Cursive writing

[GrayMouser]

The kind where the letters all join together.

This came up in a forum I'm on for English teachers in Taiwan. Many younger posters were saying it's a waste of time in our computer/texting age; the counter-argument is that it's faster.

Some said you should be taught it well enough that at least you can read it. When I first started teaching in Taiwan (almost twenty years ago ) it was taught in first year English in junior high; now they don't teach it at all.

Thoughts? Did/do you learn it? Is it still useful?

[Mari]

I had to re-learn it when I studied Primary Education.
The argument for still teaching it in primary schools is that it is faster (as you said) and legible even if you do write fast. If you write in Times New Roman par ex. and you start to write fast, your letters will start to flow together and become much more illegible.

Another argument in favour of cursive writing, is that it requires fine motor skills. You have to develop them as you are working on your handwriting. Some might argue that you can accomplish the same with colouring and drawing, but the age at which children can really learn to draw as finely as you do with writing is higher. They start learning cursive at 7, the same level of skills used in drawing is only around 14 (though some gifted children are earlier).

[Earniel]

Most people I know find full cursive script to be somewhat childish as it's the way you learn to write in school, and as you grow up your writing style has to grow up as well. But I still think it's a good way to start to learn how to write because it's very standardised. If you come in to contact with other writing styles later, (even in the computer age, you will still be coming in contact with handwriting one way or the other) cursive is a good basis to discypher variants. Most people I know still have a writing style based on cursive.

[Coffeehouse]

I remember writing the standard cursive style in school when I was about 10. We sat there for ages in Norwegian classes, reciting poetry that our teacher (she was old!) loved, and learning cursive...

Over the years I've been writing some odd mix of regular style (non-joined up letters) and cursive. But about 2 years ago I was doing some notes in my studies and decided just there and then to try cursive. So now I write some weird cursive style that both works and it's readable I'll add a photo, and for you good cursive writers, you'll see my 'cursive' would get an F

So that photo will have to come later as I can't find the plug-in cord for my camera to transfer to the labtop...

[Hippos Hate Water]

I learned it, but I can only really read it now. If I tried writing in cursive, I'd probably find that I forgot how to write certain letters. :P

Nowadays I only use a stylized form of cursive for my John Hancock, but that's it.

[Rían]

Interesting! I haven't heard that it might not be taught anymore in some places!

I think it's faster - I tend to use a form of cursive (as Earniel said, "grown-up" - it's changed to make it faster) when I have to write a lot quickly. I think it should be taught, if only because information and skills are a good thing to have. But it shouldn't be as important as it used to be in terms of grade percentage.

[katya]

I'd say that it should at least be taught so that people know it, should they chose to use it and so that they can read it. I've only recently (past year or so) started writing in cursive again. I taught myself a prettier form of it than what I learned in school. I like it because it's fast. I try to write as fast as I possibly can, and so my writing is really messy. I've been told that I have boyish handwriting...

[Mari]

Just an anecdote: the boy I'm tutoring has truly illegible handwriting when he writes normally. I asked him if he wrote like that at school and he said no, so I asked him to show me how he writes there. It was in cursive and suddenly it was legible because he actually finished letters (he normally writes the the t without the small bar in the middle) and thought about what he was doing.

[Voronwen]

Like many others have said, i have over time developed my own style of handwriting, more or less based on cursive. I tend to hold on to a lot of the cursive style, but with a twist. I've been told that i have a very feminine style of handwriting. But consider the source - i am a person who tends to favor the anachronistic and ornate.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Wow; I'm actually quite surprised that so many people have only a passing familiarity with cursive. I mean, I've never been terrible good at it, but I always write cursive more or less, just because it is so much faster than printing. I do print capital T's, and F's, and if I'm trying to write a little more formally or ornately, I might do a stylized printing, little idiosyncrasies like that, but as a rule: cursive all the way! It's just SO much more convenient! Particularly for keeping up with the lecturing profs.

[Bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Most people I know find full cursive script to be somewhat childish as it's the way you learn to write in school, and as you grow up your writing style has to grow up as well.

