Hand-written? Really?

[Haruki-kun]

I have a question for you guys. Do you ever get asked to turn in a hand-written research, essay, or other written paper?

My teacher just asked us to. Everyone was very confused. Even before computers college students were expected to turn in assignments done by typewriter, or so my parents lead me to believe.

We were... confused. I wondered if I'd just traveled back in time without noticing. Usually, we don't turn in hand-written assignments because nothing says "done 5 minutes before class" like a hand-written assignment.

Do you guys get asked to turn in hand-written assignments? Because I haven't since fifth grade.

[druid91]

I have a question for you guys. Do you ever get asked to turn in a hand-written research, essay, or other written paper?

My teacher just asked us to. Everyone was very confused. Even before computers college students were expected to turn in assignments done by typewriter, or so my parents lead me to believe.

We were... confused. I wondered if I'd just traveled back in time without noticing. Usually, we don't turn in hand-written assignments because nothing says "done 5 minutes before class" like a hand-written assignment.

Do you guys get asked to turn in hand-written assignments? Because I haven't since fifth grade.

Nope. Drafts could be handwritten but the paper itself had to be typed.

[Haruki-kun]

I don't even turn drafts in hand-written.

Although the aforementioned fifth grade teacher had a weird policy: Drafts may be done in computer but the final paper has to be hand-written in ink and cursive.

[Ceric]

A friend turns in hand-written essays for his Chinese class (written in Chinese), but that's it :smallconfused: Usually my teachers prefer typed essays because they're easier to read than students' handwritings.

[The Rose Dragon]

There is only one reason I can think of asking for hardcopies in the first place, let alone hand-written ones: you don't have a Turnitin account. Hand-written copies mean that even if it is word-for-word plagiarism, the person who wrote it put effort into reading the source material and putting it to paper, which is slightly better than direct C&V.

[shiram]

I'm guessing this teacher just wants student to practice hand writting, as it is a skill that is losing ground, in this computer age.

It is still quite weird though.

[Emperor Ing]

You obviously have people in your class who can write magnificent papers, maybe your teacher is looking to deduct points based on handwriting.
Of course, this is me thinking out loud. :smalltongue:

[Icewalker]

What year is this in in school?

And no, that's ridiculous. You're being required to handwrite a paper? Really?

[Telonius]

Never heard of such a thing on the college level. The only handwritten work my professors ever received were from in-class tests, and I graduated eight years ago. Good thing for me, since my handwriting is just a couple steps up from chicken scratches anyway.

By the way, by not requiring the computer file, your professor is making it much easier for the students to commit plagiarism. In order for him to check any hardcopy, he either has to know the original paper in question, or re-type the papers into a plagiarism-checker.

[Killer Angel]

The police suspects that in your classroom is hiding a dangerous criminal, and they need a handwriting comparison, without alarming the suspect; your teacher is working with them. :smallcool:

OK, maybe not. :smalltongue:

[Keld Denar]

Slightly on topic...I heard something disturbing a few months ago. Apparently schools here are discontinuing the teaching of cursive writing. Print will be the only method of hand writing taught, and cursive will be an elective additional assignment to be learned on ones own time.

Crazy...

[factotum]

I left school some 23 years ago now and I don't recall ever having to turn in homework typewritten, to be honest--it was always handwritten! University was a slightly different matter, and believe me, it's a royal pain in the whatevers to type up a multiple-page report on a typewriter that has a random tendency to insert a space after every "e"... :smallsmile:

[Starbuck_II]

I never liked cursive writing. I never remembered all my capitals. I know the lower case but not all the capital cursives.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

In IB, you have to learn how to do Hand-written assignments, because your English and History exams, at least, involve essays written in-class, as the exam. So we've been practicing by writing all our essays in a time limit, exam-like situation.

It's going to be insane. :smallsigh:

[Castaras]

Quick question: All you guys keep mentioning "Cursive" handwriting. I'm guessing it's the same as "Joined-up handwriting"? :smallconfused:

[OverThoughtName]

Quick question: All you guys keep mentioning "Cursive" handwriting. I'm guessing it's the same as "Joined-up handwriting"? :smallconfused:

Yeah, exactly the same. Personally, I'm glad it's dying. They tried teaching it to us in the third grade and gave up half-way through. Never mentioned it again, mainly because after that we were supposed to turn in papers printed off anyway.

Speaking of which, I had one bright-idea'd, first-year professor who decided she wanted everyone to turn things in handwritten. Didn't last long. I've been told before that I have the most horrible handwriting; not only is it chicken scratch, but I apparently write "too small" anyway. Must've driven the poor girl to tears trying to read it. :smallfrown:

[Haruki-kun]

I'm guessing this teacher just wants student to practice hand writting, as it is a skill that is losing ground, in this computer age.

It is still quite weird though.

But it's SOUND class. :smallconfused:


Yeah, exactly the same. Personally, I'm glad it's dying. They tried teaching it to us in the third grade and gave up half-way through. Never mentioned it again, mainly because after that we were supposed to turn in papers printed off anyway.

I learned to write in cursive.... and then I was eventually told no one uses it. <.<

[Form]

Huh, that's weird. The teacher didn't give any explanation as to why?

I wouldn't dare think of producing papers by hand and with my awful handwriting it isn't exactly a good idea either. It's probably best to space out your work on the assignment, lest you end up with a wrist that really hurts.

