General Chat

Handwriting is something artistic a truely beautifull skill. When you look at handwriting from the past no matter who's hand scribed the words it was neat, tidy and most of all beautifully composed. Today's handwriting, writing of the pupils of our schools is more like scribble compaired to yesteryear, no one now seems to care how the writing looks,if its readable its ok type of attitude. Does anyone else feel the same or is it just me Paul

Paul, clearly you haven't looked at many old census scans, some of the handwriting was appalling ! Paul

I agree Paul i work in a law office and some of the older documents are beautifully scripted, i wish i could write like that i suspect that handwriting is being lost as an art form as more and more people type their correspondence how many people actually get a handwritten letter through the post these days, my mum is the only one i know that writes letters. i do have a calligraphy set at home that when i find time i am going to learn how to do hevi

It isn't in the school that I work at. Great importance is placed on handwriting.

Jess but is it used out of school ??? Paul

My maternal grandmothers writing was beautiful. Copperplate. When I was looking at the parish registers for Shimpling in Suffolk and at the signatures on the witnesses at the marriages. There I saw my grandmothers, step mothers signature. I thought I was looking at my grandmothers. The similarities were everywhere. I think she must have learned her technique from her step mother. As for todays children, most of the time they are encouraged to use computers and print out their work. My daughters A level coursework has almost all been done on a computer. We asked one of her teachers about that once, some years ago. He said that they encouraged it because they, the teachers, could at least read all of the work handed in. It wasnt a younger teacher either, as he had taught me also. OMG, he must be ancient LOL. When I was at primary school we were taught handwriting and how to get it neat and of a uniform size. Margaret

Paul - Chunks -a lot of the census returns were written by people under pressure. :-) we have viewed countless sheets from all years and areas - it has helped as I did a course on how to decipher old writing :-) Paul - Tigs - Gt x 3 grandfather was the parish clerk in this area for over 60 years and the beauty of his handwriting is something to be proud of . We have copies of Wills and land transactions etc dating back to the mid 1500's - so we HAVE read a lot of old papers - people dont seem to take as much pride these days - its far easier to type or text

Not sure what you mean by 'used out of school' Applied to homework? if so yes (in the expectaion that the work you do at home FOR school should be as well presented as the work you do AT school) jess

It's not just handwriting that's becoming a lost cause Paul. When was the last time you recieved a letter? I personally love sending letters to my friends and family,though don't get many in return... I've encouraged my kids this year to dabble in calligraphy as part of their writing course, and in our school we encourage the use of handwriting over printed matter (especially in language classes). This doesn't mean they will write a letter outside of school of course, e-mail is faster and less time consuming. We were taught cursive at school, yet only one of my own students is able to write using cursive script. I also made the mistake of letting on my hobby(the other one) is calligraphy and have spent the last week writing graduation diplomas, not complaining though as I find it very theraputic. Magi

Jess I meant with things like letters that dont have to be viewed by the teachers anything they do as homework have to be of some sort of standard. But what about private none school related writing that is where the scribble comes in or a felt pen on the local bus shelter LOL Paul

Yes you are right Paul my handwriting is not great at all, but my Dad was a lovely handwriter and also he could do caligraphy and olde English etc. Dave

Dave Its a dying art sadly Paul

My husband and his mother are the best writers iv ever seen they put me to shame. Do you think it's something in the genes?My fathers was unreadable and so is mine. Hubby says we should have been doctors you can never read there writting. Gill

Sorry ,I have never wondered why kids dont write neatly on bus stop and alike! The art type grafitti is more of a 'mark' than writing, and the scrawl is just that. Proper neatly written words take time and effort, hardly bus stop scrawl. Out of school writing, that old fashioned 'thank you letter from a child to a rellie' just doesn't seem to exist any more, and where it does, because a parent insists it is done, then I would have thought pointless if the parent doesn't monitor its neatness. Jess

Know what you mean Jess. Teaching the kids to take pride in presentation also seems to be dying out, how many times have you had a scrumpled peice of paper handed in? Asked what it was, then be told 'it's my assignment'. That's when I scream! Graffiti Art shows expression, and if it's done right can brighten up a pretty boring sports hall or similar place. I've always been proud of my handwriting, my dad was also a beautiful writer, don't know about it being genetic...but remember the teacher who said 'that can't be your writing you're left-handed'...talk about being disappointed. Magi

I agree Magi I am left handed and not a great writer, but not always entirely true my ex boss was left handed and he was a beautiful writer. Davex

A schoolmaster once said to me 'Len, whatever you do with a pen on paper by no stretch of the imagination can be called writing'. Len

Being left-handed does have it's advantages too Dave, when I use the board at school the kids can see what I've wrote. Took them a while to figure out how though ..lol..

I agree, Paul. More could be done in schools today to teach neat handwriting. In my junior school, we were taught the Marion Richardson style of handwriting. In secondary school, part of the GCE 'O' level Art course was Manuscript Writing. However, I now write in italic style and have lots of compliments on my handwriting. Kathy

When I was at school we were taught to write using ink,all my books from childhood have my name written carefully inside,using biro's may be convenient but loses the artistic use of the nib. Brenda