Penmanship in the Digital Age

[kjv1611]

I recently realized that I've so adjusted myself to typing most everything I "write" that I am losing my ability to write with a pen/pencil. I've never had the best hand-writing, but I could sure write whatever I wanted before I got more and more dependent upon a keyboard.

It seems as if I've lost some muscle strength or dexterity in some muscles in my writing hand. I can write a couple of sentences, maybe a paragraph, now, and have to take a break, b/c of cramps in a few muscles in my hand.

I thought I'd ask Google if others had similar issues, and I found this short interesting blog post:

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/11/13/my_long_lost_ha.html

I think the ability to write should always be important. For instance, you never know when you may be in a circumstance where you cannot easily access a computer keyboard.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on the importance of penmanship in a digital age?

 

[2ffat]

[!]IF[/!], and that's a might big "if", computers go pen-based then penmanship will make a big comeback. I've noticed that my penmanship has definitely gone downhill and that's saying a lot even though my worse subject growing up was penmanship. As a matter of fact, I print more than I write just so people, including myself, can read my "hen-scratchings."


James P. Cottingham
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Noway2]

In the recent weeks, I have heard it mentioned a few times that penmanship, otherwise known as cursive writing, is no longer being taught in schools. We will have a whole generation of people who simply don't even KNOW HOW to "write". Whether or not they will even be able to read it, is another question.

I too find myself having to stop after several sentences if I try to write. I also have strange writing in that I hold pens/pencils with four fingers instead of the usual three. I have only met one other person who holds writing devices like I do. My mother used to say that this was related to the fact that in her opinion I was supposed to be left handed and that I chose to write with the wrong hand. Supposedly this determination was made because by left eye was supposedly dominant and that meant I was to be left handed. It probably meant that I had better vision in my left eye than my right.

My writing is so bad that I tend to print. I have had embarrassing occasions where I had to read what I wrote publicly and couldn't even read my own writing.

 

[SamBones]

Interesting points. A while back when PDAs were the rage, I had a Palm III, then a Sony Clie'. I got real good at the writing input with the stylus. I noticed my witing on paper with pen or pencil started mimicking the Palm characters. "T"s looked like a "7" and such. They were very precise and easy to read, but just a few odd abbreviated characters here and there.

The funniest thing about it, some people that would read my writing would chuckle and smile, some would just think I had weird writing and would ask about a few things that weren't clear to them. This immediately let me know who had PDAs and who didn't.

 

[SantaMufasa]

With the Digital Age, I believe that there will be less and less reliance upon the hand-written word. If you are like me, you can keyboard/type roughly 10 times faster than you can handwrite. IMHO, those apps that interpret handwriting and transform it into digital text are fads/gimmicks.

Handwriting will then migrate from the arena of academics into artisanry. Personally, when I handwrite/print, I tend to use calligraphy, which already is in the realm of artisanry. When people see my ply my "craft" they look at me as though I am from another planet.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> When people see my ply my "craft" they look at me as though I am from another planet.
Are you claiming that you're not?

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read
FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[SantaMufasa]

HeHeHeHeHeHe...Good point, CC.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[FredWagner]

My handwriting has also detiorated from lack of use, but another ancient skill is forcing me to use it again. I'm a ham radio operator, and very much enjoy CW - Morse Code. I like to 'copy' in my head - no computer decoding, and I learned to print my code copy - but as my proficient copy speed has increased, I can't keep up printing, so I am back to listening to a whole word, then writing it longhand.
On the air many of us use electronic keyers, so the spacing in and between the characters is always precise - but the art of sending with a hand key, where the rhythm and spacing is totally your own, is still very enjoyable. On some weekends where specialty groups are operating in the same areas of the band, it's easy mentally separate the signals with electronically perfect from the hand-send code. I enjoy both, and it's bringing back my cursive!

de KQ6Q

Fred Wagner

 

[hjgoldstein]

A few years ago when I was secretary of a social organisation, I had to write up detailed minutes of meetings in an old leather-bound book.

As with many of your comments above, my handwriting has never been the best, but the minutes I wrote (using a good fountain pen) were, for the most part, legible and intelligible.

I don't think I could do the same today. These days, anyway, the club's minutes are presented in typewritten format and distributed to the members. How things change.

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[SQLSister]

The only thing I use cursive for is my signature. I don't miss it. When I handwrite, I print. I do a daily journal entry by hand and write the occasional check and sign the occasional document and that is all the handwriting I do. Very few young people I know even have checkbooks. They do everything electronically.

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[Prognewb]

The people that still have checkbooks, I usually get stuck behind in the grocery line. I think banks are trying to force people out of using them though, the cost of a box of checks at my bank went from $15 to $75 in the span of a couple years.

I have to take a lot of notes throughout a normal work day, so my horrible penmanship is as good as it's ever been.

 

[philhege]

I have to take notes by hand at work because they won't issue an "official" laptop. My handwriting is of the highest caliber... cryptography. It's so obtuse even I can't read it. After the meeting, I go back to my cube and decode the runes into my OneNote app.



-------++NO CARRIER++-------

 

[Noway2]

My handwriting is so bad, that I really do have an easier time reading runes.

My handwriting is so bad, ... sounds like the start of a series of jokes.

 

[sha76]

My handwriting often is the start of a series of jokes!
This is fine amongst friends, but gets a bit much if I've had a bad day & a shop assistant just starts laughing at my signature! (Yes, this does happen, how very rude!)

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[KenCunningham]

Talking of which my signature is seldom the same twice in a row. It used to get me some quizzical glances when signing cheques backed by my bank card back in the day.

The internet - allowing those who don't know what they're talking about to have their say.

 

[Scott24x7]

I adopted the use of upper case block letters only for all hand written text when I was about 15 (And that was back in 1985....) I think learning "two ways" of writing is silly, (cursive vs. print), and even upper and lower case to be unnecessary, in terms of forming the letters different. (For me an Upper Case letter when I print, is just taller than the other letters.)
So, I'm not saying writing is useless, but I don't see the need to fashion letters six different ways. (Think about that one for a minute). One way is fine. Multiple writing types are borne out of an age when people had TOO much time on their hands. Today, it's outdated.
And I'm completely with Santa on this one... I can write with a pen about 15 words a minute, I can type on a keyboard about 80 words a minute. No amount of computer gadgetry (for writing anyway) is going to make that better.
Speech... now thats a different story. But is impractical for office environments. I'm curious how society might address that problem though.



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Sympology]

On a side note about cheques.

In the UK they are to be phased out by 2018, but the process has begun:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8414341.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8596944.stm

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[strongm]

>I can type on a keyboard about 80 words a minute

Impressive

 

[Scott24x7]

Strongm,
Thanks! I'm out of practice... at my high point, I was at 105 error free... these days I'm lazy. On a good day, I hit 85. But that's what happens when you get old.


Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Westi]

a friend of mine is a pharmacist and he has a terrible handwriting, his explanation is that he wanted to become a doctor but his handwriting was so bad that they didn't want him and he became a pharmacist instead.
I for one can read (or remember with the help of the notes) my notes I have to take for work only within 2 weeks then the memory fades away and I am not able to decipher it any more in it's entirety. I usually take them and put them into the Laptop at night.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACSS

insanity is just a state of mind