Poll: Do You Write In Cursive?

[Blow_Pop]

I write half cursive half not. Which makes my writing damn near illegible. And I'm ok with this as I am able to read it.

I have no problems with it being taught in school. Handwriting/cursive should be taught alongside how to type. But that's just my personal opinion as they're just useful skills to have.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

No, because cursive is just kind of obnoxious and basically illegible to everyone else.

 

[Worgen]

No, because I can't read cursive well, it takes me forever to read it. Apparently I write cursive pretty well, which is weird.

 

[Omnishambles_Drama]

Marion Richardson has a lot to answer for, actually a quick google search seems to suggest that as tends to happen for something to be deemed teachable it is forced upon kids to be learnt by rote. It looks like Marion Richardson was a champion of children's art and was against rote learning. If that is the case after 30 years I can forgive the Marion Richardson handwriting system and redirect my hate to the teacher.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

 

[FPLOON]

"True" Cursive: Only in signature...
"Fake" Cursive (aka my "hand-printing"): Everything else...

Either way, I never take the pencil writing utensil off the paper when I write/sign anything and, overall, it's barely readable to anyone else but myself...

 

[RevRaptor]

In New Zealand the word cursive is not used, its just called handwriting. As far as I can tell our system is much simpler than what most in the USA would consider cursive as only the letters that would be logically joined to make it faster are linked making it much more readable and far easier to learn.

Heres an example:

Spoiler

 

[Tanis]

Option 3 - Sort of:
By that I mean, my writing is like a MIX of regular and cursive writing.

Even my signature is a mix.

 

[mysecondlife]

I write the 'es' in cursive at the end of each word.

makes
shakes
kales

and so forth.

Everything else I write it in regular

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

I was also told that we would be using cursive for the rest of our days. So I must have missed the memo when most people decided to drop it.

However, it has been fairly useful to me because despite being one of the slowest writers in grade school, by the time I got to high school and college, I was on the faster side of those that had reverted to print.

And this is just aesthetic, but I love the way a good pen rolls over the page. Leaving that shiny black trail of glimmering ink that quickly (ideally) dries into a word. The imagery of words flowing from the pen is just too good.

I hear a lot about schools opting to drop cursive in favor of more time spent typing. I'm ambivalent about this. On one hand, typing efficiently serves a huge role in today's world. However, I didn't learn typing in school but can type just fine. Why? Because it becomes intuitive as one spends time with electronics, as kids are likely to do.

Cursive is a bit more difficult to pick up on one's own. Plus, you are just so much more likely to remember something when you hand-write it as compared to typing it.

 

[rvbnut]

Yes, by accident. Actually, I only half write in cursive, I switch between cursive and normal, which is horrible for people to read. It's bad. Bad bad bad. It should not be taught.

I also do this. I've been trying to get back into a proper writing method. I prefer cursive so I've been practising that, but since I don't write as much anymore, I'm really not making any progress.

It shouldn't be taught because given the trend in schools and how the learning experience is and will continue to be (primarily on computers), cursive should be restricted to a side course that enthusiasts can learn from.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

 

[chiggerwood]

I use a mixture of cursive and print. With my dysgraphia it's easier and more legible.

 

[The White Hunter]

Nah my handwriting went to shit in secondary school because you just have to go really bloody fast so it's kinda of a terrible scrawl.

 

[Nukekitten]

UPDATE: To make this thread a little more interesting, what are your opinions about it being taught in class?

I think it's a waste of time. It may be faster than writing things out in print but is it really faster than typing? Faster than shorthand? This is not the most efficient way of taking notes. Nor does it produce high quality well indexed documents that can be networked into a strong knowledge base.

The last time I wrote anything of length in cursive was... ten years or so ago when I was taking an exam. All my writing by hand since then that hasn't been a signature has been in shorthand. (Which... most people can't read these days anyway.) Everything I do for work is typed.

But I think we're looking at such a relatively short time before almost everything is done with voice recognition that I don't think it worth making too much of a fuss about.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

My handwriting is terrible at the best of times. My cursive is pretty much illegible to anyone else. So no. Plus the 99% of the time that I'm writing is either at work or filling out forms and both require block capitals for the most part.

Where I lived after primary school there never really was an emphasis on which style of writing we should use as I recall. In high school most people just went with what felt natural. Some preferred cursive some didn't. The teachers never told us to do it one way or the other.

I'm surprised to see a lot of people saying they do their signature in cursive. Most signatures I've seen (including my own) are just an incomprehensible scribble with maybe the initials being legible as opposed to someone actually writing their name out.

 

[NoOne852]

Sort of. If I'm writing quickly, most of my words flow together into cursive (though it doesn't look too pretty half the time). Otherwise I use print, and even that doesn't look good. So I guess I prefer cursive because if my handwriting is good to look bad, I at least want to have it look like doctor's writing or something...

As far as it being taught, I like the idea of learning how to read and write it, but I don't think it is very important to curriculum. So perhaps it should stay, but in a less intensive way then it is/was. Also, on a similar note, there needs to be more calligraphy classes. It is surprisingly hard to find any in school. I would assume it is because kids aren't very interested in writing beautifully.

 

[Michel Henzel]

Ooookay... the poll totally confuses. me. I would have guessed about 95% of people would have checked cursive.

Had to look up "Cursive" in wikipedia, because i thought maybe i have the wrong script/technique in mind... but nope. Cursive is the "normal" writing.

Block Letters is the "other kind". As far as i know only use for block is filling out forms (Where it had to be very clear and legible) or... if you have a writing/reading disorder. Or leaving VERY clear signs/notes for people.

My neffew for example has a bit of trouble writing and prefers to use the clearer, slower block letters, thinking about the letters one-by-one.

Hm, could be that this is another national/regional thing?

Wikipedia:

"On the 2006 SAT, a United States post-secondary education entrance exam, only 15 percent of the students wrote their essay answers in cursive.[8]"

Ok, this is just strange...

Well it probably is a nation thing as I was totally confused about what the hell people where talking about as I saw no one actually using cursive at all in the thread.

Yes what I wrote up there is what we in the Netherlands would consider cursive text.

But as for what you folks mean by it, then no, never. Not even my signature. But I have weird handwriting anyway.

 

[BadNewDingus]

I think we do need cursive because it makes it a little harder for someone to just use your signature for anything. Of course, that doesn't stop people, but it's another line of defense instead of just an X or printed. It's sad that most schools are done teaching it.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

I like writing it. It's just as fast as printing for me, and probably anyone who was taught it at a young age.
Of course if I want to make sure someone knows for certain what I'm writing, even though my cursive is great!, then I go print.