I type much much more than I write, but I still keep a nice legible handwriting. There's some people out there though, that look like they learned how to write yesterday.

I had to write a paragraph in cursive for something stupid not too long ago, and was embarrassed at how long it took me, and how ugly it looked. No two signatures of mine look identical. I have engineer handwriting, so all caps, very precise. Cursive just doesn't make sense.

I have terrible handwriting but thats ok since computers are better anyways. I've always had problems writing because it makes my hands get tired fast so it gets hard to write quickly, I don't have that problem when I'm typing and I'm a lot faster anyways. Typing saves paper too.

My handwriting has always been bad. Being left-handed, my teachers always left me on my own when practicing handwriting. At least they didn't force me to switch to writing right-handed...

Am I the only one that thinks that very "neat" and "elegent" cursive incredibly hard to read? I don't think I could write much in cursive at this point and my singarure has long since devolved into a jittery looking line.

@kirby822: who the hell writes in cursive anymore?

I used to be able to write legibly... then I stopped handwriting anything, now my signatures even suck.

I've been using a computer since I was 10 (I'm 38). So, I never learned how to handwrite properly. I always did my book reports on a dot matrix.

Has this affected my life in anyway? Yes...I'm a member of the computer elite :D I don't give a damn what anyone thinks of my handwriting!

I always had very bad handwriting. But I noticed that after long breaks of not writing with a pen (i.e. after summer break) I found it so awkward to write.

My signature is so horrid that it has been mistaken for a seismograph reading. Typing has probably made my handwriting even worse due to the fact that I type so FAST that its closer to the speed that I think, so when I have to slow way down to write, I lose patience.

The problem with patience is that it takes too damn long.

Even weirder - I sometimes hand write common typos. Seriously.

The reason I started to use a computer is that I can not handwrite. No amount of remediation ever worked. Warehousing me with the developmentally disabled kids did nothing to improve my reading, spelling, handwriting. My world changed when I got access to a keyboard and a word processor with TTS. My teachers learned that I wasn't retarded, though I am still working on accepting that reality.

Left handed terrible writer. So, yeah, my writing has always sucked.

Meh my signature is a scribble, and I can read my hand writing which is all that counts. So if I need anything to be professional it's typed.

i write chicken scratch

Cursive? Man, I haven't used cursive for anything but name-signing since fourth grade (and when I sign my name, I skip half the letters). I always hated cursive; it's very difficult to read somebody else's cursive, no matter how "perfect" and "elegant" they do it.

I can write in block letters fine, though.

My handwriting used to be so bad in grade school, that the teachers just gave up and taught me to type instead.

Mines gotten better, actually, since I got into engineering. Of course even with all the typing I do, I also do more regular writing.

I use a tablet most of the time which is somewhat harder to write on than regular paper so I would say its actually improving it.

mine has actually improved or my attention value to it has grown , more appreciativeness.

one time i had trouble getting money trough western union in a Latvian bank , the cashier didn't accept signature although before i entered the boot my signature *matched*.

I told the lady there i have disslexia :0' that in our time and age people do more stuff a day for people it took years to do and she agreed to hand me the money.

Also last time i manualy tried to keep track of a phone call o' my friend mr.cow with his las i couldn't keep up and noticed how same word always changed shape due to speed and voice differance at time o' input.

Would've keept-up-ative on keyboard defianlty.

There's symbolism to writing and writing with symbolism and that is a xing.

My pathetic lack of a laptop forced me to handwrite a good portion of the novel I wrote. When I went to type it up, most of it was legible. I don't know - or particularly care - if anyone else could.

Also, I'm a bit of a handwriting fetishist and I find messy writing much more interesting to look at than perfect lettering.

after typing all school and work related documents since 97 and really never hand writing anything, it was quite the shock when I got made fun of by a class room full of 16 year olds for having the penmenship of a 5 year old chimp with Down's

kindof like when you come back from school after summer vacation and your handwriting sucks.

