did that, the less neat my own handwriting became. I now write with a scrawly mixture of print and cursive, but I still tend to miss out vowels and use abbreviations and even keep in some shorthand squiggles when writing notes for myself.

My college degree in the 70's was to teach secretarial science including shorthand. I used it quite a bit into the early 80's in a position I had. That position was more typing since it was in an accounting office but I would take notes for me in shorthand and also used it at home. Eventually I lost most of what I had learned. A few characters remain in my subconscious though.

 

[QuiltyMom]

When I was a kit I'd spend HOURS improving my handwriting. That was also back when they still taught cursive in school. It wasn't until when I was in college and also started working in retail that my handwriting skills took a massive dive downwards. My signature became unreadable from having to do inventory where you signed everything you counted. And my handwriting in general became a scribble after attempting to take notes in classes (I have severe ADD and can't remember anything that was said unless it's written down). I try to make it better but it's too easy to slip into the scribbled mess!

Now, my grandmother had beautiful handwriting. Absolutely gorgeous, with flourishes and all. Maybe I should find some of her old letters and see if I can copy it.

 

[amien1]

Do you like your handwriting?
Yes, although it has gotten messier as I've gotten older

Do you do a lot of writing?
not really, mostly lists & notes

Cursive or Print or a mix?
I definitely have a mix of both- that made it kinda hard when I had a font made for my handwriting- it took a few updates to get it just right.

Left handed or right handed?

 

[Scrapping with Liz]

Do you like your handwriting? Yes
Do you do a lot of writing? Not really. I have one journal I take notes in when I do my Bible study and then I have my planner where I write down things...but that's pretty much it.
Cursive or Print or a mix? A mix. If I'm focused I can have really nice cursive penmanship. But I usually mix print and cursive together.
Left handed or right handed? Right handed. My twin brother is left-handed...I just think that's cool.

I was taught cursive in school. I have become a firm believer that cursive is a good skill for children to have. It helps with so many things! I teach my kids cursive starting around 7/8 years old.

 

[Kiana]

Left hander. I do a print cursive combo too.
But I love my handwriting as I've gotten older I can actually see letters and marks that are the same as my parents even though I've never tried to write like them.