Does anybody, except calligraphers, write like this any more? Samples from an autograph book my wife was just given. She's related to several of the people who signed it.

Yul hv 2 txt it 2 thm nou. LOLOLOL...

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Yul hv 2 txt it 2 thm nou. LOLOLOL...

Sad, but true...

I can print legibly when I slow down and focus. Sort of the same with cursive except I tend to write very small and tightly so it starts looki g like wiggles if I am not focused. If I write in print quicly, I have been told it looks like serial killer script. Who knows....

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

Sad, but true...

Yeah, Seems like they wrote everything like that back then. Went through an old dry goods store that was to be taken down (it was made out of long leaf pine) and dismantled. It sat empty for decades.

I went inside to get out of the rain, and scattered all over the back of the place was inventories, notes, and whatever. The only thing that wouldn't have passed for modern calligraphy would have been the mailer sent out to them and the sign on the front that used to announce that they had Holsteins for sale.

I use cursive when taking notes, jotting down reminders, writing lesson plans, etc.

Kind of interesting, when I was back in grade school, each grade had a first half and a second half, known as 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, etc. I was skipped ahead half a level and when I arrived in the new class I was really confused. The half year that I missed was the transition to cursive.

I was the kind of kid who, if I didn't "get" something, I felt guilty, thinking it was my fault, so I kept my confusion to myself until I was able to figure it out and read what was being written.

Local schools here are teaching cursive writing again. Not being able to read cursive can be a real problem. An active duty guy who is 20 years old gets letters from home written in cursive; his wife has to read it to him.
I am glad to see the change.

I abandoned Cursive in the 7th grade. Mine was so bad I could not read it. Started printing everything and never looked back.

On a side note, my dad was a lefty, his Cursive was beautiful, but illegible.

 
I fondly recall the cursive alphabets above the blackboards in grade school. I used to write cursive, took up calligraphy for a while in the 60's and 70's, but now my signature is a scribble. When required to sign my full name (some financial and legal documents), it takes a considerable effort and a full minute or so complete.

I have dabbled in caligraphy, but not its cursive. My cursive writing is quite clear--my mom insisted that I learn it well (and my writing looks a little like hers did). My dad's cursive was also very good.

I think it was a mistake for schools to stop teaching cursive, because so many old documents are written in it. Maybe they don't need to teach how to write it, but they definitely should teach how to READ it.

flashguy

My job in 1970 required all sales slips had to be print letters,lost the ability to write after a couple of years of that.

The OP's samples are Spencerian script. It was the style in the U.S. from about 1850 to 1925. It was like older styles such as Roundhand.

After that, more modern, simpler cursive styles came into favor. The Palmer method was very common, and is generally what we saw in grade school when us Baby Boomers were that age. They are easier and faster to write.

I just wish the cursive found on old Census records were that clear! Some of it is worse than reputed doctors' writing!

flashguy

The good Sisters of Saint Joseph insructed us rigorously in the Palmer penmanship method in grade school.

I recall having to get cursive right in grade school. Heck, I recall writing entire book reports and other essay assignments in cursive. So it had to be readable. I used to have fairly passable hand writing. It was never as good as my mother's, which was almost like art, but it was pretty good.

Not any more . I can hardly print legibly any longer. My signature, which used to be great, is now unreadable.

I keep meaning to fix this, but never do.

Used to write cursive every once in a while. Mostly notes and my diary.

Switched to a mix of standard and cursive a while ago since it's easier to read.

Even in Switzerland they don't teach cursive anymore. They dropped it a few years ago.

Cursive looks nice and helps speed up handwriting, but the fact that they're difficult to read and also we just don't hand write stuff that much anymore, it's a skill that is nice to have, but no longer relevant for most in today's society.

I have a real hard time reading script the last few years (we never called it cursive). Which is strange because I spent my whole life reading and writing it with no problem. Maybe it's my eyes or I'm just out of practice.


I may have told it before but once got a letter the mail addressed to my father, that I swore he wrote (or at least addressed the envelope). I was really really puzzled as to why he would do that. You could have put a gun to my head, I would have bet my life he wrote it. It was from an old grade school friend. When I asked him about the penmanship he said "everyone wrote exactly like that, we had to. The nuns would beat with rulers until we could."


Correction, "grammar school' as he calls it. Aptly named and probably a shame it no longer is.

I was taught cursive in school and I’m happy I was. I don’t write anymore but I can read it. I doubt many younger people could even read what you posted.

Can you imagine the time they invested in one simple communication. If we were that inefficient now, there'd be productivity decreases of economically devastating results. The good with the bad.