You can read your handwriting. I can read your handwriting.
I can't read my handwriting.

"Darling, I wrote 'Deerparking von pewtershchmit' here. Any idea what that means?"
"No. But just make sure you remember the bottle of wine, ham, and cucumbers."
"That's it!"
*Sigh*

mine's a two way bid between it did and it didn't. i mean, my writing was never all to great, but as time progressed... it never really improved. maybe it did, slightly, when i wanted my writing to at least be legible to those that needed it, but other than that... wait, why would there be a reason for people to read my writing? computer's: solution to my terrible handwriting

whats handwriting?

Yes. And I prefer to type now rather than write and thus, my handwriting has suffered a lot.

My handwriting is bad because I want to write much faster than my hands will move. The result is a scribbled mess of shorthand where just about every verb is replaced by an arrow.

Thus, I type.

I've been a 60wpm touch typist for decades but have had prescription-pad-worthy (=illegible) cursive handwriting for a lot longer. My grade school-style printing, while more readable than my handwriting, is bland and, well, juvenile.

However, over the last ten years or so, recognizing my writing/printing deficiencies, I actively worked to develop for myself a new and different kind of hybrid cursive/printing handwriting style. As it has evolved, this third writing style, different from either of its precursors, is both more attractive than my printing and far more legible than my cursive writing. Aesthetically, it is inspired by architect-style lettering but has some cursive connectivity.

So, if anything, even as keyboard input has all but taken over, my handwriting has simultaneously improved (but neither is a causality for the other).

I'd say mine has gotten better, probably because of that architecture class I took in college. It's not cursive though, guess you'd call it more of a drop caps style of printing.

@Rususeruru: Anyone who has something to write other than filling out a blank form or application. Other than that, I thought block handwriting was solely for serial killers.

Seriously, not everything can be done via keyboard yet and free-form writing is best done in cursive. Even for me and my terrible handwriting.

It's not so much that typing makes your handwriting worse as it is that LACK of writing does. I realize they are practically one and the same, but there is a BIT of a difference.

@The Sword Master:

Idiot. You can't type, either. It should be "...if anyone else could read it."

I just remembered the sad fact that I kept making 'typos' while I was handwriting my book, like writing "teh" instead of "the". It was ridiculous; I wanted to kill myself.

When I was a young engineer out of college in the mid 80's, we didn't have much in the way of computers, so we released hand made drawings. My crappy handwriting actually got much better after having to use a writing guide to keep my letters the same size. I even got comments from people telling me I printed nicely. Those days are long gone. Now, my family recognizes which Christmas presents come from me by looking for handwriting that looks like it was done "by a third grader" (actual quote from my dad).

I find that I can't nearly write as fast as I used too.. if I try to write fast its ugly. Its probably a combo of not being in school and using a computer and phone. I go days at a time without writing anything by hand.

I'm in HS still so I do alot of handwriting every day.....and its still bad lol. I blame my kindergarden teacher. But after summer breaks you cant even read my handwriting its so bad.

My horsemanship is pretty bad since the advent of cars.

It would be a blatant lie to say that my handwriting sucks because of typing.

@catbutt: Nice. That sums it up prefectly.

I learned to type on an old manual when I was 8 and had been writing everything in cursive for a while by then. I type fast but I still pound on the keys a lot harder than is necessary.

My dominant hand handwriting is nice enough to get compliments whenever I use it; my left handed writing is average. I still have my writer's callous on my right middle finger, but I find that my hand cramps up a lot faster than it used to.

The biggest effect of using a computer is that my spelling has gotten wurse.

Whenever I have to take written notes in meetings at work I always end up writing about two lines of illegible scribble and resorting to jotting down half words and half dark inkblot drawings of spirals and arrows, sometimes even small animals. Its useless, I just can't read my own handwriting, yet an upside down dog will probably remind me that I need to turn in the quarterly report. I can type pretty damn fast though.

no, i've always had the same quality penmanship as my kindergarten-age sister.

