Are you ashamed or embarrased of your handwriting?

[Mille]

Here I often read that their penmanship is bad. I have come to terms with my handwriting. Since childhood I have heard that my penmanship has been bad, which made me start printing almost immediately when I did have to use the terrible style they used in school. In adulthood I have taken up my own version of cursive, and although I would not mind it being better, I have come to terms with it and like it. I feel that I should sit down and practice now and then, but laziness takes over. I prefer medium nib as I think it suits my hand.

Edited November 25, 2009 by Mille

[Yuki Onitsura]

I realise my handwriting is atrocious for the most part but it's hardly something I'm ashamed about.

 

Yuki

[buffalowings]

I'm pretty happy when a teacher can miraculously read mine, an no, my handwriting is built for others to read not for me

[bgray]

Mine was horrible....then I got into fountain pens.

 

I practiced and got much better.

 

Every morning when my computer was booting up (it took about 3-4 minutes), I would practice my handwriting. I did this for about a year, and it helped tremendously.

[penspouse]

Mine isn't great, it isn't too bad. I need to slow down to make it better.

[mackthepen]

Mine can be all right, but it lacks regularity, which, in my opinion, makes it look terrible.

 

My grammar possibly needs attention too!

 

Andrew

[SCPaul]

Not ashamed, but I do wish it was better.

[Biber]

My writing can be considered sort of bad as I tend to scribble in an attempt to write faster. No strike that, it's bad. But the thing is I get really annoyed when people can't read it. If you can't read a word, figure it out! Read the words around it and think about it for a second. Anyway, I'm trying to improve it. I do write better when I write something that others are likely to read.

 

B

[humblescribbler]

I realise my handwriting is atrocious for the most part but it's hardly something I'm ashamed about.

 

Yuki

 

+1

 

I got D's in handwriting through fourth grade as my teachers didn't have the heart to fail me based on this one skill. But I was taught to be ashamed of it. Slowing down the thought process was required to succeed. Interestingly, although fountain pens slow me down, the balance and "touch" of the ones that fit me best, allow me to write pretty fast.

 

I practice by needing to constantly rewrite the notes I leave for my colleagues as I'm often unable to read them myself! (What did I say there?) Anyway, thus over the years and using FPs I've slowed down, which has helped, and my writing has become a cursive/print script that communicates most things. But I waste a lot of time with rewrites. I guess that's why I evolved into a preference for poetry! I can hand write them and attempt to communicate the entire thought. Writing prose or narrative for chapters for books (when my brain gets going) I'd be going great with my thoughts and two days later I often can't understand what I've recorded!

 

I guess it's a constant dynamic tension.

[Flourish]

I've been practicing my penmanship on a daily basis since I was about 4 years old. No matter what I tried it always remained terrible. Then three years ago I devised a more stringent practice schedule and switched nib styles. Oh boy have the improvements in my hand been vast and wide. The switch to a flexible nib and Italic nib (Italic provided by Mr. Gray of Edison Pen Co. above) pens helped me to concentrate on a level that I thought my mind and hand were incapable of and my chosen hands have improved by leaps and bounds. I am still very embarrassed with my handwriting but it's getting better everyday.

[csmorris]

Mine is horrific but I am working to improve it now.

[JakobS]

My fourth grade teacher tried to make me ashamed of my cursive d's, she made me write them a 1,000 times, they all looked the same as always, but she said they were an improvement. I thought she was bonkers, and couldn't be happier to leave writing in strictly cursive behind when middle school came about. It took me a few weeks to form a nice print/cursive mix handwriting, but my handwriting has always been something I have been proud of, and though i never sought attention from it, in my last year of college, when returning a handwritten quiz, my sociobiology professor called out my name, and then said "With the best handwriting in the class!" haha, I was a little embarrassed, humbled, but also quite happy to hear it, because writing has always been a love of mine, and having someone enjoy any aspect of it is quite fantastic.

[Mille]

I realised that I needed another question. People write they think they are not ashamed but it does not look good. I belong to that cathegory.

[Rosa Mundi]

I must confess I have never been ashamed of my handwriting. Of course it depends on my mood - when I am frustrated or tired, it shows in my handwriting; but generally I am quite happy with it...

[Paddler]

My penmanship used to be shaky before I began to do some of Kate's Writing Etudes. Now, my better-looking and more accomplished half looks at my journals and says, "Hey! You've been practicing!" My hand still has some dodgy places, but it is legible and, on a good day, can actually look good.

 

I voted B for a favorite nib size because that is true right now. The other sizes still have their uses so I am not going to get rid of them.

 

I have been experimenting with my "American joined-up" hand by making all lower case words begin with a descender. This "affectation" has to have an XXF nib. Anything else makes it look messy.

 

Paddler

[Pietru]

Ashamed? NEVER! For every snide remark, I've had a few compliments. And so long as I enjoy the process itself, it can't ever be really ugly. That said, I have made an effort to clean up my handwriting lately, just because I want to have a hand that is objectively beautiful. There's a long way to go, though. My handwriting definitely degenerates the faster I'm writing, normally because a professor isn't pausing between gobbets of information and I'm struggling to get it all down, or my thoughts are racing ahead and I don't want to forget the sentence/idea in my head. But given the time and space, my handwriting seems to control itself.

Edited November 25, 2009 by Pietru

[HenryLouis]

I practiced all summer long. It's gotten from shaky printing to decent handwriting... I keep practising, and have taken a liking for flex nibs...

[pmsalty]

I used to print because my cursive was illegible. It has improved tremendously since I started using fountain pens, and when I take my time I even get complements for my cursive.

PMS

[Apotheosis]

My handwriting was so illegible it was ILLEGAL ! Lazy-to-lift-the-pen cursive instead of I-was-taught-in-school cursive, "o" written clockwise instead of counter clockwise, "i" dots a line higher if not all over the place..and then bought a fountain pen and started to care *rassem*frassem*rassem*grunt*

Much better now though but still looking for THE perfect perfect pen (which i heard is a myth by the way).

 

And you guys thought you had it tough !

Edited November 26, 2009 by Apotheosis

[Mille]

A thought. Maybe peoples handwriting improved with a fountain pen just because they started to care?