Is handwriting/longhand dying off

[Car-Guy]

In these days of information technology (IM, SMS, Twitter, emails, smart phones, computers, printers, etc, etc, etc) do you still write out much of anything longhand?

For me, about the only thing I write out longhand these days are my personal checks. And not many of them since I usually pay most things electronically. Sometimes I'll hand-write a grocery or to-do list, but that's about it.

I can't remember the last time I wrote out a letter in longhand. How about you?

 

[Which Roger]

I was just looking at some letters I wrote (in cursive) about 35 years ago. My penmanship was much, much, better then. Now when I write, it's much less legible, and seems to take more effort. I guess I need more practice to keep it sharp. I can't remember the last time I wrote a letter other than a couple of lines on a greeting card.

 

[travelover]

I've always printed as opposed to cursive and it is still good when I slow down. What has gone to h3ll is my spelling. I depend on spellcheck these days.

 

[Car-Guy]

Me too! I can actually read my writing when I print. I'll write my signature in cursive but everything else is printed letters.

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

I'm like travelover & Car-Guy. Stopped writing in cursive 1st year in college in 1968. Would take all these notes in class, get back to the dorm to study and couldn't read any of them. Stopped cursive and printed everything. Helped when I was working, because I would print out instructions for employees to do things and they had no trouble reading my writing. As I got older I would write bigger for older relatives--figured they wouldn't have to dig out their glasses when I wrote them a letter.

Another oddball quirk--at home or work, always carried a pen in my ear but no paper. To remember things to do, would write on the back of my hand, and when chore was finished, would wet my finger and rub it off.

 

[scrabbler1]

Me too! I can actually read my writing when I print. I'll write my signature in cursive but everything else is printed letters.

Same here, barely (i.e. reading my printing). I gave up script somewhere in high school, if not earlier, as soon as the teachers stop requiring it. I can barely scratch out my signature any more LOL!

The only times I use my chicken scratch printing for anything are for shopping lists, writing stuff on greeting cards, taking notes from TV, phone calls, or web stuff such as confirmation #s from online transactions. Oh, and keeping score in my Scrabble games and Strat-o-Matic games LOL.

 

[youbet]

I print well (took manual drafting in high school back in the dark ages) and my cursive is OK. When leaving a note, writing a list, etc., I tend to print. I sent a few Xmas cards this year and wrote notes in cursive. DW, a retired grade school teacher, says I'd likely earn a B for hand writing.

I was at a buddy's house picking him up to head to the pub. He wanted to leave his
DW a note. He booted up a laptop on the kitchen desk, wrote the note in Word and printed it. It took at least 5 mins. I suggested if he ever did that again, he could walk to the pub.

(He didn't text his wife because he definitely didn't want to discuss the pub trip with her. He just wanted her to know he was out for the afternoon when she came home.)

 

[pb4uski]

I attended parochial school in my early years and had very good penmanship. I rarely write cursive anymore, basically only to sign my name. Even for checks, I print everything except my signature. Also, my signature has become more sloppy over the years. I do frequently use cursive for lists of things to do, shopping lists, etc. but my penmanship is fair at best these days unless I am really trying hard.

DD had good penmanship as well but I recently saw her sign a credit card slip and it was essentially a curved line acros the signature box that any Joe Schmoe could make.

 

[38Chevy454]

Being an engineer, I print all the time. Usually write in pencil too, with a mechanical pencil. I guess that is pretty predictable for engineer!

The only thing I cursive is my signature, and that is close to illegible. I know what it says, but without the letters beneath it like on a signature line, someone else would be hard pressed to read it. If I even attempt to write cursive, I have to go real slow and think about it! Plus it looks like when I was learning to write cursive as a kid

 

[Texconsin]

Too much tech!

In these days of information technology (IM, SMS, Twitter, emails, smart phones, computers, printers, etc, etc, etc) do you still write out much of anything longhand?

For me, about the only thing I write out longhand these days are my personal checks. And not many of them since I usually pay most things electronically. Sometimes I'll hand-write a grocery or to-do list, but that's about it.

I can't remember the last time I wrote out a letter in longhand. How about you?

Speaking as an IT VP, there's WAY TOO MUCH technology. If anything, I've gotten MORE aware of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We are quickly replacing the ART of expression with the SCIENCE of communication.

As I get closer to FIRE (here on Earth and, perhaps, in an identically-spelled hereafter), I'll make a list of the things I won't miss when I'm gone. Prepositions at the ends of sentences and "loose" (as in, "win or loose") will be among them.

Have a Happy Day!

 

[aja8888]

I print very well as I was a draftsman for 6 years long before CAD. My cursive is marginal.

My sister hand writes me a personal letter once or twice a year that is several pages long and about the family back home in Connecticut.

 

[youbet]

I wonder if the deterioration of simple penmanship skills is part of that slippery slide down as we age? Knees hurt, memory lacking, can't remember the difference between a "g" and a "q" in cursive.......... ?