The only ppl that need handwriting are those who can't n00b sp34k to make themselves look l33t while talking online. They're just too embarrassed to embrace the keyboard lifestyle.

One thing is for sure, if you started using computers to just IM and didn't learn how to type at first, you will probably hunt and peck for the rest of your life. (Im getting pretty fast tho.)

@workingonyourinvoice:

"No two signatures of mine look identical."

Just like me... and my signature consists in just my name written in cursive...

Yes. It does. I'm old enough such that most of my schoolwork was not on a computer. When I had my C64 I couldn't write papers on it because the teachers wouldn't allow it because the ignorant 'tards thought the computer actually wrote the paper for you. Then I got a "near letter quality" printer and microperf paper and told them I used a type-writer.

From that point on my awesome script devolved into a illegible mishmash. Now? Fuck. Now my handwriting looks like that of a four year old. Fucking computers. I hate them.

I always had bad handwriting, but I also learned to use a computer while I was very young. Once people made that connection, they encouraged me to type on a computer(or typewriter), so my handwriting never improved.

Because I type most of the time, I have started to actually ENJOY the rare occasion I write. I bought myself a desk pad and a fountain pen. Not only has my penmanship improved, but I am far more careful when choosing words.

I've been practicing my handwriting for nearly three years with subtle results. http://sumocat.blogspot.com/

i could never do cursive- in 3rd grade, i got so tired of teachers telling me they couldn't read my writing that i've been printing ever since. and my printing is no more or less illegible now than it was 25 years ago.

when i was looking for a new job last year at the age of 31, my mom offered to give me writing lessons. that wasn't embarrassing at all... didn't matter, found a good job regardless. (how ya like me now, brock?)

poor writing is a constant. i've seen notes by presidents and/or geniuses who couldn't write legibly. blame gutenberg and that f**king bible of his. i think the larger problem is people who can write perfectly well but are completely unable to spell or construct sentences that make any sense.

(checks for ironic typos before submitting...)

@workingonyourinvoice: Yep, me too. 8 years in the navy left me with beautiful all caps printing, but my normal writing cursive sucks bad.

It is sad that people have poor handwriting, and it sounds like a personal problem, not something to be blamed on something else.

However, I think that typing has caused my hand to cramp when I write out essays.

In grade school, teachers drilled cursive writing into us, and everything had to be hand-written in cursive.

When I got to high school, on the other hand, teachers didn't seem to care, since they wanted typed reports anyway. I basically gave up on cursive at that point, and just about the only thing I write cursive is my signature, and even that is bad.

I am a lefty and my script is fairly bad if I'm out of practice or not warmed up. Yes, I said warmed up.
Handwriting - like typing - takes practice to maintain proficiency; its all about muscle control.

The longhand clerks and accountants of yore did longhand warmups - practice drills - to get ready for the day's work. A large part of their vocational business training was how to write properly. The clarity and consistency of their italic script is astonishing.

I've been keeping a longhand journal for 20 years along with dozens of comp books full of short stories, poetry, and essays. More than half of that time I've also been writing software. Writing longhand is less about efficiency (for me) than it is about the process and the meditative quality of writing well and with intention.

Also, many people don't like to write longhand because they use TERRIBLE tools and don't know any better. Would you program all day on a chiclet or membrane keyboard (think Atari 400)? How much do you think you would enjoy that? Cheap ballpoints are the pen equivalent. The ink is thick and gummy, you have to press too hard on the page to get the ball to roll, the pen has hardly any weight; all of these factors increase hand fatigue. Uniball Visions, Pilot Gel pens and fountain pens - especially good fountain pens - can bring the enjoyment back into longhand writing.

Matte black Sailor Profit 21 w/ Waterman Black ink FTW!

[www.sailor.co.jp]

@gestorter:

Yes, absolutely.

I'm in 7th grade, and I haven't handwritten an assignment for any of my classes (except for math, obviously) since the beginning of the year. Teachers have finally stopped trying to drill cursive into our heads; they don't care how we write as long as they can read it.