What writing style do you use, cursive (joined) or manuscript (non-joined)?

Combo of both whenever I feel like changing. I have had too many hand and wrist injuries and my writing style depends on how my hands feel.

@talljasperman does that mean one is more comfortable for you than the other?

Manuscript. My cursive was never very legible, so when (years ago) school gave me the option to go back, I opted for everyone being able to read what I wrote. I realized about a year ago that I actually don’t remember how to do cursive; it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to write my name in cursive (with each letter distinguished, not this weird, randomly loopy scrawl that is my signature). Course, given the option, I will always choose typed over handwritten.

Cursive only. I find it much faster than manuscript.

I don’t use cursive because I don’t like to swear, so I write longhand instead. ;-)

Cursive. And, I can write very fast, and take great notes. From what I understand cursive is not being taught in all schools anymore in the US, I think it is a mistake. I have no problem with people who choose to print, but I think people should have to learn cursive and then choose what best suits them. Obviously now much is done on a computer, but we still write, and sometimes writing is faster than typing.

Cursive is normally taught to help new writers form the words phonetically, its proven to help reach writing targets earlier (morse 1988;low 1990), iv done my homework :).

I agree with @JLeslie, im very pro choice. Im planning to do some research into languages which have no phonetic connection between the writing and language, mandarin for example. And see if in later life, words are written by memory instead of actually spelling them them out. Eliminating the need for cursive at all, especially when it is un-comfortable.

@JLeslie: My daughter’s school teaches cursive. But it’s a catholic school, so that may have something to do with it.

Sadly my handwriting can only be described as “scribble”.

My cursive was marginal to begin with, then I studied three years of drafting in high school. We were taught to print like a machine (mostly all-caps, neat as a pin). We practiced for hours. This, of course, was pre-computers. This pretty much beat any cursive out of me that I had.

@cprevite im a block Capitalist myself. Statistically speaking 36% of the alphabet is significantly different from capitalized than lowercase. Arguably adding a 36% increase in the amount of characters you have to have associations with, and recall instantly during writing. and if you add that on top of the amount of letters that don’t follow standard line procedures (f for example in cursive) there are in fact 36 memorable and and associative letters.

@cprevite In 6th grade we were timed. Teacher would read a passage, and we had to write word for word, if we could keep up. The few weeks we did this sped up my ability to write quickly in cursive, and it has been extremely useful my entire life. I find a lot of men seem to prefer printing to cursive. Not in my family, but I have observed it with a lot of men.

In cursive you do not lift your writing utensil, so logically it should be faster than printing. But, for those who really have trouble with cursive it wouldn’t be. So, to each his own.

My SIL says she learned cursive first, which doesn’t seem possible? Does it? This is going back 40 years ago, American Catholic school in Mexico.

@JLeslie Research of early 1976 advocated the exclusive use of cursve, and in early half of the 20th century all schools taught some form of joined or cursive script. so its not too surprising.

@willo142 That’s interesting. I was unaware.

I write in the highly popular dysgraphic style. No one really knows whether it’s cursive or printed. In fact, not a single document written in dysgraphic has ever been deciphered.

I think writing was very important for me, because I rarely read a text book. I was one of those kids who hated reading. I did well in school. I was a very good listener and took notes, and studied from my notes. if I had not had good, fast, writing skills it would have impaired my learning greatly. Just the act of taking notes wrote the information into my brain, while others read the text books and absorb everything. My comprehension when I was a child when reading was average, and average is not great I guess. My math and and other subjects were way way above average.

@willo142 You wrote: Cursive is normally taught to help new writers form the words phonetically, its proven to help reach writing targets earlier (morse 1988;low 1990), iv done my homework :).

I am not sure what you mean. English is anything but phonetic, and even if it were – why would writing with the letters connected, or not, help new writers form the words phonetically? Please explain I am very curious. Perhaps I don’t understand your meaning.

Partially joined manuscript. I tend to join two or three letters before I lift my pen. I mix up manuscript and cursive letter types so letters like “s” and “f” don’t necessarily match from word to word.

@zensky I didnt do the research, i was just paraphrasing. But what makes you think English isn’t phonetic? Cat, for example is kuhh-ahhh-tuuhhh, which is in line with the phonetic alphabet taught to children. Ahh, buhh, cuhhh,duhh and so forth.

Some languages are truly phonetic. The language exists, and then there is also an alphabet to write down the sounds of that language.

English writing is married (partially by phonetics) to the spoken language, but they are not the same thing, and there are many examples where the written language is clearly not phonetic:
e.g.
Plough
Through
Bough
Though
Cough
Five different sounds for -ough.

