It has just recently been pointed out to me by someone that my handwriting is cursive. I never realized that this was a big deal as such, but apparently no one writes in cursive any more and it is barely taught in schools. I also never realized that my handwriting was outdated, but now that I think about it, no one I know writes in cursive. But that is how I was taught to write when I was in kindergarten and that is how I've ended up writing all my life. Most of my friends print their letters, i.e when they write words, all their letters are separated. Printing looks much neater and is so much more easy to decipher unlike my cursive scrawl.
My handwriting is not what anyone would call neat. I can be neat if I want, but most of the times I'm quite messy, especially if I'm writing fast. A lot of people always tell me that my handwriting looks very childish because most of my letters are connected and my 'k', 'g', 'f', 'l', 'j', 'y' and 'z' are all loopy. The only letters I print are 'e', 'z', 'b' and very occasionally 's', and I only started doing this a couple of years ago because I was accused of having a handwriting that could rival that of a five year old child. Most of my capital letters are block letters apart from my 'L' and 'S' that are again cursive. In fact, the cursive capital letter 'L' is my favourite letter ever and I love writing it. I've always had a thing for loops, what can I say?
I'm so jealous of people who have good handwriting. I have a friend whose writing is like typeface. It is really incredible to look at. I used to sit next to her in almost all of my classes in high school, which gave me a big complex about the condition of my notes. It made me consciously put in some effort to make my scribbles look presentable. This is why my lecture notes even now are neat and tidy. This particular friend also introduced me to the wonderful world of colour coding, sparkly pens and highlighters. I always knew that there was a reason why I love her so much.
Since my handwriting isn't half as legible as I'd like it to be, most of my assignments are typed up and I'm very anal about the fonts I use. I like to do all my assignments in Times New Roman because nothing says 'formal' like the use of serif fonts, doesn't it? Plus, I'm such a traditionalist that I can't help but love it. Keeping my love for Times New Roman aside, no other font will ever be able to live up to my affection for sans-serif fonts like Arial and Trebuchet MS (my blog's typeface is Trebuchet, by the way).
I sound quite obsessive about fonts, don't I? At least, I don't go around claiming that my favourite font is Comic Sans because I know people who do this and use it to do their projects and essays (I don't want to get started on my Comic Sans hate because I can do posts filled with rants about how much I dislike Comic Sans).
6 comments:
Yep people dont write in cursive any more. Almost no one I know doeas. And I remember how much pain my mom went through to teach it to me. My sister still uses cursive though.
Also - who the fuck writes formal studd in Comic Sans??!
Your photo, Pan, is the Palmer Method of cursive--I can tell by the capital F and Z. I learned it in Catholic school in the 1950s--old fossil, aren't I.
If people don't use cursive any longer, how do you "sign" checks and contracts?
As far as fonts go, the general rule I learned is serif for the body and sans serif for titles, so you're doing it right.
And Comic Sans--I agree with Szerelem. That's like dotting all your "i"s with little hearts, which makes me puke.
BTW, you might want to stop by my place for my 2008 review of REAL books!
L had to learn cursive, painfully, for all my primary school. Our teacher was a bit of a fascist about it and it looked very similar to what you've got there except for a few of the capitals. For someone as messy as me it made my writing a nightmare to read.
Eventually at some point in secondary school I just decided to write my own way - it was like learning all over again except I made up my own rules, so my handwriting is made of printed letters that are sort of joined together. Still looks messy, but at least it's mine!
Also, lot's of Comic Sans hate here, and even more sans serif love, although Verdana is my personal fave - and you thought no-one was as sad as you....
Sz: You sister and I are officially the two coolest people in the world! I have people at my uni (not even high school) who submit essays in Comic Sans and I had this crazy biology teacher in school who used to give us handouts and notes in Comic Sans. This has contributed muchly to my biology and comic sans hate!
Charlie: The photo is of the same cursive I was taught too. Its quite similar to how I still write. It must be a Catholic school thing (because I went to one too)
I saw your book post and it made me feel guilty because I haven't read much this year :(
Ash: My teachers too were sticklers for all the letters to touch each other while writing. Till I was in 3rd of 4th grade, I didn't even realize that we was allowed to write in any way that we wanted. Who would have thought that Pan would be so good at following instructions when she was younger? My handwriting currently is more of a mixture between 90% cursive and 10% printing.
I love Verdana. After Arial and Trebuchet, Verdana is definitely one of my favourite fonts. I think I only love sans serif fonts so much is because I'm unable to write printed letters.
PS: I'm glad people agree with me on the Comic Sans hate :D:D:D
Wait, I was taught cursive handwriting in a Catholic school too! I think we're onto something - how weird is that? Religion and handwriting are some how linked. Maybe I ditched cursive when it no longer fit with me becoming an atheist?
I think we have just uncovered a conspiracy involving Catholic schools, cursive handwriting and innocent students who are brainwashed :D
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