5 ms·

I'm thrilled to be an adult in the age of computers where i basically never have to write anything by hand ever. My penmanship was always terrible, and this wa

I'm thrilled to be an adult in the age of computers where i basically never have to write anything by hand ever. My penmanship was always terrible, and this was magnified by being left-handed and being taught to write in a manner which drags my hand through recently written ink. Half my notes in hs and college were illegible. I'm envious of kids today taking notes on laptops or tablets.

loloquwowndueo 5y ago
As a leftie, how would you write without going over already-written stuff? The only way would be to write backwards, right? I just gravitated toward fast-drying pens for the rare occasion when I do need to write by hand. Like you I have been using a computer for any serious, long writing task since I was 12 or so.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  Downward and sideways. Turn the paper clockwise by 90° and write down each column (formerly rows across the page) from the right side (previously the top) of the page to the left. That’s what my leftie former boss did, and her handwriting was great. Without being able to easily rotate the characters, here’s what it would look like: JH te sl ul mo m, e r s Just imagine each letter rotated clockwise 90°.
  - drewg123 5y ago
    Every time i tried to do that, i'd get yelled at by my elementary school teachers, so that common sense method was drilled out of me. I should have just converted to being a righty..
- TchoBeer 5y ago
  The lefty problem is why I'm baffled that languages like Hebrew or Arabic that write right to left exist at all. Surely most people are righties, and writing systems would be written with that in mind.
- GormanFletcher 5y ago
  Some lefties learn to write by either hooking their hand above or angling it below below the line being written, sometimes complemented by slanting the page toward or away from their writing arm.
reidjs 5y ago
I have fine penmanship but no ability to keep handwritten notes organized. Basically once I write it, I assume it’s lost forever. Now that I have a backed-up, searchable, accessible from any device directory of notes I have no issues keeping track of my writing.
ghaff 5y ago
Handwriting (Palmer script) was consistently my worst grade through grade school. And my writing has done nothing but deteriorate in the decades since. My notebooks from college are at least legible.
- shakezula 5y ago
  TIL about the Palmer method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Method
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  I can feel you. But for slightly different reasons :-) It so happened that I could read fluently way before Kindergarden. (Older sister taught me) While I've been spared from Kindergarden because deemed 'too playful' this longhand thing never made any sense to me, because almost anything I've read was print, block letters, while anything longhand usually took more time to read, even if it was written nicely. So why should I write in that complicated way? I denied that stubbornly, scratching out block letters as fast or faster than the others did. Absolutely readable as I might add. Even today. This is one of the things/conventions/traditions I don't get, and probably never will.

loloquwowndueo 5y ago

As a leftie, how would you write without going over already-written stuff? The only way would be to write backwards, right? I just gravitated toward fast-drying pens for the rare occasion when I do need to write by hand. Like you I have been using a computer for any serious, long writing task since I was 12 or so.

Jtsummers 5y ago
Downward and sideways. Turn the paper clockwise by 90° and write down each column (formerly rows across the page) from the right side (previously the top) of the page to the left. That’s what my leftie former boss did, and her handwriting was great. Without being able to easily rotate the characters, here’s what it would look like: JH te sl ul mo m, e r s Just imagine each letter rotated clockwise 90°.
- drewg123 5y ago
  Every time i tried to do that, i'd get yelled at by my elementary school teachers, so that common sense method was drilled out of me. I should have just converted to being a righty..
TchoBeer 5y ago
The lefty problem is why I'm baffled that languages like Hebrew or Arabic that write right to left exist at all. Surely most people are righties, and writing systems would be written with that in mind.
GormanFletcher 5y ago
Some lefties learn to write by either hooking their hand above or angling it below below the line being written, sometimes complemented by slanting the page toward or away from their writing arm.

reidjs 5y ago

I have fine penmanship but no ability to keep handwritten notes organized. Basically once I write it, I assume it’s lost forever. Now that I have a backed-up, searchable, accessible from any device directory of notes I have no issues keeping track of my writing.

ghaff 5y ago

Handwriting (Palmer script) was consistently my worst grade through grade school. And my writing has done nothing but deteriorate in the decades since. My notebooks from college are at least legible.

shakezula 5y ago
TIL about the Palmer method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Method
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
I can feel you. But for slightly different reasons :-) It so happened that I could read fluently way before Kindergarden. (Older sister taught me) While I've been spared from Kindergarden because deemed 'too playful' this longhand thing never made any sense to me, because almost anything I've read was print, block letters, while anything longhand usually took more time to read, even if it was written nicely. So why should I write in that complicated way? I denied that stubbornly, scratching out block letters as fast or faster than the others did. Absolutely readable as I might add. Even today. This is one of the things/conventions/traditions I don't get, and probably never will.