Handwriting Style?

[Catrin]

My handwriting has been abysmal for most of my adult life, and it was the product of the later 1960 public school system in Knoxville, TN. Frankly I didn't worry about it much, and I DO enjoy journaling by hand. in early 2017 I discovered fountain pens and my handwriting began to really bug me, so I focused on cleaning it up as much as I could. I do have a small hand. I journal by hand, of course, and have also started copying my favorite books from the Bible as both a form of meditation and also another way to use my small fountain pen herd and lovely inks.

 

I think I've cleaned up my handwriting as much as I can on my own, and would like to take a more structured approach on making it better. I can't seem to determine what style I was taught, so here is a writing sample. I don't THINK it's Palmer (or is it?), so what is it? I'm sure it's a combination of different styles. I thought it might be easier to determine what my underlying style is and work on making that better.

 

I appreciate any thoughts!

 

Edited November 28, 2017 by Catrin

[Aquaria]

The capital letters are all wrong for Palmer, and so are some of the small case letters.

 

It's hard to say what your school of writing would be, because you've definitely put your own twist on some letters. If I had to pick one, I think it would be closest to Getty-Dubay. A link to different styles, so you can see what I mean:

 

http://www.exodusbooks.com/Samples/CEP/compare.pdf

[hh1990]

A single style doesn't jump out to me either, but if you were able to go from abysmal to above in such a short period of time, I'm sure you could pick whichever one you like best and do well.

[Pickwick]

In general handwriting, there is no standard style, one of several books written in Europe and In th USA at the turn of the 20th century testifies to that. The authors were specializing in detecting handwriting checks and other legal documents to guide banks and other legal establishments to detect forgeries.

 

Jerome A Lavay in his book "Disputed handwriting" recognized each individual develops their own unique style when they reach adulthood even though they have been taught a standard form at school. This in itself makes it difficult if not impossible for anyone to copy another's handwriting if the document is of any length, because sooner or later they occasionally will lapse into their own unique style. For example: not completely closing an o, a or not completing loops on a regular basis.

 

When we write long letters or journals we are not truly conscious of our handwriting it becomes an automatic action, our hand guides the pen across the page while we focus on our thoughts and ideas.

 

Catrin, your handwriting is unique to you, and in the main clearly legible, there is no necessity for you to make any changes because it is clearly legible. If you write a letter to a friend or relative they will clearly recognize it is you and they will be delighted because it is, "You".

 

The idea that people wrote correspondence in a standard elegant calligraphic hand a century ago is pure fallacy.

[Lugworm]

I like your handwriting. Its better than mine.

I also like your idea of copying chunks of the bible. Its a good way to learn it and use your pen. Might take it up.

My wife's name is Catrin.

[Catrin]

I appreciate all of the good comments, thank you! To me, my handwriting is just messy, though neater than it once was. I am not looking to take up calligraphy - just something a bit more elegant - or at least prettier. As far as some of the capitals are concerned, in my young adulthood I deliberately stole...err...adopted from a few people whose handwriting I thought much better than mine.

 

I can see similarities with Bowmar/Noble as well as Getty-Dubay, thanks for the link! I can adopt from this as well, and at least work on replacing those letters I've the most problem with.

 

Lugworm - yes, the copying started as a way to justify the expense of those lovely new inks and the pens...had to find a use for them (I don't have many pens, certainly have more ink bottles/samples than pens). Good way to mediate as well. It doesn't have to be scripture, it could be one's favorite poet or philosopher, or any material that one wants to drive more deeply into.

[Bookman]

One person's messy is another's imperfect. I'd say one of these is messy and the other two are imperfect. Can you guess which is/are which?

 

[Brandywine]

A person's handwriting is supposed to be individual.

It is the product of the letters we were taught in school and the constant practice of writing by hand (or the lack of it),

influenced by the letters we saw from others or even made up ourselves.

I'm constantly changing my letters according to the material I write on or with - or just for fun!

My handwriting has never been pretty, but always readable.

I have met texts that looked flashy and impressive but were a pain to read.

 

IMO there are no "wrong" letters, as long as they are readable.

There is of course calligraphy, where a certain style and a homogenous look is essential,

but handwriting ist more personal and allows a lot of personal style.

There are myriads of scientists who analyze peoples' handwriting to find out

where they were raised and learned to write and what education they might have.

And -of course- whether a certain person really did write a certain text or not ....

 

@ Catrin:

American handwriting generally looks strange to me (especially the capitals)

but I can read it without problems; Yours as well. And that is the point.

(And it definitely looks neater than mine)

 

Why bother following a certain style? Follow your own!

[pgmrdan]

Catrin, don't sweat it! Your writing is perfectly legible and smooth. If you want to make some changes then I'd say you're at least 90% of the way there already.

 

Very nice handwriting!

[Catrin]

Thanks for all of the comments, it does help me to put things in perspective. What's interesting is that for 6 weeks I HAD to use my non-dominant hand as the right arm was in a shoulder immobilizer sling post-complex shoulder repair. Writing is still challenging due to having to raise my arm up to table height (I'm...short) but am finding ways around that. I just can't have long writing sessions yet - but that will come in time.

 

The surprising part was how legible my left-hand writing was. Pretty? By NO means. Legible, and consistent? The first - yes, and it became more consistent after a few weeks. I think I was actually drawing my letters rather than writing them. VERY slow, and I learned that our writing position really changes how our body deals with writing. My neck breathed a huge sigh of relief once I returned to writing with my dominant hand.