To think many adults have terrible handwriting?

[MaryFuckingFerguson]

I am ironing curtains 😩 in front of ‘Four in a Bed’.

When the guests leave a B&B and write their reviews, I am struck by the fact virtually no-one has nice handwriting.

They either print like a small child might, write in capitals or have a messy and barely legible scrawl. Often they hold the pen in a cack-handed manner too.

My husband reckons hand-writing is not taught properly at state schools. But our kids (early 20s) went to state school and were taught cursive.

Is it just not a thing that matters anymore? I think it’s a shame as I love writing, even a birthday card, and take pride in it. Adults should have decent hand-writing unless other influencing factors are present. Or do we just not write enough nowadays to be any good at it?

I have appalling handwriting,

I really don't care.

Haha! I clearly care too much!

Mine looks nice but is barely legible to anyone else.

I was taught in cursive and it's revolved to a scrawl.

I can write nicely in a card for example but need to take my time which I don't generally do.

Yeah loads of people have awful writing.

Mine is beautiful though. It's the most useless skill I ever acquired.

I wasn’t taught cursive, my hand writing is awful but like pp I just don’t care! It’s so rare I have to hand write anything that it’s just not a problem for me.

My youngest adult DC has appalling hand writing but I think the only time he writes is twice a year,Mother’s Day and my birthday, so no wonder 😂

The more intelligent you are the worse your handwriting is according to one of my old teachers. Your brain goes faster than the pen. True for my brother he has a PHD and his writing is terrible. You said you had nice handwriting 🤔 😂

I can write nicely but often if I'm writing these days it's to jot something down really quickly so it is a mess.

I don't really think you can make this judgement based on one episode of four in a bed

You can tell your husband that all state primaries teach handwriting. He can check the National Curriculum.

I'm currently teaching Year 3 (7 and 8 year olds) and being awarded a pen licence is a very big deal!

I used to have really nice handwriting, but I write so little now (thanks, tech) that it's taken a nosedive. Occasionally I write a letter and they helps me get back on track.

Handwriting is a skill. My DH's handwriting is not very neat but he is good at fixing and making things. We all have different skills.

Who writes much any more? It certainly isn't the future.

I have appalling handwriting.

I'm in my 60's and was taught to write correctly but teachers complained because my writing was too small so at my secondary school they changed the way I wrote by getting another pupil to show me how she wrote. Now I do my 'a's and 'e's differently in the same word. It's a complete mess

So blame the teachers not me

Like a lot of skills it comes down to practice, practice and yet more practice. My signature doesn’t even look like mine anymore - I don’t think I have been required to provide a wet signature since before covid and as for anything written such as a letter - it must be six plus years since I’ve hand written one. So much is either typed or electronically signed. Even monetary payments are on-line or contactless, must be several years since I last wrote a cheque!
My handwriting probably resembles something like the doodling of a geriatric spider that has just fallen out of an ink well from a 30 foot height and slightly dried out on the way down. Only practice will bring back my nice cursive writing style.

If you look at photos of many people holding pens they clutch them in their fists and you can't write elegantly if you hold a pen like that. Imho, good handwriting is an art.

I had decent handwriting. But I so rarely write anything by hand these days, that when I do it's quite a struggle - almost like learning to write all over again!

I'm an artist and have terrible handwriting. I used to worry about that. But I can do lettering and calligraphy if I apply myself.

I was taught cursive in primary school, and then at secondary school they preferred us to print because it made marking exams/homework easier. Personally I don't actually like the look of cursive writing

I put my scrawl down to having very little practice these days and lots of exams in the past.

Handwriting is taught in primary school. But people just don’t write by hand as much as they used to so are less practiced.

I find it so illogical when people say something isn't taught in schools because adults can't do it. The current national curriculum only started in 2014 so no one who has been taught what schools have consistently taught for the past 10 years is an adult yet. Funnily enough, school isn't the same as it was 20 years ago. As it happens, I teach handwriting every day (KS2) and you can't reach the expected standard in Y6 writing without a fluent, joined style.

Mine is awful and illegible, I spend all day on three pc screens tapping away. Couldn’t care less as I understand my notes and what I’ve written.

Spelin an grammar is bigly bad these daze to.

I think it’s lack of opportunity. I used to have lovely writing but 20 years of working in technology where mostly everything is typed and my hand is out of practice now

The handwriting of many deteriorates in adulthood, because nowadays, most of us don't write that much as adults. At school I wrote lots every day. I write quite little by hand as an adult, certainly not for significant stretches at a time on a day-to-day basis. Writing a shopping list or a card doesn't take much time.

The only time I really noticed poor handwriting, in the sense of block letters, was in a class with mostly Chinese students. But that's not so surprising, given how completely different the Latin alphabet is to Chinese writing.