How is your handwriting?
Discussion
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan...
I was taught decades ago by a very old school teacher who being just a couple of years away from retirement had no quibbles about hitting hands with rulers and throwing the board rubber across the classroom if letters were not formed correctly. Equally, he would praise students who had beautiful writing and I remember us all attempting to live up to his high standards.
Sadly my handwriting has declined over the years and I can no longer maintain a natural flow, i do wonder if there is some neurological issue though.
How are you doing?
I was taught decades ago by a very old school teacher who being just a couple of years away from retirement had no quibbles about hitting hands with rulers and throwing the board rubber across the classroom if letters were not formed correctly. Equally, he would praise students who had beautiful writing and I remember us all attempting to live up to his high standards.
Sadly my handwriting has declined over the years and I can no longer maintain a natural flow, i do wonder if there is some neurological issue though.
How are you doing?
I have the same problem, it is as if my brain isn't sending signals to my hand and it ends up being start stop and very jerky.
I have even changed my signature to make it easier to write because it was causing me difficulties replicating it how it should be..
The problem is that I, like most others probably now, write very little by hand, all written communications are now using a keyboard of some type.
Well I hope it is due to that and nothing more serious, but who knows
Just to add it gets even worse if somebody is watching me trying to write.
I have even changed my signature to make it easier to write because it was causing me difficulties replicating it how it should be..
The problem is that I, like most others probably now, write very little by hand, all written communications are now using a keyboard of some type.
Well I hope it is due to that and nothing more serious, but who knows
Just to add it gets even worse if somebody is watching me trying to write.
Edited by Monkeylegend on Sunday 7th January 12:54
Glassman said:
My handwriting used to be quite good. Not any more. Age/under-use and I feel like I've lost the muscle memory.
I believe it is this and nothing more serious, in general.We are now all used to typing everything and hardly ever write much. I guess we all notice this come Christmas time when we write more than a few words on a card.
leef44 said:
I believe it is this and nothing more serious, in general.
We are now all used to typing everything and hardly ever write much. I guess we all notice this come Christmas time when we write more than a few words on a card.
This is precisely the situation that brought it home to me.We are now all used to typing everything and hardly ever write much. I guess we all notice this come Christmas time when we write more than a few words on a card.
I threw away a perfectly good Christmas card this year (4 quid!) as I was disgusted with the scrawl that I had put down in my name
leef44 said:
Glassman said:
My handwriting used to be quite good. Not any more. Age/under-use and I feel like I've lost the muscle memory.
I believe it is this and nothing more serious, in general.We are now all used to typing everything and hardly ever write much. I guess we all notice this come Christmas time when we write more than a few words on a card.
I was taught to hold the pen or pencil between the thumb and first two fingers to give better control over the pen.
Most youngsters nowadays seem to hold it between the thumb and forefinger in a strange way, not so much control.
My writing was dreadful at school, but then I studied engineering drawing and copied the professional writers way of adding text, it improved my writing a lot. Much satisfaction in drawing up an item with neat notes, much more satisfying than using autocad although it can be satisfying too.
Most youngsters nowadays seem to hold it between the thumb and forefinger in a strange way, not so much control.
My writing was dreadful at school, but then I studied engineering drawing and copied the professional writers way of adding text, it improved my writing a lot. Much satisfaction in drawing up an item with neat notes, much more satisfying than using autocad although it can be satisfying too.
Back in the 80's as a relatively young chap I had the pleasure and privilege of working with a, then, elderly and old school GP.
An incredible bloke. Flew Wellingtons and more.
His copperplate records were sublime and I said so, expecting him to be flattered.
His unexpected reply was downcast: "It's a constant reminder of how we were all beaten into perfection by the teacher."
If I ever find the time I'm going to give it a go.
If anyone on here can write like this, please let me know how you learnt.
.
An incredible bloke. Flew Wellingtons and more.
His copperplate records were sublime and I said so, expecting him to be flattered.
His unexpected reply was downcast: "It's a constant reminder of how we were all beaten into perfection by the teacher."
If I ever find the time I'm going to give it a go.
If anyone on here can write like this, please let me know how you learnt.
.
Mine's been terrible since I was a kid. Many teachers have tried and failed to improve it...but I always thought of it as a punishment as I'd be kept behind for an hour after school each time.
When I did 'slow down', legibility improved sightly, but then I'd start missing words out so that my writing could keep up with my thought process.
When I did 'slow down', legibility improved sightly, but then I'd start missing words out so that my writing could keep up with my thought process.
JulianHJ said:
Terrible. I blame it on being left-handed.
Don't think it's this as I used to write beautifully, sloping right incidentally as I was told at school that I was weird if I sloped left, which of course us 'sinisters' would do naturally. My handwriting is very poor these days 
Crap I lack fine motor skills for fluid handwriting but think my bigger issue is mental rather than physical.
Since school primary school my brain has worked at a different speed to my ability to write or type. I regularly miss characters or even full words as I think I’ve written them down and haven’t.
For handwriting I do not join letters and tend to write in a mix of upper and lowercase r characters which works for me as I only right my own notes or in cards.
At least with a computer I can go back and correct providing I take the time go read it back properly. It’s worse now using mobile devices as making those corrections is harder then with a keyboard and mouse.
Since school primary school my brain has worked at a different speed to my ability to write or type. I regularly miss characters or even full words as I think I’ve written them down and haven’t.
For handwriting I do not join letters and tend to write in a mix of upper and lowercase r characters which works for me as I only right my own notes or in cards.
At least with a computer I can go back and correct providing I take the time go read it back properly. It’s worse now using mobile devices as making those corrections is harder then with a keyboard and mouse.
JulianHJ said:
Terrible. I blame it on being left-handed.
My mum's left-handed handwriting is very elegant. As it happens, she is Anglo-Scot; her dad - a Glaswegian - was a direct descendant of the Clan Kerr (Peter Falconer Kerr). The Kerrs were known for being left handed. Grampy was left handed, his siblings were, as were all his kids, including my mum and all her kids. I am the youngest of them, and I remember writing with my left as a kid until my parents split up and my dad made me sit on my left hand to encourage me to use my right (which turned out to be my dominant hand). I can write with my left if I put my mind to it.
The leftie trait lives prevails in my left foot and my youngest son is also left handed.
Pitre said:
There's obviously a happy medium, as doctors (who write all the time) scrawl awful hieroglyphics mostly, but those of us who rarely write are also losing control of our limbs. Muscle memory is quite an interesting thing then...
All is not lost. Gp's are mostly typing now and it's so much better.Some of them are using two fingers now, I've heard.
Here's a little extract from my records.
"had ? slinet reflux in past, swallwo things ok, no weight loss, bt ype"
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