Now I know you're right, but in the third grade when I was taught cursive, my teacher wouldn't accept homework unless it was turned in in cursive script. She told us this was the only way adults wrote, that it was faster, neater, etc. Turns out that was a straight-up, downright lie. Which is weird because other than that she was a real level-headed teacher and one of my all-time favorites. Cursive was just her pet peeve I guess.

I remember being astounded at how fast it was when I first learned it. But then a few years went by and my teachers relaxed about how rigidly my handwriting had to match the textbook stuff. I tried print again, my own way with my two-stroke lazy e and loopy gh and ge, and it's crazy fast. Been using it ever since. Can hardly write in cursive anymore. The only time I use it is in creative writing when the narrator has an aside to himself. (A lot of my stories develop schizophrenia. *shrug* I'm a bad narrator.)

Does the cursive Q piss anybody else off? Why is it a 2 instead of an O with a line at the bottom of it that leads into the next letter, like you'd want to do intuitively? I'll never understand.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I'm with you there. Capital Q, T, and F, I simply don't use.

[Ingwe]

It looks cool, and that's about it. I remember when I learned cursive around the time I was 4 or 5, I got my dad to help me out with that and he said something like "cursive, you mean something like dammit?" That's one of the funniest things I remember from those times.

[Mari]

I'm curious as to how you two write the Q then. The cursive Q I learned can perfectly be connected to the next letter. The F and T are a little harder, but I developed a trick for that which my teachers always loved.

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

The kind where the letters all join together.

This came up in a forum I'm on for English teachers in Taiwan. Many younger posters were saying it's a waste of time in our computer/texting age; the counter-argument is that it's faster.

Some said you should be taught it well enough that at least you can read it. When I first started teaching in Taiwan (almost twenty years ago ) it was taught in first year English in junior high; now they don't teach it at all.

Thoughts? Did/do you learn it? Is it still useful?

It should be taught for sure. In fact, ALL written languages should be taught. Tell the students that they shouldn't be slaves to the electron. If all power generation should cease due to whatever, the txt/twit/emailers won't be able to communicate. One can always scratch out a letter and carry it to someone.

Does the cursive Q piss anybody else off? Why is it a 2 instead of an O with a line at the bottom of it that leads into the next letter, like you'd want to do intuitively? I'll never understand.

Yeah! I failed cursive Q. I to this day make it an O with the tail cutting across the lower right and leading into the next letter, usually a u. Its an archiac thing.... like when two small 'esses' (ss) used to look like 'fs' in cursive.

Every now and then, I will write someone a letter and mail it. My cursive is atrocious at times, but I like to stay in practice.

[Midge]

I think the cursive Q makes sense. It's like... making a circle and the tail of the 2 is the tail of the Q. However, the circle doesn't join up.

The cursive S is the same way. It's just a disproportionate S with a line through it.

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Midge

I think the cursive Q makes sense. It's like... making a circle and the tail of the 2 is the tail of the Q. However, the circle doesn't join up.

... except the capital Q they tried to teach me in the 60's looks like a '2' instead of a 'Q'.

Originally Posted by Midge

The cursive S is the same way. It's just a disproportionate S with a line through it.

Never had a problem with capital S. Just noted that old manuscripts, and documents, like the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, etc, had the small 'ss' combinations look like fs in the cursive of the day. it wasn't taught that way to me as it had evolved in the near 200 years.

[Midge]

Oh, yeah. That's the kind of Q about which I was talking also.

As for the "s" thing, that's always so funny to me, because a lot of the time, you can pronounce the "s" as "f" and it sounds roughly the same.

For instance:

Yef. That'f alwayf fo funny to me, becaufe a lot of the time, you can pronounce the "f" as "f" and it foundf roughly the fame.

You have to read it in context, though, of courfe.

[Varnafindë]

It foundf like a lifp.

[Mari]

Hehe, during my vacation I went with Sis to Philadelphia and we went to see several historical things, amongst which an old printing office. When I first saw the fs in a word I thought they misspelled it