Though I think it’s far too nice sounding a word to describe it, here is a sample my “cursive” handwriting: Physical Lab’ Report: boring and ugly

Since I started word-processing all my reports, I haven’t scored lower than an A, whereas before I’m sure I got a couple of Bs simply because of that writing.

I still love it though, except in exam season =_=

Damn, I just realised I said Plough and Bough… swap one for Tough =}

Wait… nevermind =_=

Wait… ugh

I don’t understand why writing with letters joined or not would affect forming words phonetically either? English is phonetic, in my opinion, with all sorts of weird and annoying exceptions and oddities. In English we can sound out words we have never seen before, but there is a chance we will pronounce them wrong. A higher chance in English than say Spanish and many other languages.

Manuscript, because honestly (and I know this is awful) I hardly know how to write cursive. We were taught it briefly in second grade or so but not enough for it to sink in.

Cursive. It’s what I learned.

@JLeslie Its to do with kinaesthetic feedback, Like muscle memory, we remember the flow of the word, it mainly aids learning again. However thats not to say ALL joined cursive writing aids this. We do similar things in reading, recognizing the shape of the word and can guess the middle parts.

I kinda do both at the same time. lol

We had an interesting conversation – and contest! – about this nearly 4 years ago.

—

How the hell is Fluther that old?!?! How have we been here for that long?!?!

It depends on what I’m writing. If I’m writing to someone I know can read cursive I use it. But a lot of kids forgot how to read it, because they never used it after third grade.

Print (manuscript) because I think it is easier for other people to read.

I mostly type when I’m doing writing for my own purposes and I can type faster than I can write, so cursive has no purpose for me.

@willo142 It still doesn’t make sense to me, but I am no expert. We learn reading primarily from books with typewritten fonts. I sounded the words out when I was little, and still do it today if I am unfamiliar with a word. I don’t think cursive helped or helps me at all with this. Americans have learned how to read in so many different ways over the years, varying ideas of the best way to teach reading. Probably part of the reason some of us take the time to pronounce names as written, instead of dismissing an unfamiliar name as too hard and competely butchering it, is because some of us had more of an emphasis on phonetics, but that is just a guess. Certainly part of it also has to do with upbringing and exposure to different languages and names.

I use a combo of both which to me feels faster than just cursive.

Neither, I type.

The only time I hold a ’pen’ is to sign my name.

I don’t write much, but when I do I print 70% of the time and write in cursive the rest of the time. I like writing in cursive, it’s fun, and it’s kinda a challenge at this point lol.

Interesting fact!: I like writing my name so much in cursive that my dad, who is amazing, did a piece of stained glass exactly the way I write my name. And it’s rainbow. It is basically the coolest thing ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I use both. I love the speed of cursive but then I get bored and switch to printing.

I don’t write as often as I used to though.

I use cursive for personal writing and English.
I use print for Math and Science. I don’t know why. I just do.

I use cursive as my default writing style; it just feels more natural and flows easier. I use it because, simply… I think it’s prettier and… vain attack! I think I have a really pretty handwriting style XD

Here is an actual sample of my handwriting from my class notes. You tell me… :-/

Both, I prefer printing to cursive but if under duress I’ll combine both, along with lots of wacky abbreviations that I sometime forget WTH I meant. lol
I’m a lefty so the drag always sucks..smears and the inky edge of the hand. haha

Most of the time, printing, since my printing is much neater than my cursive. I use cursive when writing in-class essays and short answers to speed up my writing.

@Aesthetic_Mess Oh, interesting, I did not even think about it that way. I use print always in math also, and cursive in English. I also always cross my z’s when I print, even outside of math, but I rarely print when just writing, unless it is a confirmation number for a hotel, or a sequence of something that is numbers and letters, or when filling out a form I would print also.

Cursive (copperplate script or roundhand depending on how much time I have).

Yeah, @willo142 English is a phonetic language.

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it’s said like bed, not bead-
for goodness’ sake don’t call it ‘deed’!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!
I learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I’ll not learn how ‘til the day I die.

Poem of English Pronunciation
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation—think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough?
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is give it up!
Here is more pronunciation.
Ration never rhymes with nation,
Say prefer, but preferable,
Comfortable and vegetable.
B must not be heard in doubt,
Debt and dumb both leave it out.

In the words psychology,
Psychic, and psychiatry,
You must never sound the p.
Psychiatrist you call the man
Who cures the complex, if he can.

In architect chi is k
In arch it is the other way.
Please remember to say iron
So that it’ll rhyme with lion.
Advertisers advertise,
Advertisements will put you wise.

Time when work is done is leisure,
Fill it up with useful pleasure.
Accidental, accident,
Sound the g in ignorant.