[Cealocanth]

Yes, a required handwritten assignment is very weird. I get them every so often from tests and the like, but my teachers never specifically ask for a complete 100% handwritten essay. I feel sorry for your teachers if your handwriting is anything but legible.

As for the other topic that has manifested itself in this thread. I actually prefer to write in cursive. It's faster for me and it's more legible than any print of mine. I'm actually kind of sad that it's dying. There are way too many important things written in cursive to simply stop teaching it. (The original copy of the U.S. Constitution, for example, is one of these.)

[Marnath]

Yeah, exactly the same. Personally, I'm glad it's dying. They tried teaching it to us in the third grade and gave up half-way through.


I agree. Not only is it needlessly more difficult to learn how to use it, no one uses it for anything but signatures, and even if you do write in cursive no one can freaking read it. Seriously, I've never seen anyone's cursive that was legible to any real degree. :smallannoyed:

Death to cursive!

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I agree. Not only is it needlessly more difficult to learn how to use it, no one uses it for anything but signatures, and even if you do write in cursive no one can freaking read it. Seriously, I've never seen anyone's cursive that was legible to any real degree. :smallannoyed:

Death to cursive!

Really? It's so much prettier, though, and it's way easier to right, much easier on your hand if you have to write for long periods of time. It's simply illegible because we're not TAUGHT to read it, we're never given practice READING cursive, only WRITING it.

[Telonius]

much easier on your hand if you have to write for long periods of time. It's simply illegible because we're not TAUGHT to read it, we're never given practice READING cursive, only WRITING it.

I have to disagree. I've written out a 90,000 word novel longhand before typing it up on the computer, and it never would have been finished if I'd attempted doing it in cursive. My cursive is pretty much illegible to everybody, including myself. The only time my wrists hurt after writing were when I didn't hold my elbow correctly; printing had nothing to do with it.

[Jarian]

You crazy people and your hating on cursive. Cursive (when done right, anyway) is faster, easier, and way prettier to look at. Granted, you basically have to learn to write in an entirely new way to do it, and so many forms ask for printed words anyway, but... Ew, blocky letters. :smallyuk:

[Dvil]

I learned joined-up (or cursive, I guess) writing when I was younger. Then I moved to secondary school and figured that, since it was a fresh start, I'd write the way I like to write.
Happy to say I've never joined up a letter since then.

[Geno9999]

@OP, My mom's a teacher and has a few reasons why you would have a handwritten paper:
1: Can you recognize misspelled words without using a spell check? (Guess how many times I had to use the spell check while my mom was dictating?:smalltongue:)
2: Do you know punctuation without auto-correct?
3: Since handwriting tends to be slower than typing, you have more time to carefully construct your sentences.
4: No cut and paste to write a report.
5: Believe it or not, there might be a situation where you don't have electricity or technology to write something down.

Also, @ some of the posts about cursive, often it's better/more professional to write in cursive when signing your signature.

[The-Mage-King]

@OP: Only time I had to turn in a handwritten paper was during a Blue Book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_book_exam) test. We all know how much of a pain fun those are, right?

[Haruki-kun]

You crazy people and your hating on cursive. Cursive (when done right, anyway) is faster, easier, and way prettier to look at. Granted, you basically have to learn to write in an entirely new way to do it, and so many forms ask for printed words anyway, but... Ew, blocky letters. :smallyuk:

I do like Cursive, actually. The problem is I don't like handwriting. Mine is awful. Looks like chicken scratch.


@OP, My mom's a teacher and has a few reasons why you would have a handwritten paper:

OK, let's see....


1: Can you recognize misspelled words without using a spell check? (Guess how many times I had to use the spell check while my mom was dictating?:smalltongue:)

Hmmm... I think most of the time I can. I hate that about my classmates, though. They tend to write papers as if they were chatting on Messenger. I live in Mexico and as you may know, Spanish words tend to have the tilde (México, for instance) on vowels. Problem is peopleare lazy and assume it's boring or annoying to add it. It's PROPPER GRAMMAR, people! Not to mention that when you ask a question in Spanish the sentence starts with "¿", as opposed to "?" only in English. But people think "huh, waste of a key stroke".


2: Do you know punctuation without auto-correct?

Gawd, yes. See above. Even when typing on Messenger I don't write "lol wut u doin 2nite?". I like commas. And periods.


3: Since handwriting tends to be slower than typing, you have more time to carefully construct your sentences.

I guess?


4: No cut and paste to write a report.

Fair point.


5: Believe it or not, there might be a situation where you don't have electricity or technology to write something down.

Er.... well, yes, but, see.... I'm a Digital Arts Major. If I find myself in a situation where I don't have electricity or technology, I am, in fact, completely screwed. :smalltongue:

[onthetown]

When I was in college, it seemed like each of my courses would bounce back and forth -- one wanted handprinted, the next wanted typing, the next printed... etc.

I don't really see what's so weird about it. It's just a personal preference for some. The only problem is that some people write like they have three claws instead of a human hand, but if you're good at deciphering it... *shrug*

Edit: I don't think the above five items were specifically directed at you, but at the population at large. It makes it harder to rely on spellcheck for people that use it way too much, etc.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Stuff done in class, and that's it. I don't think I've ever taken home an assignment meant to be longer then a page that was suppose to be hand-written.

