When I was in high school and was taking a drafting class (you know, the REAL drafting that is done by hand) we had these "lettering worksheets" where you just practiced your letters going across the page. Now most of the students would do these and as their writing progressed across the page, it got more uniform, more consistent, and generally better.
Mine progressed from bad, to worse, to illegible.
I think my lack of fine motor skills coupled with my deficiency in patience was the cause of it then (and now).
Handwriting and the associated fine motor skills have gone to hell in a hand basket ever since the advent of the key board and word processor. Not much difference with the advent of CAD. Becoming a lost art sadly. Curiously, I'm a firm believer that hand writing speaks volumes about the scriber, which makes me cringe when I try to decipher a doctor's scrawled prescription. He clearly doesn't have the time or patience to make it legible, which of course makes me wonder how much attention he was paying while giving me that annual check up. :'(
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
I was routinely punished by my stepmother (a former English teacher) for my poor penmanship. I spent countless hours practicing both print and cursive and unless I spent an obscene amount of time per written word, I never saw improvement. Fast forward twenty years and I began communicating with a half brother that my father had given up to adoption (a regret he carried to the grave). My wife and I noticed immediately that my newly discovered sibling had handwriting that was indistinguishable from mine or my late father's. Considering that my half brother is a published writer, full time pastor holding a Masters of Theology, and that we grew up in radically different environments, I believe that "good" handwriting is not as much about practice as many believe. Also, I've not met many of the artsy-fartsy types of people with poor penmanship.
Murphy, post: 354074, member: 9787 wrote: I was routinely punished by my stepmother (a former English teacher) for my poor penmanship. I spent countless hours practicing both print and cursive and unless I spent an obscene amount of time per written word, I never saw improvement. Fast forward twenty years and I began communicating with a half brother that my father had given up to adoption (a regret he carried to the grave). My wife and I noticed immediately that my newly discovered sibling had handwriting that was indistinguishable from mine or my late father's. Considering that my half brother is a published writer, full time pastor holding a Masters of Theology, and that we grew up in radically different environments, I believe that "good" handwriting is not as much about practice as many believe. Also, I've not met many of the artsy-fartsy types of people with poor penmanship.
I have three brothers and one sister. Our mother was valedictorian of her class and had beautiful handwriting (print or cursive), dad's handwriting on the other hand could be used to protect military secrets (even he can't decipher it after awhile). Although mom taught all of us to write before we started school and continued to work with us through the lower grades, we all have handwriting that looks more like dad's than mom's. Because of this I've always wondered if heredity doesn't have some influence.
Murphy, post: 354074, member: 9787 wrote: I was routinely punished by my stepmother (a former English teacher) for my poor penmanship. I spent countless hours practicing both print and cursive and unless I spent an obscene amount of time per written word, I never saw improvement. Fast forward twenty years and I began communicating with a half brother that my father had given up to adoption (a regret he carried to the grave). My wife and I noticed immediately that my newly discovered sibling had handwriting that was indistinguishable from mine or my late father's. Considering that my half brother is a published writer, full time pastor holding a Masters of Theology, and that we grew up in radically different environments, I believe that "good" handwriting is not as much about practice as many believe. Also, I've not met many of the artsy-fartsy types of people with poor penmanship.
I have a similar story, though unrelated to handwriting (well, sort of). I also have a half brother. I didn't know about him until I was 1 month away from my 18th birthday. Interestingly enough, he was 2 months past his 18th birthday. Anyway, we met right at that time and only saw each other maybe a dozen times over the next 3 years. Then, we lost touch with each other over the next 9 years. Fast forward to December 1999. My mother ran into him in a store (where my half brother was working). They talked and she got his phone number for me. I called over to his house to see if he wanted to get together and catch up for the 9+ years that had gone by. His wife had answered the phone and I asked for him. She said, "Just a minute" and put him on the phone. Well, a couple months later, I was at their house and we got on the subject of that first phone call. His wife said, "It was strange, because we were sitting on the couch watching a movie together. When I answered the phone, the voice I heard was my husband's. But my husband was on the couch. So it was really confusing."