Relative, but relation,
Then say creature, but creation.
Say the a in gas quite short,
Bought remember rhymes with thwart,

Drought must always rhyme with bout,
In daughter leave the gh out.
Wear a boot upon your foot.
Root can never rhyme with soot.

In muscle, sc is s,
In muscular, it’s sk, yes!
Choir must always rhyme with wire,
That again will rhyme with liar.

Then remember it’s address.
With an accent like posses.
G in sign must silent be,
In signature, pronounce the g.

Please remember, say towards
Just as if it rhymed with boards.
Weight’s like wait, but not like height.
Which should always rhyme with might.

Sew is just the same as so,
Tie a ribbon in a bow.
When You meet the queen you bow,
Which again must rhyme with how.

In perfect English make a start.
Learn this little rhyme by heart.

Oh and…

One reason why I cannot spell,
Although I learned the rules quite well
Is that some words like coup and through
Sound just like threw and flue and Who;
When oo is never spelled the same,
The duice becomes a guessing game;
And then I ponder over though,
Is it spelled so, or throw, or beau,
And bough is never bow, it’s bow,
I mean the bow that sounds like plow,
And not the bow that sounds like row –
The row that is pronounced like roe.
I wonder, too, why rough and tough,
That sound the same as gruff and muff,
Are spelled like bough and though, for they
Are both pronounced a different way.
And why can’t I spell trough and cough
The same as I do scoff and golf?

Why isn’t drought spelled just like route,
or doubt or pout or sauerkraut?
When words all sound so much the same
To change the spelling seems a shame.
There is no sense – see sound like cents -
in making such a difference
Between the sight and sound of words;
Each spelling rule that undergirds
The way a word should look will fail
And often prove to no avail
Because exceptions will negate
The truth of what the rule may state;
So though I try, I still despair
And moan and mutter “It’s not fair
That I’m held up to ridicule
And made to look like such a fool
When it’s the spelling that’s at fault.
Let’s call this nonsense to a halt.”

cool

And…

WHY ENGLISH IS SO HARD TO LEARN

We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
This was a good time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in my clothes I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I read it once and will read it agen
I learned much from this learned treatise.
I was content to note the content of the message.
The Blessed Virgin blessed her. Blessed her richly.
It’s a bit wicked to over-trim a short wicked candle.
If he will absent himself we mark him absent.
I incline toward bypassing the incline.

Manuscript. It takes me an embarrassingly long time to write in cursive and that style of penmanship looks atrocious when coming from my hand anyway. My manuscript is usually quite neat-looking and is sometimes mistaken from as cursive.

@deni: That’s beautiful. What a nice thing he did.

@willo142: Intersting. Thanks,

@JLeslie: My daughter tells me they don’t time them, but they do get extra credit for doing all their work in cursive.

I write in cursive. Back in the day, when I went to school, everyone was taught cursive and required to write in cursive. Somewhere along the line cursive became optional. The kids who are in high school now were never even taught cursive and very few can write in cursive – at least in Utah. It is a dying art.

When I was younger (around 10 or so) I used to write in cursive style. But with time it changed (don’t ask me how or why) and now I write very differently in a manuscript style.

@The_Idler I bet nobody asked to borrow your notes.

When I have to write rather than type, I rely on printing (manuscript). Even I can rarely decode my own cursive writing after some time has passed.

It’s a mixture of both. Very round and expressive.

@cprevite So, in her class they are not forced to write in cursive. I don’t think it was optional for us? Or, maybe we just received a lower grade in penmanship if we printed? Not sure. We only were timed for a few weeks in 6th grade.

@zensky :)

@JLeslie: No, but they are “strongly encouraged” to write in cursive all the time (not only when they’re actually practicing it).

cursive for personal notes
the rest is manuscript

Cursive. I like it because its faster and prettier in my opinion. I also love loops. Don’t know why. Just do. To me its a form of art. Everyone has their own style.
My husbands cursive writing is gorgeous. He always gets comment from people about how beautiful his writing is. Its actually slightly prettier than mine. He makes all the letters somehow evenly spaced apart. He somehow always manages to make it look computer generated. But he hand do both.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Do you take all you notes in elfin?

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard jesus that looks like short hand, or a font that would be found on a space ship

I took shorthand in jr high. Well, it was just a nine week class that had typing, short hand, and some other skills. I took the elective class, because my dad felt strongly knowing how to type was important, and going to be much more important in the future. Boy was he right. I remember kind of resisting it because I did not plan on being a secretary, and typing is important in almost every professional career. That was back in 1979 or 1980? Not sure exactly what grade I was in.

@JLeslie My mom knows shorthand and I think its so cool! Do you use it still, ever?

