

Is Cursive Handwriting Dead? - fogus
http://lifehacker.com/5323302/is-cursive-handwriting-dead

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neilc
My uncle had horrible handwriting, and then learned calligraphy, so he now
writes beautifully. I would be sad to see that art form die off. But other
than that, I'm happy to see cursive handwriting disappearing.

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quoderat
Let's hope so. It's incredibly hard to read.

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brodie
I write in a mixture of cursive and print. Sometimes I'll write in cursive to
offset text written in print, or vice versa. Ever since I learned cursive in
the 4th grade, I've preferred writing in it. It feels more natural, more
flowing.

I'd like to think my cursive is legible, but I generally write notes, papers,
etc. for others in print.

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ihumanable
I am a programmer by trade but still find myself writing a copious amount on
paper, I like the tactile feel. My writing is a mixture of print and cursive.
I think that when hand-written notes and letters were a major component of
communication it was much more important to have a standard writing system for
communication's sake. The reality of the situation is that normally the only
person reading anything I've handwritten is me, so I write in my print-cursive
hybrid and read it just fine. If I'm writing to someone else it will more than
likely be typed. This isn't really anything to be happy or sad about, just the
reality that time marches on and things change.

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plinkplonk
I never learned cursive. Even at 3 years old, when I was learning to write, it
made no sense to me.

I still write "non cursive" (not really "print", just that letters are
disconnected and I write each separately- each letter has a distinctive shape
and some flourishes and so on) and my handwriting is clear and legible, but it
seems to shock people when I _tell_ them I don't write cursive. Thay aren't
shocked when _reading_ something i wrote. Strange, now that I think of it.

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blasdel
Formal cursive was taught to kids (including myself) rather poorly, with no
emphasis on practical use or even readability. It was just supposed to look
like the shit in the picture. It seems to have mostly fallen out of the
curriculum in US elementary schools, it's not like they don't have plenty of
other crap to teach by rote in its place.

But flowing connected lettering is not bad! Cursive : Print :: Touch Typing :
Hunt & Peck

At some point I realized that I was developing my own cursive style, starting
with print letterforms drawn without PENUP. It looks pretty decent, but my
mom's formal cursive is _amazing_ with a fine felt pen -- especially because
her fingers aren't dextrous (she moves her whole arm) and she was forced to be
right-handed as a child.

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wildwood
Cursive may make sense if you're right-handed, but for us lefties, I say, good
riddance.

I need to take my pen off the paper fairly often just to keep from losing
track of what I've already written.

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krisneuharth
As someone who is left handed I always had a hard time keeping the flow of
cursive writing going while trying not to smear what I was writing. As soon as
cursive was no longer required in school I opted instead for all caps, all the
time because I can better control what I am writing and I like the aesthetic.
Unfortunately when I write quickly some of the letters such as A, D, O, P, R
devolve into lesser forms and start to look alike. Maybe it's a subconscious
optimization?

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nico
A friend of mine has a 2 year-old daughter. She's already learning how to type
on the keyboard, though she's still a couple years away from entering school.
Most likely, when she reaches age 5 or 6 she will already be able to read and
write fluently with a computer, maybe have an IM account and even chat, but
she will not be able to do handwriting.

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neovive
I always found it extraneous to force elementary school students to learn
another form of writing. Why not just focus on refining existing print writing
skills. In the end, everyone develops there own personal style anyway which
inevitability inherits some of the characteristics of cursive.

How will this impact signatures?

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jacquesm
So, how about 'is handwriting dead ?'

I find that I sometimes can't even read my own notes after a couple of hours,
forget about weeks or months.

The faster I get with a keyboard the worse it seems my writing skills are.

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mainguy
I never noticed this before, interesting.

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jodrellblank
It should obviously be replaced with Pitman Shorthand.

[http://cyberspacei.com/englishwiz/library/stenography/images...](http://cyberspacei.com/englishwiz/library/stenography/images/pitman1.jpg)

If you're in school and not allowed gadgetry and you need to write a lot, for
years, often based on someone talking, why don't they teach _shorthand_?

It's phonetic - each part of a shape represents a sound and they are chained
together, and they are designed to flow neatly when written unlike the awkward
joining of ordinary characters. There are shortcuts for common patterns like
endings ('ing', 'shun'). It's positional (high/mid/low per each line). Vowel
sounds are dropped where not necessary, and where present they are the dots
and dashes - positional (left/mid/right). It can make a distinction between
light and dark pencil strokes to indicate voiced and unvoiced sounds.

In short, there are fewer marks to put on paper and the marks are simpler and
more fluid to write.

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sound2man
I took penmanship in school.I never used it, and now write in all caps when
using a pen and paper. It's just as fast, and a lot easier to read. Penmanship
is an art, beautiful as an art form, but really inconvenient as a form of
communication.