My brother and I (I know he's technically a half brother, but...) are the same height, same shirt size, and same hat size. Our voices sound different in person, mostly, but on the phone, we are almost twins. The crazy thing is that our body language and mannerisms are almost identical. All of this similarity in our behaviors, yet we grew up separately and had only minimal contact until we were 30 years old.
Now I want to get a sample of his printing to see how much it looks like mine (and our dad's). My dad and I had very similar printing styles, he was just a bit better at it.
Stephen Ward, post: 354080, member: 1206 wrote: ....Because of this I've always wondered if heredity doesn't have some influence.
My mother has incredible, perfect penmanship. My father had horrible penmanship. I (unfortunately) have writing that is identical to my father's. Trust me, I DID NOT try to mimic his style. In fact, when I went back to college, I made a determined effort over 4 years of note taking to really improve my penmanship.
Did not help a bit. I am convinced that it is somewhat hereditary.
PS- My poor son has inherited my handwriting too.
My writing improve recently.
I finally got tired of all the newfangled styles of pencils with padded finger grips and warped styling at the Wallyworld emporium that I ordered me a new pencil sharpener and pulled out my box of natural wood pencils to use in the office.
The lead may be banned in half the countries in the world but the difference in how they feel in my hand is amazing.
There are Berol, FaberCastell Velvet Executive, Berol Torquoise, Berol Verithin w/flexible lead, FaberCasteel American, The Blackfeet Indian Pencil, Empire Trusty and some white pencils with no labels.
The scent of wood of fresh wood shavings gives me a buzz...........
If all of you who claim bad penmanship were ever party chiefs, who did your field notes for you?
I have run off people for taking piss poor notes.
To be fair, field notes are printed. The Ames method shouldn't go out of style. Penmanship stems from the use of a proper quill.
Edward Reading, post: 354087, member: 132 wrote: My mother has incredible, perfect penmanship. My father had horrible penmanship. I (unfortunately) have writing that is identical to my father's. Trust me, I DID NOT try to mimic his style. In fact, when I went back to college, I made a determined effort over 4 years of note taking to really improve my penmanship.
Did not help a bit. I am convinced that it is somewhat hereditary.
PS- My poor son has inherited my handwriting too.
Same here, poor lil feller has worse handwriting than I do...
Stephen Johnson, post: 354091, member: 53 wrote: If all of you who claim bad penmanship were ever party chiefs, who did your field notes for you?
I have run off people for taking piss poor notes.
I had to take my time and write painfully slowly to make it look right. My sketches were top-rate. I had a nice little template with symbols and shapes I could use. It was great. And my numbers were usually pretty good as long as I didn't rush in writing things. Lettering was always my weak suit. If I took my time and was careful, I could get decent lettering, but if I get into a rush at all, it was over.
I also had a hell of a time writing at the bottom of the page in a field book if I couldn't set it on the hood of the truck.
Stephen Johnson, post: 354091, member: 53 wrote: If all of you who claim bad penmanship were ever party chiefs, who did your field notes for you?
I have run off people for taking piss poor notes.
Mine isn't perfect, but I try to make sure it's clear and legible. If someone scratches in my field book a bunch of illegible gobbly-gook I can't read and it's obvious they couldn't or wouldn't take the time to make it clear, I just assume the rest of their thinking process is just as haphazard, which maybe works if you're an MD, but not so much an LS.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
skwyd, post: 354117, member: 6874 wrote: I had to take my time and write painfully slowly to make it look right. My sketches were top-rate. I had a nice little template with symbols and shapes I could use. It was great. And my numbers were usually pretty good as long as I didn't rush in writing things. Lettering was always my weak suit. If I took my time and was careful, I could get decent lettering, but if I get into a rush at all, it was over.
I also had a hell of a time writing at the bottom of the page in a field book if I couldn't set it on the hood of the truck.
I learned to write upside down and backwards. Took care of that problem and writing on laths starting at the very top of the lath.
Stephen Johnson, post: 355016, member: 53 wrote: I learned to write upside down and backwards. Took care of that problem and writing on laths starting at the very top of the lath.
I typically did really well writing on the lath. But I think that was because I could write bigger numbers and letters. When I had to write smaller (stay within the lines!) in the field book... well...
Yeah, my penmanship is well suited to writing on wood with a giant marker!