@deni I don’t remember any of it. I did create some od my own shorthand sort of when I was learning it though. I use a lot of symbols in my note taking, but they are understood by most people. Like I use a triangle instead of writing out the word change, and have abreviations I use for some words.

@fundevogel and @deni people have described my handwriting as “looking like an Atlantean script.” And it’s a shorthand of my own design, in some ways.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Pretty cool!

My Penmanship.

When I lived in NY we called cursive “script.”

I also have a hand that sometimes writes. It’s the right one.

@fundevogel and @AshLeigh looks a hell of a lot better than mine.

@JLeslie We always called it “writing” or “printing.”

@Skaggfacemutt Are you saying “writing” is synonomous with cursive? I find that odd. To me writing is the umbrella term for all forms of, well, writing. Whether it be printing, cursive, caligraphy, whatever. But, the same could be said about script I guess? I don’t know the exact definition of script, but it probably technichally is an umbrella term also.

@JLeslie technically, @Skaggfacemutt is right. Writing used to be synonymous with cursive, whereas printing had its own meaning. This usage fell out of favor recently.

@JLeslie Yes, that is what I am saying. In my school days, “writing” was cursive (we never heard of the word “cursive”) and printing was what people now call “manuscript” (I guess).

Also, in my school days, kindergartners were taught to print, and by about 2nd grade, they were expected to learn to “write.” Anyone who didn’t learn to write would have been considered “delayed”, which is why is strikes me as weird that our teens nowadays don’t know how to “write.”

@Skaggfacemutt I use printing, as you can see in my answers above. Manuscript is very odd to me also, since script mean cursive to me. It’s good the OP specifically defined what he meant in his question.

@Skaggfacemutt We learned “writing” in 3rd grade. I have found Catholic schools and certain areas of the country teach it in 2nd grade. It also seems to me some schools moved from 3rd grade to 2nd several years after I was in those grades. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Hammond, Indiana and went to Caldwell Elementary School. They piloted a lot of programs, including teaching phoenics (not the one where they spell things weird.) It worked so well that I could read anything put in front of me by the time I finished first grade. I learned to “write” in second grade. I don’t know if that school is still so successful and progressive, but it is a shame that education has gone backwards since then.

Still waiting on @willo142 response. How is English a phonetic language and how does cursive writing help with regards to it being phonetic?

@zensky He did answer, but it was addressed to me. @JLeslie Its to do with kinaesthetic feedback, Like muscle memory, we remember the flow of the word, it mainly aids learning again. However thats not to say ALL joined cursive writing aids this. We do similar things in reading, recognizing the shape of the word and can guess the middle parts.

I still don’t think it makes sense though.

What you are describing, @JLeslie is the opposite of phoenics. Back when teachers cared, there were two ways to teach reading. One was pretty much memorization – remembering what each word looks like – muscle memory. The other was learning the sound each letter or set of letters make. I learned phoenics, which meant that even if I saw a word I had never seen before, I could still read it and pronounce it.

I don’t see that writing vs. printing would make any difference in learning to read. I am just seeing that this upcoming generation has put education back a hundred years, having not been taught to write, only print, and the only phoenics that they were ever exposed to was “huked on fonix”! No wonder they can’t spell!!

I work at a high school and have seen the students’ work. Shocking! I wouldn’t have passed 3rd grade with the skills our high school students have. It isn’t the kids’ fault – whatever happened to education?

@Skaggfacemutt I think you meant to address @willo142. I agree with you, I learned to read phonetically as you did. I still sound out words.

@JLeslie You and I have a lot in common, I have noticed.

I wonder if all languages have print and cursive? I assume not. I don’t think of Russian and Hebrew as having alternative ways of writing, but I really have no idea?

It just looks like regular writing to me. In fact, it kind of looks like my handwriting. I write in very even, rounded letters.

@JLeslie Russian has cursive.

@fundevogel Thanks!

@JLeslie Hebrew has both print and “cursive”, they are quite dissimilar – but they are never written joined, like in English.

Here is a chart with both (scroll down half a page).

I learned cursive when I in third grade. I’m in 9th now and have barely used print since then. I’m the only person in my class that continues to use it to this day. In fact, my print is used so little that when I go to write it looks about the same as when I was in third grade (except for a few mistakes here and there where I began to write in cursive but stopped myself). I’ve heard recently that many of the elementary schools in my area have stopped teaching it. I can’t believe it. Many people in my school can not read it either. It’s such a beautiful form of handwriting, I truly wish it weren’t dying out.

I write cursive because that is how I learned to write back in school, when I was a kid. I grew up in Romania, and cursive was the status quo as far as writing went.