Critique My Handwriting?

[merrycitrine]

Hello to all the cursive lovers out there!

 

Here is my handwriting:

 

 

 

 

It has developed gradually over time this way. I love writing in cursive, but my fiance and my friends (most of whom use print writing) say it is hard to read and do not like it. My mom calls it a doctor's style handwriting

 

 

Here's a picture taken from my notes from class, when I wasn't too bothered by neatness and a lot drowsier:

 

 

Seeing everyone improving and working on their handwriting on this section of the forums (you handwriting experts on improvement!) I wanted some critique and suggestions on how to improve it. I've heard the old saying "practice makes perfect". However, in my case, this handwriting has developed over ~10 years, so I am not sure what kind of practice in particular, I should do to improve it. Any particular suggestions on lettering are welcome!

 

Thanks!

EDIT: Apologies on the crazy big pictures, I am new to this forum so any suggestions to improve the size would be appreciated

Edited July 8, 2015 by merrycitrine

[Dr. Saleem Ali]

I found your writing very interesting. I am not a writing expert , but a doctor and teacher . Your writing is clear and legible like many students in our country (Pakistan )."Doctors -like " is usually said for dirty ineligible writing.Your mother is not right (sorry !).The only thing wrong is your small " q ",its like small " f ".Your upper and lower case as seen in small " f " are desirably proportionate i.e occupy half above and half below the line.You seem to be a hard-working careful student .I suggest a fine italic nib such as one on Parker 75 will add to your writing. And last ,your writing similar to our lady doctors !

[mstone]

The biggest problems I see are a few unusual joins (e.g., the bottom join from the o, the loop coming off the w) as well as a couple of letters which aren't formed clearly (the e tends to be hard to distinguish from the i, and the n's in the turquise ink look like r's, a couple of r's have loops that look like e's.) Even a few indistinct letters can cause people to switch to "decoding mode" when reading, which is a big distraction. A finer nib can help open up the closed loops, as can working on writing a bit larger.

[merrycitrine]

I found your writing very interesting. I am not a writing expert , but a doctor and teacher . Your writing is clear and legible like many students in our country (Pakistan )."Doctors -like " is usually said for dirty ineligible writing.Your mother is not right (sorry !).The only thing wrong is your small " q ",its like small " f ".Your upper and lower case as seen in small " f " are desirably proportionate i.e occupy half above and half below the line.You seem to be a hard-working careful student .I suggest a fine italic nib such as one on Parker 75 will add to your writing. And last ,your writing similar to our lady doctors !

 

Thank you for your kind comments I will think about the "q"! I have never tried an italic nib before so I will try that!

 

 

The biggest problems I see are a few unusual joins (e.g., the bottom join from the o, the loop coming off the w) as well as a couple of letters which aren't formed clearly (the e tends to be hard to distinguish from the i, and the n's in the turquise ink look like r's, a couple of r's have loops that look like e's.) Even a few indistinct letters can cause people to switch to "decoding mode" when reading, which is a big distraction. A finer nib can help open up the closed loops, as can working on writing a bit larger.

 

Hmm, I am not sure about the joins, as those seem pretty standard to me? (I may be wrong)

 

http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/2013-01-a/quick-brown-fox-cursive-script-handwritinng-practice.jpg

 

I do need to emphasize the loop on the "e" and "r", which usually get filled with ink. I think writing larger might indeed help some of the issues!

 

Thanks for your comments!

[nickmazur]

I really like your handwriting. It's consistent and legible. It looks very natural. As you said, it developed over 10 years, so I don't think you need to change anything. It's your personal style.

[mstone]

Hmm, I am not sure about the joins, as those seem pretty standard to me? (I may be wrong)

 

http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/2013-01-a/quick-brown-fox-cursive-script-handwritinng-practice.jpg

 

Look at the w-n join in the orange, blue, and red samples--the loop at the end of the w make it look like you wrote "uen" rather than "wn". In the practice jpg there is no loop. (I'm not a huge fan of that particular practice sheet's style, to be honest--the only way to distinguish between "wn" and "uin" is the height of the join, and that style brings the join low enough that it'll be ambiguous if not written exteremely precisely. I think it's much clearer (and common) for the join off the w to be almost horizontal.) Joining the o at the bottom rather than forming the join from the top of the o makes it look like an e. Together, for example, the '"brown" in the dark blue example resembles "breuen". Again, you'll see that your practice jpg joins the o at the top rather than cutting from the bottom, though it again brings the join lower than I'd prefer for legibility. https://www.zaner-bloser.com/sites/default/files/public/Cursive_Stroke_Des.pdf has descriptions of stroke order that also shows what I'm trying to say about the joins.

 

On its own, with experience, your handwriting is fairly unambiguous. But for someone reading it for the first time, the issues I'm talking about look exactly like different letters in other peoples' handwriting and really slow down the process of reading/comprehending. (The reader basically has to look over a sample, identify all the indisyncracies, find patterns which distinguish different letters, then go back and read again.)

[merrycitrine]

I really like your handwriting. It's consistent and legible. It looks very natural. As you said, it developed over 10 years, so I don't think you need to change anything. It's your personal style.

Thank you very much! I wanted to see if I could make it easier to read perhaps, but maybe it's hard for people who use print mostly to read it.

 

 

 

Look at the w-n join in the orange, blue, and red samples--the loop at the end of the w make it look like you wrote "uen" rather than "wn". In the practice jpg there is no loop. (I'm not a huge fan of that particular practice sheet's style, to be honest--the only way to distinguish between "wn" and "uin" is the height of the join, and that style brings the join low enough that it'll be ambiguous if not written exteremely precisely. I think it's much clearer (and common) for the join off the w to be almost horizontal.) Joining the o at the bottom rather than forming the join from the top of the o makes it look like an e. Together, for example, the '"brown" in the dark blue example resembles "breuen". Again, you'll see that your practice jpg joins the o at the top rather than cutting from the bottom, though it again brings the join lower than I'd prefer for legibility. https://www.zaner-bloser.com/sites/default/files/public/Cursive_Stroke_Des.pdf has descriptions of stroke order that also shows what I'm trying to say about the joins.

 

On its own, with experience, your handwriting is fairly unambiguous. But for someone reading it for the first time, the issues I'm talking about look exactly like different letters in other peoples' handwriting and really slow down the process of reading/comprehending. (The reader basically has to look over a sample, identify all the indisyncracies, find patterns which distinguish different letters, then go back and read again.)

This is interesting and I had never thought of it. Thanks for the insight! I can definitely see what you mean. I do need to polish writing my r's, w's and e's. It seems like I have a tendency to turn these tiny loops into lines.

[FOUR X FOUR]

I thought it fancy but difficult to read. "If that makes sense"

[merrycitrine]

I thought it fancy but difficult to read. "If that makes sense"

Haha! I understand