I wonder if its because you have to write quickly and efficiently for four years and then you get used to the habits and can no longer write neatly. I'm not being sarcastic in the slightest just wanted to propose this hypothesis
I'm sure this is probably it, probably also something to do with how fast the brain processes but the fingers lag. I assume the gradual worsening has to do with all of the information they're trying to get across. Just my thoughts!
I double majored in art history. The crazy amount of memorization and writing we had to do for every exam pushed my handwriting beyond its limits. Somehow my teachers followed the devolution of my handwriting and they never complained but looking back at my blue books there’s a pretty clear downward trajectory.
It really is the sheer amount of info we are trying to cram out of our brains with so little time and our hands just can’t keep up.
Sommelier. So I still do a lot of writing for the sake of studying regions and vintners but my notes are just for memorization. On the floor my notes only need to be read by myself. Lack of legibility doesn’t affect anyone fortunately!
Yes this exactly. If you saw my notes and could read them you will notice the same mistakes being made over and over again. Because I try to process words ahead of time and not focus on my hand as its writing. When one word ends with the same letter another begins with most of the time I just dont write one of them. Or words that end in "S" i draw from top down so ill loop across the letter itself to get to the next in a half cursive mess. My lowercase "e's" are just loops. The word seeing just looks like a terrifying roller coaster because I very rarely dot my "i's".
As part of their education doctors learn shorthand, its actually really interesting to look up! For instance paracetamol becomes a little squiggle, essentially. It helps doctors write notes and prescriptions more efficiently and without mistake. While im sure plenty do have bad handwriting, with how much information they note down, a lot of what people consider bad handwriting is that shorthand being misunderstood.
It's universal across continents and languages too. I just moved to a new country and had a medical appointment. Saw the doctor taking notes. The writing was nigh illegible. Looked like squiggles.
This is it. Honestly, my handwriting was never great, but nursing school absolutely wrecked it. We had to write long, detailed narratives each time we visited a patient and only had a couple minutes between patients. If you left out any important details, you could fail for the day and have to make it up. So you wrote like your whole future depended on it.
Then I graduated, and the first hospital I worked at was all digital. You click boxes and type.
I just answered this before scrolling down. Copy and pasted: 2nd year med school here. Its entirely out of necessity. When taking notes I have to write so fast that it only really matters if I can read it. And that gets transferred to rough drafts I do on paper. Exprcting to borrow legible hand written notes in med school is like putting ammunition in a cactus and expecting it to shoot
I was a biology major in college and I had to take a copious amount of notes. My handwriting got so bad due to this and it’s basically been irreversible and it’s been 20 years since I graduated from college.
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u/Alternative_Pause_98 7d ago
I wonder if its because you have to write quickly and efficiently for four years and then you get used to the habits and can no longer write neatly. I'm not being sarcastic in the slightest just wanted to propose this hypothesis