Handwriting

[crokett]

Is yours neat or messy? I remember in grade school when I was learning cursive I always used to get a C in handwriting. I figured if I could read it it was good enough and I'd much rather be doing other things. Now I can type much faster than I can write (legibly) so as a result everything I want to save gets typed at some point.

[phi1l]

Mine was never great, but then I started dictating into a recorder & then started typing on the computer. now it has pretty much degenerated to doctor quality. No when I write, I try to write as fast as I would be typing or talking & that's jsut not going to happen..

[pelligrini]

I can usually read my own writing. Sometimes it takes a little time to figure out what the scratching is supposed to say. If it's for others to read I will take a little more time.

I've always had terrible handwriting skills. Even lettering drawings was incredibly time consuming and still sloppy. Press on letters and CAD are my friends.

[germdoc]

Is yours neat or messy?

Distinctive. Meaning, only I can read it.

[TB Roye]

Back in the day they called it Penmanship. Never did get the cursive down well. about Th or Th grade they gave us dip pens to use along with a bottle of ink to put in the inkwell hole in our desks. Later while taking drafting learned to do a decent job lettering the drawings. In High School I took typing one summer and became a touch typist. Most of my writing is printed and my signature is cursive. Type most letters on the computer using Word. My handwriting has gotten worse as I have aged as the finger don't work that well anymore. One part of my woodworking hobby is turning pens and my daily use pen is a roller ball as it it easier to use. One finial thing girls seem to have the best handwriting and left handed boys had good handwriting also.

Tom

[Kristofor]

I haven't really done handwriting (as in cursive) since about the 6th grade when teachers decided that (imagine that) a printed report was easier to read and allowed more focus on content.

I do sometimes write by hand when forced to, but that's in the the same way that I might try to turn a phillips screw with a standard screwdriver. It sort of accomplishes the goal, but it's a lot more work for a poorer outcome than using the right tool (a keyboard).

[cabinetman]

The older I get the worse it gets. Some days are pretty good though. I'm more concerned about my printing ability. A portion of my income comes from distance consulting and providing drawings. Since I don't do CAD of any kind, I rely on my ability to do architectural lettering. For those projects that require a lot of text, I do my drawings on a drafting table, and add text in PS. It's a hassle, and something like SketchUp would likely make my life easier.

Some of my clients have remarked about the printing, but still feel hand lettering adds a 'personal touch'.
.

[Tom Slick]

Mine is legible; neat but not fancy.
I still do a bit a writing when taking notes and tests. I have a tendency to misspell words or add upper case when not needed so it still gets messy.

Germdoc, the "doc" part explains your handwriting.

[cabinetman]

There must be classes in med school on how to distort your handwriting so lay people can't understand what's written.
.

[billwmeyer]

My handwriting is terrible. I usually type, but when I have to write, it is usually print not cursive, and my printing is a horrible mixture of capital and small letters, though the capital letters in the middle are smaller that the capital letters that should be capitalized, if that makes any kind of sense. Penmanship often kept me off of the all A honor role, or the honor role completely. I can't draw either.

Bill

[pelligrini]

For those projects that require a lot of text, I do my drawings on a drafting table, and add text in PS. It's a hassle, and something like SketchUp would likely make my life easier.

Some of my clients have remarked about the printing, but still feel hand lettering adds a 'personal touch'.
.

I loved using stickybacks for large note portions of drawings.

We had a guy in the office that would use some stylistic fonts on his autocad drawings. When I asked him about it he said it "looked cool". I'm sure the guys in the field trying to frame a house off a grubby copy with now illeligible printing thought it was cool too.

I still like a chiseled text for my drawings though.

[LinuxRandal]

I've been thinking of getting an improvement book on handwriting for years. I am left dominant, and would love to write with both (haven't done it in years, since Right was horrible).

What I am afraid of, my right becomes more legible then the left (raised around medical/legal professionals, and learned their handwriting).

[footprintsinconc]

when i am not interested in writing, which is most of the time, its messy. my colleagues say that i should have become a doctor.

[Uncle Cracker]

Mine's functional. I don't think it's particularly neat or attractive, but have been told by others that it is. Since I'm pretty much the only one who needs to read it, I guess it really doesn't matter.

[Hoakie]

I went to PRINTING ALL CAPS when taking notes in College and Grad School. Unfortunately I was not able to keep up that way so I had to scrawl the best I could in class and recopy all my notes after class so I could remember what it said. This technique probably paid off in the long run because going through it a second time allowed me to commit it to memory.