Fess Up. Do You Write With Cursive Or Printing?

[sexauerw]

After 46 years as an engineer doing engineering drawings where cursive was strictly forbidden, I've completely forgotten how, except for my signature. I did have to use that daily to sign my time card. So today I print everything in an italic hand, without any joins. It's not the neatest in the world but it's legible. A practice sheet is shown below.

 

http://bulk-share.slickpic.com/album/share/j1DMJ0mcZMUODZ/12993671.0/800/p/IMG_20160919_0009.jpg

 

http://bulk-share.slickpic.com/album/share/j1DMJ0mcZMUODZ/12993672.0/800/p/IMG_20160919_0010.jpg

[kestrel]

It depends. Journal, notes to friends, notes to me are all cursive. Cursive is faster if I sacrifice some legibility but is good for notes to friends if I slow down a bit. Everything I do in my classroom is block capital letters. Most of my 9th graders can't read cursive and almost two decades of filling out official Navy documents made block caps my default. It takes longer to grade papers this way but my notes to students are useless if the students can't read them.

[Aysedasi]

Cursive. It's semi-legible, although sometimes the people I work with come to see me for a translation of what I've written........

[hankjgg]

Don't have the patience to print letters. If I couldn't write cursive I'd go back to using a computer.

[Raidon]

I have been using printing for years because I never learnt to write cursive properly. Now that I have started using fp my writing seems to be automatically becoming more cursive. I want to shift to cursive.

[Tom Kellie]

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Cursive most of the time, especially if I'm trying to write fast.

 

Printing when it's called for, like when filling out forms and stuff.

 

I'll also mix and match somewhat. I'll use cursive for most of the body of text, for example, but revert to printing for acronyms consisting of all capital letters or for some sort of "emphasis" on certain parts of the text, like titles, etc., as if it's a "font change." I'll also use printing when hand-writing computer code. This is akin to how I'll use a different font when typing a document for the main body text vs. computer code.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Dragonmaster Lou

[gryphon1911]

I started out doing more cursive than print. After years of bad cursive writing, I switched up to a print style that I used for years. Once I got into calligraphy and fountain pens, my cursive use took over.

I still print as well, but I subscribe to the maxim of using the right tool for the job. Sometimes the print is appropriate, most times cursive.

[Sasha Royale]

I do both. I print in block letters (per high school drafting), whenever I desire emphasis or clarity. However, never cursive in the presence of ladies.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Sasha Royale

[Jerome Tarshis]

I am very pleased by the book title I Am An Impure Thinker, and the way I write by hand is informed by that idea. In elementary school I could write what Americans call cursive only with some conscious effort, and later stopped making that effort most of the time. What happens is sometimes related to American commercial roundhand, sometimes to italic as revived in England decades ago, sometimes to ball-and-stick printing. As the spirit moves me I make joins or I don't.

 

Considering that I receive compliments on my writing, which can look good when I'm not too tired, I feel no urge to purify it.

[vjones]

I use a combination. I use the joins that are easy for me and avoid the ones that are awkward.

[Monbla]

Spent over 40 years as an architectural draftsman and we always printed everything in all caps on the drawings so I followed suit in my personal writing but have returned to a sort of hybrid form of cursive/printing for my writing needs.

[Robotee-Deither]

Cursive all the way.

 

My printing is both more tiring and less legible, to me at least. I was told that it is not advisable to write in cursive during exams since I run the risk of being misunderstood. Which is a shame.

 

[sidthecat]

Cursive, with block capitals for emphasis. My ascenders and descenders are, after two years of practice, finally starting to slant in the same direction.

[ac12]

 

 

Cursive all the way.

 

My printing is both more tiring and less legible, to me at least. I was told that it is not advisable to write in cursive during exams since I run the risk of being misunderstood. Which is a shame.

 

 

This is for ease of reading by the grader.

As a former college grader, I can tell you that trying to find the answer in some peoples 'writing' was a challenge. If I could not find the answer in a reasonable period of time, the student got a 0 - ZERO for that question. With MANY papers to grade, I could not spend an excessive amount of time trying to decypher bad handwriting. Where this becomes important is when there is partial credit for that question. Example a 10 point question, where you can get 0-10 points.

 

In college, after a certain point, I answered ALL my exams in block print.

 

It would be in your best interest to learn to print reasonably clearly.

[gregamckinney]

http://www.gergyor.com/images/everyday-writing.png

[virgilio]

I gave up cursive 30 years ago, and have never regretted it; I always hated wasting all that time making ugly loops. I am a full-time writer, and write around 3 hours every day. I print in capitals, but with the unnecessary parts of the letter eliminated. For instance, I eliminate the crossbay on the A, the downstroke on the B and D, and so on. I can write about twice as fast, about as fast as I can type, and VERY legibly, but unlike the computer, I can make corrections in a flash, as needed, transposing lines, and so on. And of course I use a FOUNTAIN PEN, God's gift to the real writer. I got a bellyful of ballpoints in my college days, when I waliked around with aching fingers all the time, until I finally happened on a old Sheaffer's cartridge pen, and was amazed to find that my fingers didn't hurt anymore!

[FOUR X FOUR]

I always print. I don't like my cursive.

[friskyvegan]

I write pretty exclusively in print. Since I got into fountain pens a few months ago I've shifted to writing a few notes in a daily journal in cursive. It's been fun to see it progressively get better the more I do it. And I enjoy writing cursive (especially with a fountain pen)even if I'm still not the greatest at it. At work, almost everything is print. It comes out of my head much faster and neater that way.

[Misfit]

Both, but cursive more than printing.