We are taught to write in print when we first start school. Then the teachers mess everything up and make us relearn to write by writing cursive. What is the point of this? To increase the speed of our writing? I'll tell you what it increases--the messiness of our writing. Sure it looks pretty when you learn it and get the hang of writing it, but once you get older, you grow tired of writing every letter so perfectly. It becomes sloppy. Illegible. I'm sure you've seen the signatures of some people. You can't even read it.

The way I write is I combine cursive and print. I do whatever letter is more convenient. Some letters take more time in cursive than in print; some are faster in print. But the fastest way is to combine them. I'm not saying that everyone should write like I do; I'm just saying that tis wrong for elementary school teachers to force children to redo their writing and learn cursive. The teachers claim (at least mine did) that we would have to write cursive for every paper in middle school and high school. But I'm finished with high school, and not one teacher has required me to write in cursive. Tis a waste of time to relearn how to write. Either teach cursive from the start, or don't teach it all!

The whole English language is messed up. Vote for me, and I'll change all that. >:-J

Do you have anything you dont want to complain about?

The more I read through your posts, I can't help but wonder if you are attempting to start a friendly debate or simply rant about things you either do not like or are not comfortable with.

I'll admit I have to read further and staff will decide whether these will remain or if we will direct you to the temporary journal forum where you can rant all you'd like :)

Yeah this is kind of annoying. Entering the first page of the site and seeing a whole bunch of new threads about a person complaining about one thing or another. Are you actually 'observing' all these threads or simply putting them up to get gold from peoples replies plus the big 20 you score for all these pointless threads?

Well when your younger they teach you print because its easier to teach to write with print than cursive; when your starting to use the pen/pencil and write words other than scribble and draw. I don't see anything wrong with it .. you learn to print so that you can later learn to write cursive easy. I write cursive sometimes and its true that i use print more often, so its good to know both.

Originally Posted by Sinspiration

Do you have anything you dont want to complain about?

^ Agreeable.

Cursive doesn't make my writing messier. I write neater, due to the clean loops and curlies the half-cursive I write in contains. It makes my transitions much cleaner, ect. My fully cursive script is neater, but it takes longer to write that way. I just sort of go with the flow.

I'll go ahead and allow this one to remain.

Back in the day when I was in school, which seems like 100 years ago now, we were taught cursive much more extensively and earlier than the children of today. We still wrote letters to people and sent them snail mail. We didn't have computers back then (got that makes me feel really old).

Up until around the 60s cursive was widely used for formal documents. In order to get a position in fields that required some type of formal documentation you had to learn how to write cursive and write it legibly and well. With the advent of the typewriter and later the computer and word processing programs, yes cursive is not necessary any more, yet some people still prefer to write their letters to their friends or loved ones and send them snail mail and write them in cursive because they like the way it looks.

It doesn't kill you to learn something that is different and while you may not think so, writing in any form may soon become a lost art if it is not taught in school. Does it have to be a combination of print and cursive? Why not?

Originally Posted by wing_goddess

Some letters take more time in cursive than in print; some are faster in print. But the fastest way is to combine them.

I'm sorry, but does anyone else notice that taking more time to write in cursive = faster in print. Faster in print = take more time in cursive

/sigh.

And on-topic:

Cursive doesn't make my writing messy. I was actually complimented on having neat writing earlier today, and I do what the OP tried to propose: combining the two because some letters are quicker/easier in one rather than the other.

I just write which ever way is quickest, because I'm an impatient person, and I find print quicker, too.

But in reality, I combine the both. My d's are written from the circle first, I don't dot the i's, etc.

But cursive is required for signatures, making it harder to forge, and it teaches you a skill. If you are able to write in cursive, it'll improve your handwriting (it didn't for me, but most of my friends' did) and lots of people write in cursive, so learning it makes it easier to learn how to read it, too.

I agree with jurupamae, cursive is required on some official documents and tests.

