Fess Up. Do You Write With Cursive Or Printing?

[kirkmc]

I recently looked at the Waterman website. They used to have some wonderful pens - I bought my ex-wife a wooden Waterman fountain pen about 35 years ago - but their stuff now is quite drab.

[mrqutory]

For years I work in auto parts business where I had to fill out invoices by printing, so I still print. My cursive is worse than my printing.

[countrydirt]

I primarily write in cursive, but also use italic and an italic cursive. I print when I write on my whiteboard for my students.

[tinta]

All my nibs are edged (either stub or CI) & I love writing with them. I use a semi-connected cursive script for writing my letters, journals, lists & short notes. The only time I actually print is when I'm addressing letters or packages.

It's hard for me to keep my printed letters uniform in size. Not enough practice.

[Misfit]

I was working on menu ideas to make a shopping list. I noticed I printed them and looked back to see I only used cursive before. However, when I added a note to past menu pages, I had printed those notes smaller than my cursive.

 

When writing letters I always use cursive.

[virgilio]

I always print using capital letters. However, since I am a professional writer and am always pressed for time, I have eliminated as many strokes from the letters as possible without making them illegible. For Instance, I eliminate the horizontal stroke from the A, so that it looks like a lambda, the downstroke from the B, so that it looks like a 3, and so on. It's a sort of a rough-and-ready shorthand that is still very legible, but about twice as rapid as either printing or cursive. Helps to eliminate hand fatigue too.

[Helen350]

Use both cursive and printing. Letters to be mailed are written in cursive, though I often print the envelope. My teaching notes are predominately written in cursive. Towards the end of the day, when my eyes are tired, I find myself printing vs. cursive writing. My prayer journal shows both--indicating either a broad nib or 1.1 stub nib.

[Yaakova]

Cursive almost exclusively for the last 50+ years - save for forms that mandate the use of manuscript (what they called printing when I was a child).

[elysee]

I had a student in one of my classes last spring who could not read cursive. Since, of course, I wanted him to be able to read what I wrote during class, I had to print. However, I found it difficult to do so as I write using cursive by default -- without thinking. I had to concentrate while writing so that I would print. As you might imagine, there were times when I would begin to write using cursive since my focus was on my students and helping them to understand the course material. I had told the students to let me know when I began to write using cursive rather than printing. Since many students enjoyed watching me write using cursive, they would, at times, not tell me when I began to write using cursive and this includes the student who could not read cursive. During the semester, this student began studying my cursive -- he seemed amused by my unconsciously beginning to write using cursive -- and, by the end of the semester, he was able to read my cursive. He began to incorporate elements of cursive into his printing and his printing became more legible; his improved handwriting made reading his final exam easier. He had commented that his teachers had not spent time teaching cursive or emphasized neat, clear handwriting -- printing or cursive -- and, thus, his "handwriting was a mess" as he put it.

[Tashiea]

I use cursive, as messy is my cursive is, it looks better than my print. I know practice makes perfect, but does anyone know the best way to improve cursive handwriting?

[eliweisz]

I use cursive, as messy is my cursive is, it looks better than my print. I know practice makes perfect, but does anyone know the best way to improve cursive handwriting?

 

Try to master a specific style - American Cursive, Cursive Italic, Roundhand or whatever. And practice as much as you can - to achieve consistency and legibility. That's what I have been doing in the last year and a half, and now my "daily script" is more legible than ever.

[Mister5]

Both cursive and print, often within the same word, for my own notes. But for novel writing it's in cursive or shorthand. Journaling is shifting to shorthand from cursive. Correspondence is typically with the exception that when I'm writing to someone initially from a country where they might not get my questionable cursive, I'll use print. I always use print on envelopes.

[VivienR]

My handwriting is mixed with cursive and printing. Because its the most effective way to write at least for me. Although time by time practicing some cursive letter forming, still I'm not sure that I will go full cursive and giving up my "own style". I like to be unique.

[gamingoodz]

http://i.imgur.com/S5NQrHPl.jpg

(Hmm my writing looked much better when I was writing it lol)

[Mary P]

I write in cursive. I never really learned to print but my grandmother started teaching me cursive when I was three. When I was in Catholic grade school I earned penmanship awards. I volunteer with an order of Dominican Sisters and get teased about my "nunny penmanship".

 

My printing is all in caps, very slow and hard to read. I don't print unless a form demands it.

[mauckcg]

Both, depends on what I am doing.

[CrunchiBiscuit]

My writing is in printing but more akin to chicken scratchings. I do remember learning to write beautifully with both printing and cursive styles when I was at primary school 40 plus years ago but sort of lost the art of it since then. At least using different coloured inks makes my chicken scratchings look a bit more interesting!

[Guardy]

I usually write cursive.

 

I used to print for a few years at school - we *had* to use cursive from grades 2-4, and not a pretty style of cursive either, so most of us switched to print as fast as we could; to show that we're old enough to be allowed our own handwriting style on one hand, and because the Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift is an abomination that's neither fun to write nor aesthetically pleasing on the other hand.

 

I eventually went back to cursive, because it's faster to write - though this time, I mostly did my own thing, stylistically speaking.

 

My print is considerably more even-looking than my cursive (The latter looks like Frankenstein's monster, cobbled together from half a dozen scripts or so), but printing's no fun.

[Sleebus]

I printed for many years, until I started migrating up the corporate ladder. Being able to take good notes in meetings and keep up became very important and printing wasn't cutting it. My cursive was terrible, but having missing info in notes was worse. The cool thing is I can trace back to the exact day I switched from printing to cursive (although that notebook with the date is at home rather than the office at the moment.) It was really pretty awful, but got a bit more legible over time. When I got a FP, I actually sat down to practice for the first time in years. My cursive (Palmer method) had degraded into a series of humps. Practice really helped me get rid of/reduce my bad habits. I still have work to do; I'd become a finger writer, so the switch back to arm writing has been a bit odd, but I am improving. Next step is that I think I want to get some cheap dip pens and practice Spencerian. Might have to pay a visit to Dromgoole's on Friday.

[Manalto]

Congratulations, Sleebus, on your progress. It's gratifying to see the beauty of your thoughts reflected in the beauty of your penmanship. Muscle memory is a miraculous thing; what once was a struggle, with repetition becomes automatic.