Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I Loathe Thee, Cursive Writing

For part of an SCWP project, I am currently writing a cursive signature.

Ugh.

It has to look pretty, too, so I'm not just signing like I sign my credit card slips (i.e. Ali E[squiggle]).

I remember in elementary school and middle school when I wrote homework in cursive because that's what the teacher wanted. Then in high school no one cared, or they wanted it typed. I immediately dropped cursive writing and did everything print. A while back, for some reason, I was thinking of the cursive alphabet and I couldn't remember how to write a cursive capital F. No joke.

So here I am, very slowly writing a signature over and over. It's annoying, to say the least.

The worst part is the part where I don't have pretty handwriting at the best of times, and while ugly print writing is pretty standard, ugly cursive tends to stick out a bit.

This brings home the connection between writing and how you write. Fountain pens, typing on a computer, using cursive... all are choices that you make, and there are reasons for those choices. (Handwriting analysis, anyone?)

Handwriting in print and in cursive are two completely different animals. So, while I am someone who tends to do loads of longhand writing, it has been a good decade since I wrote a full sentence in cursive. Go figure, eh?

How 'bout you? When you typically do longhand do you write in print or cursive? Or, do you write in combination where some of your letters are print and some are cursive?

4 comments:

Debbie said...

Cursive with printed capitals. Printing everything would take me too much time. It was probably sometime in high school that I decided it would be groovy to print capital letters. And now, I'm with you, I'm not sure I could make a cursive F or D for that matter.

Unknown said...

I don't think I could possibly write in cursive.... Some of my letters become inadvertently joined up when I hurry. I don't think it's cursive, though.

I like letters with tails. I get crazy on Js.

Jenny Maloney said...

Cursive all the way...printing is way too slow for me (as is typing).

I've been doing it so long, though, that letters that get a 'trail' in--like t's and i's--are just started.

I don't remember how to do a proper capital Q though.

The One and Only John said...

I write in all caps after taking drafting classes and hearing enough times that my handwriting was illegible. Cursive used to be my M.O., but it takes to long for me.