Fess Up. Do You Write With Cursive Or Printing?

[PAKMAN]

Print my ToDo list but cursive for about everything else

[rff000]

In the English I grew up speaking (NJ), no one said cursive. It was called handwriting, to differentiate it from printing and the special class we had for that subject in school was called "Penmanship." (I guess that's not politically correct and you have to say "Penpersonship" nowadays, as horrible as that sounds.)

 

I first encountered the word "cursive" when I studied foreign languages and it was the equivalent of the English word "italics."

 

On the other hand, when my kids learned handwriting in the 1980's, the school did call it cursive. i wonder if it's just a regional term or a more recent one. Doesn't anyone say handwriting and penmanship anymore?

[truebean]

I use both. I'm a student, so I take one class's notes in cursive, two in regular print (and Arabic), and one in regular capitals/regular print/cursive/"fancy" capitals depending on my mood. I've found Seyes- or French-ruled paper to be the best at neatening my cursive hand.

[virgilio]

In South Carolina in the 60s it was called long hand, or occasionally, penmanship. Cursive seems to be a much more recent term, altho it has been used for centuries to refer to the Latin and Greek cursive styles. Handwriting on the other hand could refer to either printing (also called blockletter) or long hand.

 

Teachers were schizophrenic in their attitude to long hand. Some required it, but far more dreaded it, and preferred printing. Fountain pens were already virtually unknown. My first grade teacher tried to insist on her pupils getting a fountain pen, but the principal unfortunately overruled her. I was very disappointed, as I had been playing around with one of my older sisters' fountain pens (altho its bladder needed replacing, and it leaked). I was looking forward to getting a fountain pen of my own, but that didn't happen until I was in college. No one even knew where to buy one for many years, unless you went all the way in to Greenville.

[inkstainedruth]

In the English I grew up speaking (NJ), no one said cursive. It was called handwriting, to differentiate it from printing and the special class we had for that subject in school was called "Penmanship." (I guess that's not politically correct and you have to say "Penpersonship" nowadays, as horrible as that sounds.)

 

And if you want to be *really* politically correct it would be "penperchildship"....

Sorry, I had a relatively annoying day dealing with various and assorted idiots on the phone, and then with more idiots on the road to and from dinner, and had to decompress. And being silly helped.... My mom once published a story which said stuff like "His heart kilogrammed with fear" and was then *completely* bemused by the amount of press given over to discussion of the story in the letters section in the magazine's next issue: the pro-metric people thought she was being pro-metric, while the anti-metric people thought she was being anti-metric.... And she sat there reading all these letters and muttering "I just thought I was being funny, and the editor bought it because HE thought it was funny...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Studio97]

I prefer cursive but if I get going too fast my writing will either get really small or look like an EKG. I print if leaving someone a note.

[hh1990]

From 5th grade until very recently, I've been printing, but after purchasing my first fountain pen, I've made an effort to start writing everything in cursive, but absentmindedly start up in print every now and then.

[estie1948]

I've stated that I always write in cursive. I must now make a correction to that statement. It dawned on me while I was writing to my six-year-old great-granddaughter. I have to print her letters.

 

-David (Estie).

[cobalt]

Only longhand, cursive, whatever you want to call it.

 

In cursive style, printed words are to create some emphasis, headings, that sort of thing, but can usually be avoided. Depends on the purpose. Calligraphy has its own logic and I suspect given the dramatic form of many upper case letters, add a real sense of style. I sometimes get carried away and add upper case letters in a calligraphic hand. Fun.

 

Printing otherwise is for "signs" such as labels on folders or filling in forms with majuscules (upper case letters) as no one seems to use minuscules (lower case letters).

 

Internet domain names and email addresses seem the exception to the rule here, as well as product names and the names of companies and where the creative spirit seems to have abandoned all hope.

 

Perhaps someone who texts a lot could say whether when they write, are they in effect just texting with a pen, so use printed letters? Just a thought.

 

I find printing labourious.

 

When I learnt Russian (tried that is...), I really enjoyed how the letters flow when written (not printed).Sanskrit also has a lovely flow to it. However, pausing to put in accents in some languages does break the flow a bit.

 

Perhaps others could comment on how they write in other than the Roman/Latin alphabet.

[john74]

I write everything in cursive except when I address an envelop, then I use print for clarity.

[Erik Dalton]

Fessing up..

Not that easy to read, but I'm working on it..hehehe

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Confession? I automatically write in cursive unless I tell myself to print. I tell myself to print if I'm writing for someone whose ability to read cursive is unknown. Or if I'm filling out a form.

[TSherbs]

both, in hybrid

[ItwasLuck]

I'm mixed, although these days my writing is leaning more towards cursive but in a good way.

[micalela1]

I write a mix of both. And still can't read my iwn writting. 😆

[ParramattaPaul]

I was taught and believe that "writing" by definition means, or at least implies, using cursive, otherwise, when using block letters, it is "printing".

[gmm213]

I military style print anything for work. It needs to be 100% legible 100% of the time. For personal things that others will read I still print but am much more relaxed about it. I generally use cursive for capital Ts and anf Fs and will connect Ys and Gs and usually Es to the following letter. More out of habit than anything. For my journal and notes etc I write cursive, then its illegible to anyone and I dont have to worry about privacy, lol

Edited November 27, 2016 by gmm213

[Shaggy]

 

I learned Palmer Method as a child but never liked it. I can still write it quite easily; must be ingrained in my muscle memory.

 

In high school I used an ugly 'joined printing' that I made up.

 

I learned Copperplate in college but found it slow. My father had the tiniest Copperplate imaginable... I have trouble deciphering most of his notes.

 

 

Nowadays I primarily use cursive italic (the Dubay style) which I taught myself several years ago when I began learning to speak Italian. I believe it's the form of handwriting most commonly taught in schools there and I had dozens of old family letters written in it. If I'm writing with speed, I drop some of the swoops to speed it up.

[kirkmc]

Hi, Here's my wriitng, it's just about 'ok' to my mind, looking at the photo shows too many variations, but it is so much clearer than years ago, that's more important to me. A long way from how I would like to write, but I can read it.

 

 

I have printed since forever. I remember my handwriting being criticized when I was in grade school, and I never got over that. Your sample is very nice; I would love to be able to print like that, because I'm not sure that, at my age, I'm cut out for learning cursive. Is that technically printed italic? Or some sort of mongrel script?

[sidthecat]

I recently bought a Waterman L'Etalon: a very bold pen with a very bold nib. It's a perfect instrument for printing, unless I'm willing to scale up my handwriting. It's in the shop now, but we'll see what I get back.