 

[easysurfer]

I've written and sent out about 3 Christmas cards this year.

For the rest, I pretty much just clicked on the Like button

 

[harley]

When my mom died recently I had to send forms from the state to anyone mentioned in the will, as well as potential heirs even if they aren't getting anything. Some of them are my estranged nephews and my cousins. I wanted to include a note letting them know what it was all about and not to get their hopes up, since it was just a formality and there was no money. But I thought it should be a handwritten letter, since these were family even if we're not that close.

So I struggled through the two page letter to my nephews. By the time I finished, including a couple of rewrites, my hand was so cramped I had to soak it in warm Epsom salt water. Also, while the beginning of the letter was relatively legible, by the end it looked like I was writing with my toes.

My cousins got computer printed letters.

 

[braumeister]

My doctor loves being able to "E-scribe" medications instead of using the old Rx pad.
I'll bet the pharmacists love it even more!

 

[Car-Guy]

My doctor loves being able to "E-scribe" medications instead of using the old Rx pad.
I'll bet the pharmacists love it even more!

E-Scribe, Now that explains why I'm actually getting "what the doctor ordered" now.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I've always printed as opposed to cursive and it is still good when I slow down. What has gone to h3ll is my spelling. I depend on spellcheck these days.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

 

[Goonie]

I normally print things, though occasionally I write in cursive. My printing is much easier to decipher than my cursive writing.....MUCH easier! If I want to write something down that I don't want others to read, I write in cursive and pray that I'll be able to read it later.

I had a boss years ago who had handwriting as bad or worse than mine, and he would bring me something that he'd written down and ask me if I could decipher it for him. I usually could! Having that kind of 'skill' makes it pretty easy to read my doctor's handwriting too. Hmmm, maybe I was really a doctor in a past life! ha!

 

[Live And Learn]

My to-do and shopping lists are a combination of print and cursive. Its just mish-mash. Someday when I have time to ponder it I'd like to figure out why I choose to write certain words in cursive vs print.

For younger kids cursive is definitely a thing of the past. And so is spelling ! I get memo's at work that look like Twitter comments ! Its horrifying. Thankfully I won't be dealing with that much longer !

 

[Dash man]

Arthritis and nerve damage have made handwriting anything difficult and painful for me. It takes me five minutes to write a legible check, which I print except for my scribble of a signature. Thank God for electronic means of paying bills and communicating, though the USPS may not agree.


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[Car-Guy]

I had a boss years ago who had handwriting as bad or worse than mine, and he would bring me something that he'd written down and ask me if I could decipher it for him. I usually could! Having that kind of 'skill' makes it pretty easy to read my doctor's handwriting too. Hmmm, maybe I was really a doctor in a past life! ha!

Now that brings back memories.

True story - Where I worked, you could always tell, who was the big boss on the floor since he had his (or her) secretary sitting at a desk just outside his/her office. Occasionally I'd see a couple of the secretaries huddling and whispering about something. (I could only imagine what) Well one day they were whispering as usual, but this time they seemed to be particualry perplexed about something. As I walked by they asked me if I could help them with something. You guessed it, they were trying to decipher the big bosses chicken scratch. (no disrespect to chickens) It took the three of us about 10 minutes to figure out enough of the key words in a couple of paragraphs to decipher what he was trying to say.

 

[Walt34]

I can still print okay since all my reports had to be hand printed or typewritten. And with a typewriter, not a printer. My cursive has always been marginal and now is awful to the point of being nearly illegible, even to me.

Kids today are getting off easy - they no longer teach cursive writing in schools.

 

[Katsmeow]

I think it is dying off. My youngest son is dysgraphic (he has motor difficulties with handwriting). It was determined when he was quite young that trying to remediate this was largely a waste of time. It would probably get a little better with time, but it was largely a lost cause.

He started keyboarding in school when he was 7. He is in college now and has accommodations to keyboard any written work or tests. His handwriting is truly atrocious.

One of things his evaluations showed when he was young was that his writing quality deterioriated sharply when he had to handwrite versus keyboard. He used simpler language and wrote very short sentences and gave answers that tended to be incomplete. If he could keyboard he sounded way different. He has gotten to a point where he can handwrite semi-legibly if it is only a couple of sentences but anything beyond that he needs to keyboard.

When he was in school and the decision was made to work on improving his keyboarding/computer skills rather than his handwriting, the argument made by pretty much everyone was that those skills were way more important to him than trying to make him a little less atrocious at handwriting. As a result, he used computers for all his work from a very young age (and now he is a computer science major). He doesn't miss not being able to handwrite well.

 

[Walt34]

He doesn't miss not being able to handwrite well.

And in the working world if he doesn't tell anyone, probably no one will ever notice.

 

[Taxman59]

I use a script font, and add a personal handwritten note to show that I use the computer because of my handwriting!


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