[Istari]

Ahh its spanish, that makes things make a lot more sense. I know some Spanish and whenever I type something up in Spanish I very rarely use accents(at least that's what we call them). Mainly becuase adding them in Word not designed to type in Spanish takes way too long.

[Zevox]

Weird indeed. I think that might have happened to me once in High School, but even that is just a vague notion, as it's been a while now since I was in High School. Certainly never happened in college. Which is a good thing, because I've never had the neatest handwriting in the world - though I have seen much worse than mine too.


Slightly on topic...I heard something disturbing a few months ago. Apparently schools here are discontinuing the teaching of cursive writing. Print will be the only method of hand writing taught, and cursive will be an elective additional assignment to be learned on ones own time.

Crazy...
Also weird. I haven't used anything but cursive for actual writing since I learned it back in third grade. It's so much easier to write all the letters of a word (save a capital here or there) in one stroke.


I agree. Not only is it needlessly more difficult to learn how to use it,
:smallconfused: What? If you can write in the standard alphabet (whatever that's called), learning cursive should be easy. Almost every letter just looks like a slightly tilted version of its standard counterpart made of loops and designed to connect into each other. The only exceptions are a couple of capitals, which shouldn't be that hard to learn on their own.

Zevox

[Orzel]

Once, as a prize for our wisdom, a teacher made our class do a 5+ page one. No liquid paper.

[MonkeyBusiness]

Er.... well, yes, but, see.... I'm a Digital Arts Major. If I find myself in a situation where I don't have electricity or technology, I am, in fact, completely screwed. :smalltongue:

I love you, Haruki! :smallbiggrin:

I am a fan of writing in cursive, myself. When done properly it is beautiful, and this is not difficult to learn to do. I taught myself beautiful handwriting when I was in fourth grade, when I realized I was envious of my friend's handwriting. It became a way to express myself. My handwriting is unique, but also easy to read.

By sixthgrade I was studying calligraphy. Mostly this has been used for my own enjoyment and that of my friends (I love to send beautifully written letters, and my friends love to receive them); but since I studied Medieval literature in college, I wrote two papers which were hand written in ink. I did not do that because I had to, but because I wanted to.

That said, I cannot imagine a good reason to demand a hand-written paper of a class not involved with the history of illuminated manuscripts or the design of fonts. Perhaps the teacher wishes to illustrate (no pun intended) a point regarding craftsmanship or design and layout, and the paper is simply the means to this end?

I'd be interested in hearing how this turns out.

-Monkey

.

[Gaelbert]

I learned cursive in school when I was 8 and was forced to use it on all assignments until I was 11. All my teachers told us this was to get us used to writing in cursive for high school. Except since I was 11, I've never had to use cursive for anything. We had to take a standardized test that forced us to write a promise not to cheat in cursive, most people struggled more with that section than the rest of the test.
In university, I have one professor that allows students to turn in hand-written essays but I don't believe anyone ever has.

[AslanCross]

I'm an English teacher. Handwritten papers are a way of us getting acquainted with the student's own writing style so we can see in later cases whether they were plagiarized or not. It's how I can tell that a certain student didn't write her own paper (she used a word that was clearly not part of her everyday diction; when I confronted her, she didn't know what it meant).

In other cases, it's a direct defense mechanism against cut-and-paste and other types of plagiarism. Because it was handwritten, it's less likely that cut-and-paste happened, especially if it was written in front of the teacher. It's also less likely that the paper was outsourced, since I doubt anyone would be willing to handwrite an essay for you even if you paid them.

It's not foolproof, but it definitely throws plans of plagiarism for a loop.

[ForzaFiori]

I haven't had a single class ask for a handwritten essay yet, except for things done in class (obviously). Unless it was for a language class (due to usually needing accents at the very least, or completely different letters in some cases), I don't see any reason to.

On cursive: Way back in 3rd grade, I can remember when we were taught cursive and told "every teacher from here on out will want you to write in cursive". I haven't had a single teacher yet tell me to use it, yet I never stopped. I write completely in cursive now (to the point that last year, when having to write in print, I had to ask which direction a Z went, cause I couldn't remember). I find it much easier, and it is unimaginably better than my print now (unless I write in all caps, which is fairly legible). I've also noticed that I tend to write faster than my friends who write in print, though I don't know if that is due to the different writing styles, or if my hand can just move faster. Personally, I think that we should phase out print. Many important historically documents were written in cursive, and are completely illegible to probably 90% of the population, not to mention the aesthetic benefits, though those are up for debate since not everyone would agree.

[rayne_dragon]

I seem to recall a number of exams tending to have a hand written essay portion to them. It is rather odd for an assignment that isn't due the same day, though.

[Ceric]

You crazy people and your hating on cursive. Cursive (when done right, anyway) is faster, easier, and way prettier to look at. Granted, you basically have to learn to write in an entirely new way to do it, and so many forms ask for printed words anyway, but... Ew, blocky letters. :smallyuk:

I used to dislike cursive and I haven't written in cursive since elementary school (with one exception*), but I've found that my block writing starts to look like cursive when I write quickly. All my letters join into each other because I don't lift the pencil very much. My r's and s's even look like their cursive counterparts, where I'd always thought that they looked the least like their printed counterparts ^^;

* We had to write and sign "I promise not to cheat etc" on our SATs in cursive, to the horror of every student in the room. And it took about 5 minutes just to write the one sentence. It was hilarious :smallbiggrin:

[Partof1]

I never belieed my teachers when they stressed cursive writing. And I was right!