Well I have to agree with you on this one. I really don't like cursive either, and I do find it kind of pointless, because no one really uses it. The only time I use cursive is to sign my name on something, since I'm pretty sure signatures have to be in cursive, at least that's how it seems. Other than that, I don't see any use for it, unless you just want to make something look fancy that you are writing. But my cursive comes out very sloppy, even when I try for it not to. When I print, I can make it look very neat if I try. But cursive always looks like a big mess to me and I'm not happy with it. Aside from when I was learning it in school, I've never been required to write anything in cursive in school. I mean, supposedly that was why we were learning it, because later on in school it would be required on assignments. But I never once had an assignment where the teacher said for it to be in cursive. In fact, most of the time, things that were written were required to be typed up. Being that most long written assignments are typed, and most everything else that is written are things like short answers on worksheets or tests, I really don't see much use for cursive.

Despite the fact that you're essentially spamming up the entire forum with your rants, I agree with you on this one.

Cursive is completely and utterly pointless. They teach it to us, tell us that teachers want everything in middle school, but then teachers will start yelling at you for writing in cursive. Cursive really isn't any faster, and it's fucking illegible most of the time. It's easier to just write in print... and kind of connect the letters, if you want to go quickly. We could really just eliminate it altogether and I don't think it would hurt anybody. It seems silly to keep cursive around just because people write their signatures in cursive...

But.. Cursive is just print joined up. :P I never had to 'relearn' how to write.

I think that kids should be taught it, but they should be able to choose which one to use. For some kids, cursive is easier. For others, printing is easier. They should be allowed to choose.

Just so you know, I was never taught cursive. So obviously schools realize that it's pointless, because otherwise I probably would have learned it.

I learned cursive a long time ago...what was it, 1st grade? But it is an essential skill that people need for their professional world...signing checks etc...I think it is very useful.

Someone told me that cursive is the professional way to write. It is on the SATs after all.

I have no clue what I'm going to do when it's time for me to take the SATs. I can't write in cursive.

But my printing handwriting is messy enough that it looks kind of like cursive. So maybe I'll just print and hope they don't notice.

But I'll probably be typing the SATs, so would I still have to write the thing in cursive? Or would I be able to type it?

Originally Posted by wing_goddess

Sure it looks pretty when you learn it and get the hang of writing it, but once you get older, you grow tired of writing every letter so perfectly. It becomes sloppy. Illegible. I'm sure you've seen the signatures of some people. You can't even read it.

That is the point of a signature. It is supposed to be used to identify you!

Originally Posted by wing_goddess

The whole English language is messed up. Vote for me, and I'll change all that. >:-J

If you are going to be president, god help us all.

I like writing in cursive, especially letters. I have incredible neat handwriting - I just can't seem to write messily for some reason - so it sometimes feels a bit stilted. When using cursive, I feel more freedom, and thoughts just seem to flow better with this style as well.

Sorry, but there's no argument in that. It's purely a rant.

The reason why doctors have such shitty handwriting is actually, fast note taking in med school. Eight years of fast note taking and having to cut up a cadaver can really screw up how a person writes.

Besides, maybe people should just use smaller words when they have to write down something really important. I can interview someone and turn a tirade into one neatly organized symbol graph, its ridiculous.

I haven't written in cursive since elementary school. I don't even write my signature in cursive, because I've forgotten it all! :o

I personally really like cursive.

It looks pretty
in my opinion,
and since you don't have to lift up your pencil after each letter,
it's much faster when writing as well.

It just takes a short while to get used to.
:]

i dont like cursive writting myself but thats just my opinion i dont hate people if they write that way i just try and figure out how to read it >.<
i have a problem with reading very tiny cursive writing
but i do try sometimes

I hated cursive. To this day, I cannot form every letter and struggle to read it.

My math teacher has horrid cursive, and she always writes our notes and tests and homework by hand. It's awful. Math has been my lowest grade every marking period (save last marking period when gym was lower by 1 point) partially because I can't read it.

You don't know how many essays from elementary school I've rewritten because I either printed it or my cursive was so illegible I had to re-do it.

And I don't see why we need to learn it nowadays with computers.

I normally go back and forth between cursive, i like how certain leters look and cursive and if they are readble it works