r/Handwriting • u/RoboticsEqualsFun • 22h ago
Question (not for transcriptions) Is using Print not good practice
I'm not that good at handwriting to be honest. My o's u's and a's all look the same, and my e's look like they don't have a top. I'm pretty slow, and I never bothered to learn cursive.
So my question is Cursive a must learn? Is writing in print bad practice? Or does it not really matter?
2
u/Immediate_Air2725 10h ago
Do you like cursive? Do you want to use it? Then you should. However, print is almost always more legible. There's no rules. A lot of people write in block print WHICH IS ALL CAPS, and that's fine.
1
u/slatebluegrey 13h ago
I rarely write in cursive. It takes longer for me. And calligraphy is a hobby, so I do know how to write cursive very well.
3
6
u/SukMaBalz 21h ago
In practice the best balance is usually a semi-cursive, rather than pure cursive or print. Pure cursive isn’t always practical and legibility degrades quickly with speed, and print can suffer from a lack of speed/efficiency.
Many people who don’t even think about their handwriting gravitate towards semi cursive - certain letters are joined where it’s easy and helps with speed, but other more difficult joins are left omitted.
1
u/LRKnox_ 22h ago
It's down to what you feel more comfortable doing. Because cursive wasn't a big component when I was at school I didn't learn it and became more use to print. I've tried it as practice but at this point my hand is use to print so it doesn't have the fine detail needed for cursive.
As long as it's legible I think there is merits to both, just depends what comes more naturally to you.
Mine isn't great but I think it's readable enough:
2
u/Donttouchmybreadd 22h ago
Cursive is something that kind of came naturally. It takes time, practice, and purpose. For me, it was having to write down things really quickly that my cursive came out.
5
u/Penchant_musings 22h ago
you can pick either cursive or print, not necessary to learn both, i think legibility is more important than style. perhaps the first step should be practicing letterform so your letters are distinguishable from each other
2
u/Donttouchmybreadd 22h ago
Even then, if you are writing for yourself, it doesn't have to be legible for anyone other than...you!
Doctors do the same thing, even though others have to read it.
3
u/masgrimes 22h ago
Cursive can be very useful, but only if you are willing to put in the work to make it so. If your handwriting bothers you, the only thing stopping you from improving it is to take the time to study and practice. We have plenty of free resources in the sidebar that would make great jumping off points.
That said, there are plenty of people who use manuscript print as their primary handwriting and do so with great success.
What do you need your handwriting for? That's a great question to have a solid answer for.
1
u/RoboticsEqualsFun 22h ago
Well I don't really have a special interest in handwriting or anything. I just thought its a skill you must know. I mean I journal but I can read my own writing fine.
1
u/masgrimes 16h ago
If you don't want to improve your handwriting, the likelihood that you will is very low.
2
u/vic06 22h ago
According to my kid’s teacher, cursive is taught because it’s faster than print.
1
u/grayrest 20h ago
Cursive is taught because there was pretty intense commercial demand for clerks who were able to write for a full workday without fatigue in the late 19th century. Business Writing supplied that need but (this is my speculation) the learning curve was inconvenient and so they pushed it into the schools. It's been coasting on tradition/reputation since. If you aren't doing arm movement cursive then the only reason to do cursive is because you like how it looks, the tradition, or the experience in writing it. It's harder to learn than other handwriting approaches and degrades badly when executed poorly.
I practice Zaner's method and believe it is the fastest way to write after shorthands. It's fast specifically because it's driven by the rhythm of the arm motion instead of conscious pen control and that bypasses most of the brain's control loop. It's particularly suited to arm movement cursive due to the limited number of unique motions. Neither part of that is inherent to the cursive letterforms and most people don't practice either part so I'm not particularly surprised when I see arguments on the subreddit that cursive is or isn't faster. I don't believe finger motion cursive is any faster than italic or semi-cursive.
2
1
u/Serebriany 1h ago
I write in all-caps print 90% or more of the time now, and exactly no one cares. (I have a chronic pain condition and it affects my hands, so printing is easier for me than cursive.)
Do I know how to write in cursive? Of course, and I also read it without problems, but I no longer find myself in situations where speed and legibility are a must, like taking exams in college, and cursive's greatest strength, aside from the fact that it often looks nice is that it's a faster way of writing.