What caused cursive to die?

[thegimp03]

When I need to write something down on paper, I've always written in cursive. All of my class notes through high school, college, and studying for some certification exams were in cursive.

Now I tend to avoid writing altogether. I find that I can type faster than I can write.

 

[Perknose]

I guess I'm helping with that stat. 29, and I've heard the term "shorthand" before, but after checking Wikipedia's entry on it, apparently I never knew what it was.

Wow, same here. Some kinda weird moonspeak.

I'm continually stunned by the things you guys -- presumably bright and even college educated -- simply don't know. Do you folks not read? Growing up I was conversant with a ton of things no longer prevalent or even extant at that time simply because I read widely. <shrug>

 

[makken]

Here's it as promised, a sample of my scroll. It is not a pretty sight as many people have difficulty reading it. I do have some sympathy as there have been times when I've been hard pressed to decipher what I've written! Anyway I hope it will be of help will be most interested to know what it reveals about my personality. For your information I'm 52 years of age and right handed.

That is a really terrible example of cursive. That's actually not cursive at all, its just a very sloppy print/cursive hybrid and for some reason has a leftward lean.

 

[Farmer]

Look, I'm just not going respect anything you post unless you post it in cursive.

 

[Siddhartha]

Technology.
/thread

This has my vote.

 

[Perknose]

lol i forgot Q looked just like a 2 in cursive

In Catholic school, using the Palmer method, I was taught a radically different capital Q (<--- more like this one), a radically different capital F, and a somewhat different capital B, E, P, R, T and X.

 

[DougoMan]

Writing in cursive in not just faster but far less stressful for your hand. Nothing more annoying that having to lift your pencil off the paper for every word. Cursive is just as easy to read if you are used to writing and seeing it.

Also, if you are trying to write fast, cursive will look way better. Non cursive handwriting just does not lend itself to fast writing, like you might need to do taking notes for a class.

 

[bignateyk]

Writing that paragraph in cursive was the hardest part of the SAT. I'm glad it wasn't graded.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Teach cursive less, grammar/spelling/sentence structure more. (please let there be no mistakes)

 

[fatpat268]

That's actually pretty legible, IMO. There were a could of hard parts to read, but overall it's fine. I actually got stumped on "Anyway" because it looked like "Snyway."

 

[Jeff7]

I'm continually stunned by the things you guys -- presumably bright and even college educated -- simply don't know. Do you folks not read? Growing up I was conversant with a ton of things no longer prevalent or even extant at that time simply because I read widely. <shrug>

Quite a lot when I was younger, actually. There were various mentions of "shorthand" here and there, but not with any illustrations of what it actually was. I had sort of thought it was just another term to refer to cursive writing, though that didn't ever quite seem right. Now it's clear why that's so.

That's actually pretty legible, IMO. There were a could of hard parts to read, but overall it's fine. I actually got stumped on "Anyway" because it looked like "Snyway."

Agreed.
There was a good example of horrific scribbling in one of the letters shown in The Far Side's massive collection. Some Bible Belt guy was greatly offended by the comic about exorcising demons from a vacuum cleaner. The letter wasn't very long, but it was slow to read it all the way through.
But perhaps I'm quick to judge - maybe he was dictating to his writing pen dog.

 

[makken]

That's actually pretty legible, IMO. There were a could of hard parts to read, but overall it's fine. I actually got stumped on "Anyway" because it looked like "Snyway."

yeah, I have a nasty habit of writing my capital A's like the way you would draw a star =X
I started doing that when I had a teacher mark me down for not capitalizing a sentence on a paper I wrote in class.

That particular A turned out especially bad because I realized half way through that I wasn't using the standard cursive capital A and tried to stop myself, but it was too late.

here's how my A's normally look:

I've been using cursive all throughout highschool and college. Yes, i prefer to type when possible, but when you're given an exam that consist of writing a 3 page paper in a 45min class period, printing just doesn't work out.

 

[Zenmervolt]

yeah, I have a nasty habit of writing my capital A's like the way you would draw a star =X
I started doing that when I had a teacher mark me down for not capitalizing a sentence on a paper I wrote in class.

That particular A turned out especially bad because I realized half way through that I wasn't using the standard cursive capital A and tried to stop myself, but it was too late.

here's how my A's normally look:

I think that most people who use cursive regularly end up with some variation on that particular capital "A" because it ends up more legible and faster than the standard D'Nealian or Spencerian "A." My own writing is similar except that I lack the connecting stroke between the crossbar and the lower right.

ZV

 

[Farmer]

because it ends up more legible and faster than the standard D'Nealian or Spencerian "A."

What is the field that studies handwriting?

 

[makken]

What is the field that studies handwriting?

according to wikipedia, graphology or questioned document examination

 

[Bateluer]

I can only make out about half that. But, admittedly, I haven't seen more than a few words of cursive since elementary school. Its been 20 years.

 

[alkemyst]

Even with non-ideal photo quality I can make out that whole note.

I am 40, I don't use cursive often...but when I do write hand-written letters I do use it exclusively.

 

[3chordcharlie]

That's because a smart teacher would recommend a decent spell checker and a browser like firefox that has one.

Tools like spelling and grammar checks are mainly useful for folks who can actually function quite fine without them.

They can certainly save some proof-reading time, but if you trust firefox or MS Word to edit your writing, your illiteracy will shine through.

 

[Redfraggle]

I remember being a little kid and being sad I couldn't read the Babar books in the library because I couldn't read cursive yet. We didn't learn until second grade.

 

[alkemyst]

Tools like spelling and grammar checks are mainly useful for folks who can actually function quite fine without them.

They can certainly save some proof-reading time, but if you trust firefox or MS Word to edit your writing, your illiteracy will shine through.

Most of these applications focus around an 8th grade literacy level.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Writing in cursive in not just faster but far less stressful for your hand. Nothing more annoying that having to lift your pencil off the paper for every word. Cursive is just as easy to read if you are used to writing and seeing it.

Also, if you are trying to write fast, cursive will look way better. Non cursive handwriting just does not lend itself to fast writing, like you might need to do taking notes for a class.

Absolutely. Writing 500-2000 words is much more straining if you are printing.

Now that *most* handwritten things are quick notes, cards, etc, rarely exceeding 100 words, there's little chance of your hand getting tired from writing.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Most of these applications focus around an 8th grade literacy level.

That's a higher level of functioning than most college graduates achieve

 

[HeXen]

don't blame cursive, blame the lazy writer. Like anything else, each letter was designed to have a specified form. Its like people who talk lazy, its not even English

 

[paulney]

I still remember the time when I rebelled in school and stopped connecting the letters in my papers. Was around 9th grade, I believe. That was anarchy and riot! I got a few papers lowered in grade because of that, but, in less than a year nobody cared any more.