Though my handwriting is pretty nasty anyway, so my teachers prefer, generally that I type assignments.

[Lady Moreta]

I've never been specifically told to hand in a hand-written essay, not for uni. I've been specifically told not to :smalltongue: Most of my lecturers were pretty clear on that, I have in fact been told that my work wouldn't be marked if it was handwritten. We had very clear rules on how to format work, 1.5 or 2 line spacing, set margins, specific paragraph types we had to use.

I haven't handed in handwritten work since high school - pretty much since we got a computer, which was when I was... erm... 12-ish I think... even for posters, I'd type up the text, print it and then stick it onto the poster.

The only times I've ever handwritten essays was in exams.

[Kallisti]

It's PROPPER GRAMMAR, people!

Muphry's Law strikes again... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law)

And on topic: ...that's kind of crazy. If We turned in a handwritten paper, Our teacher would be unable to read it, because Our handwriting is terrible.

That said, We've always wished We could write cursive neatly (or even just print neatly) because cursive is, indeed, pretty if done well, and a pad and pen are much easier to carry than a computer and printer.

Although science needs to hurry up and invent a way for Us to copy and paste Our handwritten notes into the computer, because typing things in when We need them legible/in convenient electronic format is a real pain.

[Don Julio Anejo]

You crazy people and your hating on cursive. Cursive (when done right, anyway) is faster, easier, and way prettier to look at. Granted, you basically have to learn to write in an entirely new way to do it, and so many forms ask for printed words anyway, but... Ew, blocky letters. :smallyuk:
This. I love cursive, always write in it (unless I specifically need to print, like on forms or when doing labels for stuff) and always will. It's faster and easier than printing (especially printing upper/lowercase like in North America vs. all-caps European style). It's also way more convenient for shorthand since you can just take out squiggles and turns in lots of letters, resulting in Doctor Scratch.

Although I'm biased. Where I went to for elementary school, we never learned to print. We started right off with cursive and specifically had our language classes for easily half of first grade dedicated entirely to handwriting.

So I find printing slow and ugly.

On topic: I've had one writing assignment that we specifically had to hand in hand-written. I think the point was that it was a draft outlining our paper, and with the way the assignment was structured, it had like a million flowcharts. Doing it on the computer would have been a giant pain anyway and asking for handwriting was probably doing us a favour since a lot of people (me included) would have wasted hours of their life making textboxes.

Other than that, most of my stuff is APA or ACS style formats, so...

[Gaelbert]

* We had to write and sign "I promise not to cheat etc" on our SATs in cursive, to the horror of every student in the room. And it took about 5 minutes just to write the one sentence. It was hilarious :smallbiggrin:

Yes, that's what I was referencing. It actually made my hand cramp up, even though the written essays were no problem for me.

[The_Admiral]

Science saves the day http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2008-01/latest-computer-technology-can-slip-behind-your-ear

And yes my teacher ask us to handwrite our projects

[AsteriskAmp]

I normally have to take notes by hand, and when a teacher starts talking, he won't stop, so you learn to write fast and painlessly.

I had a teacher in 7th Grade that made us manually copy a whole page from a book each day by hand. If you wanted to be able to do it in little time you had to use cursive.

Though assignments, monographs and thanks to a weird Investigation teacher thesis need to be printed.

[THAC0]

It might be unusual in this day and age, but it's hardly bizarre or some torturous device.

The spell check thing is huge, too. The words people are unable to spell without spell check... :smallfurious:

[Lord Raziere]

I learned to write in cursive.... and then I was eventually told no one uses it. <.<

I use it to sign my name on stuff.

[Haruki-kun]

Muphry's Law strikes again... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law)

Yes, well, when it's not your native language, it's understandable to mispell a word or two.... <.<


I use it to sign my name on stuff.

I sign in cursive, too. But that's pretty much it...

[Serpentine]

At the start of Year 11 I had to practice writing in printing quickly because my rushed running-writing was too illegible for exams. It made me sad, cuz I like running-writing :smallfrown:
I was never told "learn this because everyone will expect it from you!" :smallconfused: It was part of very early primary school to get my "pen license" ('til you got it, you had to use a pencil), but that's it. It was just a part of early education. After that, I think you could pretty much do whatever you wanted. What I did notice, though, was a difference between Victoria and New South Wales: the former had "open" ps, qs, ds and bs, while in NSW (and, as far as I've experienced, everywhere else) had closed. That was odd. Think I got in trouble for it a couple of times, actually...
So yeah. I like running-writing, but don't get much opportunity to use it. I think every class I've had at uni has made allowances for handwritten essays if the student wants to do it (double-lines, X amount of space at the sides, neat, etc), but computer-written is generally preferred - especially since they started using Turnitin.

[Groundhog]

I've never been able to write in cursive very well, probably because I was never taught how to hold a pencil/pen correctly. Therefore, as soon as I hit middle school and didn't have to write in cursive anymore, I stopped.

I've never had to hand-write a paper, thankfully. Also, what's stopping students from writing their paper on the computer and therefore utilizing the spellchecker, grammar checker, etc., and then printing it out and copying it by hand and handing in the handwritten copy?

