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its horrible its never exusable

44 (41.9%)

it has its uses but sometimes print is better

56 (53.3%)

all writing should be cursive

5 (4.8%)

Total Members Voted: 101

[tuypo1]

Can I have a show of hands from my fellow health care workers on the danger and illegibility of handwritten doctor prescriptions and medication charts?

Yes? Hello? Anyone else there?

Anyway, seeing as my full-time job is to decrypt the handwriting of the professionals whose terrible penmanship is so legendary it's practically illegal to write any other way, I think I can safely vouch for supporting clear print and typed documents.

Of course one of the secrets they don't want you knowing is that the terrible handwriting is really just a way to avoid showing they can't actually spell half the drugs they prescribe.

how have i never realised that before of course

[Willfor]

I do want to point out this whole thing.

[tuypo1]

toady i have a question how do dwarves write

[Mech#4]

With their beards. They secrete a stone dissolving acid from the tips of their follicles that they use to etch symbols into slabs. They read these by using their beards to feel the shape of the symbols.

[tuypo1]

With their beards. They secrete a stone dissolving acid from the tips of their follicles that they use to etch symbols into slabs. They read these by using their beards to feel the shape of the symbols.

i am laughing quite a bit

[Jacob/Lee]

Regardless of whether I write in print or cursive, my handwriting is chicken scratch that many people can't read. It was always easier and more useful for me to write in print, because I can at least count on everybody knowing all the characters in print.

[Sappho]

It all depends on what you're used to, really. I write far faster when I print than when I use cursive, because I rarely use cursive. If you prefer cursive, then of course it will be faster for you. As for it being legible, it just depends on how often you read cursive and how neat the handwriting is. Cursive can be perfectly legible if people put in a little bit of effort into making it so.

Did you know that cursive alphabets are different in different countries? I didn't, until I moved to Prague. Czech cursive is completely impenetrable to me. Several of the letters are completely different, and many of the letters resemble each other too closely for me to read them easily. It's a problem, because I'm a teacher, and all my adult students would always submit their work in cursive. This is how they're taught to write, even before they learn to print. Apparently it's easier for a young mind to learn to read and write if the letters in a word are joined together. They also go on and on about how much faster it is. But I have to force all of my students to print, even though they grumble about it, because it's the only way I can read it.

Interestingly, Czechs have no problem reading English cursive. Comparing the alphabets side by side, I've come to the conclusion that while cursive has always been intended for faster/easier writing than printing (although I don't find it so), the Czech cursive alphabet is designed SOLELY around it being fast to write. You never have to go back to cross a T, for example, and most of the letters with closed circles are open in cursive to save time. The English cursive, however, is designed to be at least somewhat possible to READ. The cursive letters resemble the print ones as closely as possible, so that you can write without picking up your pen, but the letters still look like letters.

Now, it's worth noting that if it's written carefully, the Czech handwriting is just as possible to read as the English, but since everyone focuses solely on it being fast, I can never read a single word of it.

I'll have to see if I can dig up a sample of a student's handwriting to show you all... I might have given back all the papers during the school year though...

[tuypo1]

interesting well i hope you manage to find some

[Graknorke]

I write in cursive and it's usually barely readable. It gets better if I slow down to try but that distracts from the actual act of thinking about what to write.

[Mech#4]

I think, if the handwriting is very heavy on the cursive, reading it becomes more knowing where certain letters fall in a word rather than being able to read every individual letter. In this for example, I can tell it says "Independence" because the I, d, p, and d stand out clearly from the other letters.

[Phmcw]

Is is just in America or is there a debate about writing in print characters in England, too? It's funny because it's not even a debate here, in Belgium and in France. We handwrite in cursive and type in print. Never saw anyone handwriting in printing character.

[timferius]

My printing is barely legible as is by anyone but myself, even I can't read my own cursive... (my mother used to joke I'd make a perfect doctor). My cursive looks like someone attacked a sheet of paper with a broken spirograph.

[Mech#4]

In Australia I was taught to write in that semi-cursive (joining letters) when I was in primary school. Not forced to, just taught how to do so and chose to after that because my parents write in cursive.

Notes to myself and letters to others I write in joined letters. If I'm filling out a form, those require you to write in block characters for clarity.
Though I have just noticed that I don't tend to join all of the letters together, particularly not capitals.

[smjjames]

I only use cursive as part of my signature and my print writing is pretty difficult to read (well, not illegible, but yeah), so I use typed.

[Graknorke]

Wait, is cursive different to joining letters? I was under the impression they were the same thing.