it's one of those random polls where i attempt to start conversation about random topics

[lirazel]

Okay, so. The other day some of my co-workers were mocking me because I still write in cursive. Yes, that's right: 90% of the time I use cursive. I can write in print, obviously, but my cursive is A) prettier and B) much, much faster (all the letters are connected! You don't have to pick your pen up nearly as much!). Apparently I am the only one who didn't learn it in third grade and then immediately start using print again as soon as I was allowed.

So I want to know about you! Take this poll! And note that the first two questions are asking about the majority of the time. Please only choose the "back and forth" option if you really do change it up most of the time as opposed to just some of the time.

[Poll #1817294]

[eta] One of my ultimate pet peeves: people who write "bare with me." NO I DO NOT WANT TO GET NAKED WITH YOU, AND CONSIDERING THAT WE HAVEN'T KNOWN EACH OTHER VERY LONG, I'M A LITTLE OFFENDED THAT YOU ASKED.

Comments

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

Lol, I can't even imagine myself using print. It would take AGES, while cursive is quick and practical. I only put things like key words and titles in print when I'm taking notes, and when I'm writing a fic, I use cursive only. I was actually surprised to see this kind of poll. I guess it's culture-specific; in my country, hardly anyone uses print.

Well, ok, my father does. But only because his cursive is so terrible he sometimes can't read it himself.

[treadingthedark.livejournal.com]

I use cursive for my signature, and signing greeting cards and that's about it.
I teach high school and it is definitely becoming a lot art, though I have been informed that there is a cursive font in the computer so maybe it will come back.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Mine is mostly an 'unholy mixture' but it does also change back and forth seemingly at its own will because I don't consciously choose. I mostly strive for 'legible' of either font, but cursive is indeed faster so when I'm in a rush.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

School fucked up my handwriting big time. We had to learn cursive, but not how to do it well, which means my handwriting is basically all squiggles and drawn-out lines with random crosses and dots. Quoth my English professor, out loud, to the entire auditorium:

"Foamy's handwriting is APPALLING! It looks like drunken spiders crawling across the paper!"

I've used a computer ever since for anything that anyone else may have to read. Or that I have to be able to read 2 weeks from now when I've forgotten what it's supposed to say.

[gillo]

Mine is generally an unholy mixture; it can also slant in different directions, depending on mood and some letters even change formation without my noticing. My mother thinks it's because one school I attended aged 7 started to teach me a lovely cursive; I then moved house and the new school punished me for using it, as they didn't teach "joined up writing" until a year later.

As a teacher my writing on the board tended to be more print, for clarity and legibility, but comments on work by pupils was more cursive.

I used to play with calligraphy, but not for a long while, so I ticked the first box for that. Creative writing I mostly do on a keyboard these days. I am more likely to be able to read it, and I type faster than I hand-write anyway.

[muneca-brava.livejournal.com]

Being weird and Belgian, I had to look up the difference between cursive and print (in retrospect I could have guessed). People actually write in print? That just feels weird to me. I type most of my writing, but I still write down notes in class and I've never seen anyone write in print. Except for official things, I guess.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Lol, I can't even imagine myself using print. It would take AGES, while cursive is quick and practical

I KNOW!

I guess it's cultural and also generational--most of the people I know who are younger than me only print, whereas most older people often use cursive.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear fewer and fewer kids are learning it. Do you know if they still teach it well in elementary school, or do they just do a cursory sort of overview?

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

My mama's is an unholy mixture, which is why it occurred to me. :D

. I mostly strive for 'legible' of either font, but cursive is indeed faster so when I'm in a rush.

Makes sense!

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Every time I see that icon it cracks me up. I have decided it's a very good thing I don't often drink, because if I did, I'm pretty sure I would become the female equivalent of Bernard, and the world just does not need that.

Anyway!

We had to learn cursive, but not how to do it well

That sucks. As does your professor reacting that way. Who does that in front of so many people?