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

So, the OP's problem is weird; I have nothing further to contribute.

Now then: my cursive story! In 3rd-grade or so, we were told we had to learn cursive. It was an awful experience: we just learned how to write normally, and now we have to do this other thing instead? Madness! The explanation given was that everyone in higher grades would expect cursive. Come 4th- and 5th-grade, we were required to write only in cursive because that was the only way to ensure that we actually knew it, and once we got to middle school (Jr. High for some parts of the world), everyone would demand it. 'Course, once we actually reached 6th-grade, no one cared how we wrote, and everyone's handwriting devolved into a sloppy mess of half-cursive, half-print that was less legible than the original print. I've never used proper cursive since, except for my signature and the aforementioned SAT. The end!

I also don't think it's very much faster, and it's not necessarily prettier than nice print handwriting (plus the weird combination of the two that most people I know devolve into is uglier than either), and it's a waste of several years worth of language classes.

tl;dr: Cursive is useless and I'm glad no one has to learn it anymore.

[Temotei]

I write in a mix of cursive and print. My lowercase Gs, for example, look exactly like the cursive variant, as do my Ys. I'll see if I can find a sample of my writing some time.

I haven't been required to turn in a fully handwritten essay since...well, the ACT test. That doesn't count. I'd say it was...never. :smalltongue:

[Serpentine]

I miss running-writing mostly for the ys, qs, gs and fs. Mine are all loopy and pretty...

[Amiel]

I would think assignment-submission criteria for language and especially mathematics subjects (possibly also chemistry subjects) would account for hand-writing submissions.

For our worksheets, we had to hand in handwritten documents; mostly because they were medical documents; Migration to electronic health records has been a long and expensive process.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I miss running-writing mostly for the ys, qs, gs and fs. Mine are all loopy and pretty...

I haven't written a print 'f' for 2 years.

I love writing in cursive. I ALWAYS write cursive. It's just so much easier! I generally do the capitals in print though.

[Haruki-kun]

I miss running-writing mostly for the ys, qs, gs and fs. Mine are all loopy and pretty...

Related. (http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=112910) :smalltongue:

[banjo1985]

I haven't written a print 'f' for 2 years.

I love writing in cursive. I ALWAYS write cursive. It's just so much easier! I generally do the capitals in print though.

Me too! I write cursive all the time, or, as I was always taught to call it - joined up. :smalltongue:
First we learned how to write in singular letters, then we were told that once we'd learnt this it meant we were too grown up to use it, so we had to go on to joined up writing. I love it though, and its pretty much the norm in the UK, except for surveys and forms etc. Cursive is just so much quicker, and still perfectly legible most of the time. Plus mine naturally comes out in italics, which I find egotistically cool. :smalltongue:

As for hand-written assignments, all my assignments in high school were hand written, about 50% of my college one's too. And then, in uni, we were specifically asked to hand write an assignment, I never did find out why. Mind you, I'm of that aging, doddery generation of twenty-something's that can remember what it was like when computers weren't an integral part of every school. :smallbiggrin:

*waves stick at yound whippersnappers, whether they're on his lawn or not*

Hang on, I live in a 1st floor maisonette, I don't have a garden. :smalleek:

Carry on then.

[The Extinguisher]

I miss running-writing mostly for the ys, qs, gs and fs. Mine are all loopy and pretty...

I need to force myself to write more curly, because it looks nicer. I should be able to do it. I managed to change the ways I write 7's and 4's, which was kinda cool.

[Obrysii]

I'm guessing this teacher just wants student to practice hand writting, as it is a skill that is losing ground, in this computer age.

It is still quite weird though.

Another reason could be because people actually think differently when hand-writing vs. typing. You have to think exactly what you want to write more thoroughly, because, well, it's a lot harder to erase what you were writing.

[Crow]

I turned in everything written by hand. We were too poor for a computer and library computers weren't always available.

As a result, I developed exquisite penmanship.

I'm a bit bummed that schools don't teach cursive anymore. I have magnificent cursive. =)

[Ashtagon]

I have several different "hands" that i can write in. Simple block letters are what I tend to use at work when i have to hand-write an address on an envelope (it's a pita to swap out the manual feeds on the copiers at work). I sign my name in an extra-scrawly cursive (harder to forge, although no one actually uses a signature as an anti-fraud device any more). I also have a neater cursive style, which sadly I seldom have opportunity to use. And I have a pseudo-uncial (well, that's the nearest thing to it in appearance) writing style I developed. I mostly use that when writing idle thoughts down.

Seriously, there are people who sign in something that is not some variant of a cursive hand?

[tyckspoon]

Seriously, there are people who sign in something that is not some variant of a cursive hand?

Most signatures I see are some variant of cursive capital followed by an indistinct scribble that might be letters if you put them under a microscope. Sometimes a visible t, d, or other double-height letter. I suppose it's cursive, but I hesitate to call it writing.

[grimbold]

in france they can force you to do it but even then they are generally cool with you typing it on the compy

[Another_Poet]

I have a question for you guys. Do you ever get asked to turn in a hand-written research, essay, or other written paper?

My teacher just asked us to. Everyone was very confused. Even before computers college students were expected to turn in assignments done by typewriter, or so my parents lead me to believe.

We were... confused. I wondered if I'd just traveled back in time without noticing. Usually, we don't turn in hand-written assignments because nothing says "done 5 minutes before class" like a hand-written assignment.

Do you guys get asked to turn in hand-written assignments? Because I haven't since fifth grade.

I'm 29 and I've never been told it has to be handwritten.

My guess is that your teacher is trying to teach you some esoteric lesson, like how it feels different not to use a computer or to create something by hand.

[Lord Seth]

Ahh its spanish, that makes things make a lot more sense. I know some Spanish and whenever I type something up in Spanish I very rarely use accents(at least that's what we call them). Mainly becuase adding them in Word not designed to type in Spanish takes way too long.Really? To put the accent on, I just have to hit Alt+E and then the letter that has the accent (for example, ú is written by hitting Alt and E simultaneously, then U by itself). Of course, I do have a Mac; is it harder on Windows?

As for cursive? Honestly, outside of signing my name, I have never used it. Ever. Basically, cursive is an absolutely vital thing to know...for signing your name. Other than that, I've found it utterly pointless and have forgotten how to do pretty much all the letters outside of the ones in my name as a result. My guess is the only reason they had us learn all of the letters is that if they were to just teach us the letters in our names, then that would be discriminatory against the people who have longer names, as they'd need to learn more. Cursive is pretty difficult to read as well, making it in my viewpoint even more unnecessary to use (outside of signatures). And if the issue is speed...well, typing stomps cursive into the ground on that and is more legible than cursive on top of that.

[Syka]

On topic: Weird, but...I dunno. I guess since all through high school and a fair bit of my community college experience we had a choice, it doesn't seem that odd to me. I think I was in that weird inbetween generation where computers were common but not necessarily a necessity. I know it wasn't until about 2007 that I really needed a computer (although, I've had my own since 2005 and a family one for...as long as I can remember...).

Plus, I was a language major and we were expected to write a lot of stuff that was in Latin/Greek (especially the latter) by hand. I think I had three papers that had to be typed in my major classes. Since English keyboards tend to muck up the alphabet. Finding a good alphabet was a school career long quest.

My psychology papers, as well as my business ones, have all been typed with the exception of in class tests.

Off topic:I do my signature in cursive, but it looks different every time. >> And the more careful I am, the worse it looks. My mom still harps on me about my horrible cursive.

My print writing is actually very neat. Even when it's "sloppy" in comparison to my other writing, like when I'm taking notes. Classmates and professors have all commented when looking at my notes. A professor actually recently expressed her surprise at how much I was able to get down about our discussions and how legible it was.

The legibility comes from my mom making me redo assignments in middle school and the first couple years of high school if they weren't good enough. Grounds for redo included indistinct letters, letters that blend together and just general sloppiness. This resulted in quite nice penmenship, although my 'style' changes depending on if I'm using a ball point pen, gel/roller pen, mechanical pencil, or regular pencil. The biggest difference is between the gel/roller pen and other writing instruments.

[Astrella]

Hmmm, odd. Cursive is actually the only writing style we actually learn at school here. (Belgium) Learned myself non-cursive to make my writing easier to read.

[llamamushroom]

The only reason I've ever had to do hand-written assignments was to prepare me for the HSC - a minimum 90min written exam for all of my subjects, with English getting two 3-hour ones. Of course, it was worse for those who did Modern History, as they had a 3-hour English followed by a 3-hour "we have spent the last two years re-learning how to write in order to fit in enough words in the time-limit" exam.

As for uni? Maybe you have a written component to your final exams, and they want to make sure you all are still physically able to scrawl something out?

[Ashtagon]

Actually, this thread has reminded me of something. I studied Russian at school. Even had computers been available, Cyrillic fonts simply didn't exist in the UK back then.

One other curious issue with Cyrillic script is that it doesn't really lend itself to block writing. So, we learned Cyrillic cursive script. Mad times.

[toasty]

Seriously, there are people who sign in something that is not some variant of a cursive hand?

Me. I tried to learn Cursive in... probably 3rd grade, maybe 4th. I failed. I could not learn it! As a result I went back to printing. Maybe 1-2 years later I discovered I had Dysgraphia, which explained a lot. I don't write ANYTHING by hand except in one class where I'm nice and respect my teacher (I'll also use handwritten notes in any science/math class because I don't have any problem writing notes/doing math problems) and have the ability to use a computer during "in class" assignments if I want (yes, even exams. My University is nice like that).


Slightly on topic...I heard something disturbing a few months ago. Apparently schools here are discontinuing the teaching of cursive writing. Print will be the only method of hand writing taught, and cursive will be an elective additional assignment to be learned on ones own time.

Crazy...

This isn't disturbing at all. The two hardest things in School, ever, where Long Division and Cursive handwriting. Long Division was probably useful because I used it a lot and might need it some day when I don't have a calculator nearby, Cursive handwriting was a waste of my time because I don't NEED it and never used it outside of 1ish year of school.


5: Believe it or not, there might be a situation where you don't have electricity or technology to write something down.

Then... I print things? If that fails, I just die, because seriously, I can't imagine any situation, except a national disaster where I wouldn't have a computer. :smalltongue:

[Winter_Wolf]

I have an instructor that insists that we type EVERYTHING we hand in to her, because, as she put it, "I want to know you spent more than five minutes writing it!"