I figured there'd be at least one or two people who almost always type.

[silverusagi]

I pretty much always write in cursive. It's faster.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Oh, mine does not even slant. Straight up and down, really.

My mother thinks it's because one school I attended aged 7 started to teach me a lovely cursive; I then moved house and the new school punished me for using it, as they didn't teach "joined up writing" until a year later.

That sounds like a very reasonable explanation. I HATEHATEHATE when schools punish kids for being ahead. I used to get in trouble for reading ahead in the books we were reading as a class. LET'S PUNISH INITIATIVE AND INTELLIGENCE!

As a teacher my writing on the board tended to be more print, for clarity and legibility, but comments on work by pupils was more cursive.

That makes sense.

I played with calligraphy, too, but it's not something I've maintained. It's one of those "one day I'll get back into that" things.

For creative writing, I type when I'm at home with my laptop, but I always carry paper with me to scribble on when I'm out and about.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I'm really interested in the cultural differences. I wonder if this move towards not using cursive at all is purely an American thing or whether it's technology-based and we're just ahead of the curve? I hope it's the former, because I think cursive is beautiful and don't want it to die out.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Word.

[snickfic]

Here is the thinking process I went through as a kid: printing looks roughly like what you see in books. Everyone can read the printing in books. Therefore, (roughly) everyone can read written printing. And why wouldn't you write so as to be legible to the largest possible number of people? (This line of logic aided by the fact that as a child I couldn't read most people's cursive, often including my own.)

And I never got good enough at cursive that it was any faster than printing; when I tried to write it quickly, legibility went down the tubes.

It's just better for the world that I print, in other words. *g*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it largely depends on how comfortable you are with cursive whether you use it. We were required to use it at school at least through middle school, so I got used to it to the point where I don't even have to think about it.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

My cursive writing is not pretty at all, but it is fast, and I've never understood why people act like it's so surprising to keep using it. It is fast! What? I even use cursive in the middle of equations sometimes, but then that can get confusing (like if uv is actually u times v, it seems inappropriate to join them up, even though it kind of comes naturally to do so).

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you--I totally understand why people would print if they're not as comfortable with cursive or if theirs isn't very legible. But I don't understand why they're surprised I use my cursive!

even use cursive in the middle of equations sometimes, but then that can get confusing (like if uv is actually u times v, it seems inappropriate to join them up, even though it kind of comes naturally to do so).

I haven't done math in forever, but I remember doing that sort of thing, too.

[next_to_normal]

Unholy mixture! I sort of start out printing, but then end up connecting about half my letters because I'm writing quickly.

When I write for someone else, I try to slow myself down and print more clearly.

I don't actually find writing proper cursive to be faster than print, though? Maybe because I have to go slowly in order for the cursive to be neat, but print can get a bit sloppier and still be legible.

[janie-aire.livejournal.com]

I pretty much type everything these days, it's so much faster than writing anything by hand. That said, I do write by hand on occasion. Greeting cards and letters, those are always in cursive. To-do lists, outlines, and editing notations on manuscripts are always in print.

And actually, I lie. I prefer to type because my handwriting - print or cursive - is rubbish, and I feel bad that I can't make the letters pretty.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Most of the time when I start out in print I end up writing in cursive unless I make an active effort not to. Connecting the letters: so much easier!

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

I had to look up "cursive" too! I was trained to be an archivist, so now "cursive" is a type of a renaissance font for me, and I had a strange feeling this couldn't be right ;).

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I'd type more if I owned a printer? I don't, so I have to go out of my way to print things off, so scribbling things down on paper is way easier for me. But I do type pretty fast!

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

I never print anything, unless I absolutely have to. Printing takes longer and I don't have that kind of patience.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

lol, I like my unholy mixture. (Why would you write a cursive S or G? Or, like, I don't connect a "t" to the rest of the word.) I find it easiest but apparently nobody else can read it, so print it is.

"bare with me."

pfft.