Now, my touch typing speed is along the lines of 73 wpm, adjusted for errors. My handwriting speed is more along the lines of 20 wpm, and I make a lot of mistakes when I try to form characters with my hands. I guarantee you I spend less time typing a paper than I do writing it out long-hand, and I put less thought into the typed one for the simple reason that it's easy to edit a typed paper vs. taking the time to really think about what I'm writing in pen so I don't have to redo it.

On the subject of writing in script, I find it difficult to read, and my own handwriting is a bastard hybridization of printing and cursive script, where apparently my 'f' and 'j' look the same, and my 'p' and 'b' both look like a 'þ'. That last character isn't even in usage in American English. :smalltongue: So yeah, anyone demanding my handwritten assignment quickly comes to regret it.

[Alarra]

I learned to write in cursive.... and then I was eventually told no one uses it. <.<

I always use cursive. I love the way it looks.


I agree. Not only is it needlessly more difficult to learn how to use it, no one uses it for anything but signatures, and even if you do write in cursive no one can freaking read it. Seriously, I've never seen anyone's cursive that was legible to any real degree. :smallannoyed:

Death to cursive!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/Alarra/gitp/001.jpg

[Lord Seth]

The funny thing about long division is that the only thing we ultimately used it for (dividing polynomials) wasn't what we were taught to use it with originally.

[Mando Knight]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/Alarra/gitp/001.jpg

That's because you're a girl. Everyone knows that a girl's handwriting is like 40x more legible than a guy's handwriting. :smalltongue:

Except apparently my little sister and Syka.

[Katana_Geldar]

They are? I have terrible writing as is pointed out by anyone who reads my DM's notes.

[toasty]

That's because you're a girl. Everyone knows that a girl's handwriting is like 40x more legible than a guy's handwriting. :smalltongue:

Except apparently my little sister and Syka.

Lies. My grandmother and, apparently, most of my teachers, have semi-illegible handing writing.

[Serpentine]

That's because you're a girl. Everyone knows that a girl's handwriting is like 40x more legible than a guy's handwriting. :smalltongue:

Except apparently my little sister and Syka.Lies, as I shall demonstrate when I get home to my scanner. Also, my mother is a doctor. She uses doctor handwriting.

[Vonriel]

Oh please, women having more legible hand-writing? Alarra is the exception to the rule, not proof of the rule. :smalltongue:

As to the original post, I haven't had to turn in a hand-written assignment - not counting drafts of papers for various english classes - since... the SATs, which I guess count, back in '05. If they don't, then probably a couple years before that. I honestly can't recall, it's been so long. Definitely nothing since I graduated high school, though.

On cursive, I can't print. I seriously can't. I've been writing in cursive so long, my print looks worse than my cursive, though I've been told my cursive is surprisingly legible. It's certainly nothing near Alarra's, and my notes can't really be used as evidence - even I can't tell what I'm writing half the time, which is ok, because I never study them anyways... I think it's all symbolic or something, I don't quite understand. And now I seem to have diverged from the original intent of the sentence, which... was... ah, right, cursive handwriting! And how I can't print! Yeah, that's pretty much it.

I've always enjoyed typing the most, though, probably because of how I learned to type quickly. I doubt many of you even remember them, but back before this new-fangled MMO technomology, we had MUDs. Multi-User Dungeons. Text-based mmo's, essentially, though I imagine that's no longer the case with most. I bring it up because when you're in the middle of player versus player combat in a text-based environment, whoever wins isn't necessarily the best player, but whoever can type the fastest. That honed my typing skills far more than any number of courses I took between middle and high school ever could. :smallamused: Unfortunately, typing out notes means having my laptop up, which means easy access to any number of convenient distractions. Minecraft, the internet, minecraft, emulators of gaming systems both old and new, minecraft...

[Kneenibble]

Another reason could be because people actually think differently when hand-writing vs. typing. You have to think exactly what you want to write more thoroughly, because, well, it's a lot harder to erase what you were writing.

"Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts. Much as I loathe the typewriter, I must admit that it is a help in selfcriticism. Typescript is so impersonal and hideous to look at that, if I type out a poem, I immediately see defects which I missed when I looked through it in manuscript. When it comes to a poem by somebody else, the severest test I know of is to write it out in longhand. The physical tedium of doing this ensures that the slightest defect will reveal itself; the hand is constantly looking for an excuse to stop."
- W.H. Auden -- from The Dyer's Hand

[factotum]

My handwriting is a bit odd--it's kind of half cursive and half printed; for instance, if I was to write the word "information" then I'd essentially write it cursively as "in form ation". No idea why I do that...

[Thufir]

That's because you're a girl. Everyone knows that a girl's handwriting is like 40x more legible than a guy's handwriting. :smalltongue:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k63/Razor-Sharp_H7/001-1.jpg

[LaZodiac]

I think you differed the wrong point Thufir. That is perfectly legible. Just ugly.

[Shyftir]

I was a straight A student until 3rd grade when they started teaching cursive. My Handwriting grades were horrible and the work made my hands ache because I wasn't a big fan of coloring as a kid so I'd never developed the muscles as well as everybody else. My teacher was gracious to give me Cs in Handwriting even though I should probably have failed.

But here is the thing: That was the point where I lost the drive to get all As. Handwriting literally killed my desire for academic achievement, because no matter how hard I tried I was going to be bad at that subject. You should learn to read it and write it enough to sign your name, but basing a little kids grades over whether he's good at it is down right foul.

Also did anybody else attend a school where they taught "pre-cursive"?
Didn't help that I started learning one style of cursive and the next year they changed curriculum...

[Thufir]

I think you differed the wrong point Thufir. That is perfectly legible. Just ugly.

No, no I didn't. The alleged point was that guys' handwriting is less legible than girls'. I am a guy, and my handwriting is, as you say, perfectly legible, hence I beg to differ on that point.
I don't really get how you misconstrued that. :smallconfused:
And I take offence at the 'ugly' comment. :smallannoyed:

[LaZodiac]

That is because I am stupid Thufir. Sorry. I thought you were a girl, and thus based my sterotypical standards on that. This is because I am stupid, as stated before. Sorry.

[SaintRidley]

My handwriting is slanted, joined-up print. Make no mistake, it is not cursive. It's faster than either regular print or cursive is for me.

On the other hand, I've always had nigh-illegible handwriting to all other human beings on the planet. Maybe tonight I'll scan something in so you guys can see it.

[Kneenibble]

Having today transcribed a letter written by Susanna Moodie in 1848, I can tell you that a woman's cursive is no more or less likely to be legible than a man's. It is a nice and graceful hand, but a lot of it takes some serious squinting like bad cheque signatures. This was a deeply lettered upper-class British woman, and her cursive, while pretty, suffers all the usual complaints.

It's confounded by the fact that she actually writes with the tall typographical S in places.

[PanNarrans]

Joined up handwriting is very much the norm in the UK, when people are using handwriting at all. I thought the people saying they didn't use it were joking at first.

It's taught from a very young age, in primary schools, and from then on it's just natural.

[Savannah]

Joined up handwriting is very much the norm in the UK, when people are using handwriting at all. I thought the people saying they didn't use it were joking at first.

This would work better if it weren't too wide to be outside of spoilers, but I didn't think about that when I was writing ithttp://img830.imageshack.us/img830/7712/scan0001ow.png
Also, I have very inconsistent handwriting. One of these days, someone's going to think I'm forging my own signature (the only thing I do in cursive) because it's so inconsistent :smallsigh:

I have no idea why a teacher would want a hand-written paper, though. Seems like it would be a real pain to grade.

[toasty]

This would work better if it weren't too wide to be outside of spoilers, but I didn't think about that when I was writing ithttp://img830.imageshack.us/img830/7712/scan0001ow.png
Also, I have very inconsistent handwriting. One of these days, someone's going to think I'm forging my own signature (the only thing I do in cursive) because it's so inconsistent :smallsigh:

I have no idea why a teacher would want a hand-written paper, though. Seems like it would be a real pain to grade.

That is rather similar to my handwriting.

@PanNarrans: Yeah, I would have died in your school system. Handwriting is my bane.

[BizzaroStormy]

I don't even turn drafts in hand-written.

Although the aforementioned fifth grade teacher had a weird policy: Drafts may be done in computer but the final paper has to be hand-written in ink and cursive.

This makes a bit of sense. In grade school, they want to force you to learn cursive.

[Haruki-kun]

I always use cursive. I love the way it looks.

*snip*

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/Vaarsuvius89/cursive-1.png

EDIT: That's weird. Small Tongue is not turning into a smiley. :smalltongue:

[Diva De]

My 2nd grader has cursive homework every night. And has since right before the holiday break.

In addition to his reading, spelling, math, and social studies. He has like an hour of homework every night. Which makes life...difficult...to fit in other things. Like baseball or soccer. Or sleep, for me.

[toasty]

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/Vaarsuvius89/cursive-1.png

EDIT: That's weird. Small Tongue is not turning into a smiley. :smalltongue:

I read your print better than your cursive. :smalltongue:

[Maralais]

My crazy history teacher wants the whole class to do researches on 6 subjects with each of them being equal to or longer than five pages and a report for a museum which would be 30-100 pages long.

ALL. HAND. BLOODY. WRITTEN.

It is also ironic that I was supposed to the researches now and yet here I am ranting.

[Vonriel]

After today, I realized something. My print is actually pretty damn good, except for one small thing: Three years of technical drawing has burned gothic lettering into my brain. It's painful, more painful than writing in cursive is, when you have to write for a long period of time using it.

[Mayhem]

At both the highschool and university I went to cursive and similar handwriting is not allowed- reasoning being it often looks like crap, makes excessive work for reviewers. People who wrote like that usually just got an instant zero. Naturally I really hate primary school for making me practice linked handwriting when printing handwriting is all anyone will read :smallmad:.

At university all my language papers obviously had a hand written requirement. Computer programming had a pencil written requirement for your draft- and yes pen was a fail. Many papers were choosing to use electronic submissions for anti-plagarism software.

[Renegade Paladin]

I agree. Not only is it needlessly more difficult to learn how to use it, no one uses it for anything but signatures, and even if you do write in cursive no one can freaking read it. Seriously, I've never seen anyone's cursive that was legible to any real degree. :smallannoyed:

Death to cursive!
I have yet to meet anyone who could not read my handwriting. :smalltongue:

[Dogmantra]

Suddenly reminded of a comment I got back on a Latin test once:
"Try to keep it legible" (my handwriting ain't great, and I insisted on using a rather thick fountain pen which hardly helped reading it [it was great to write with though])

I had to ask the teacher what she'd written.