What's your handwriting like?

[BumperliciousNeedsToSleep]

Mine is, at times, completely illegible. Probably partly from reliance on computers meaning that I rarely write, but also that when I write I write really quickly, I just cannot slow myself down. It also means that I make a lot of mistakes when I write (again maybe partly reliance on word processing but also not thinking before I write). Makes it v annoying when I write cards and letters, makes me look like a complete numpty when I'm not.

It's so bad that when I write shopping lists I often can't read them by the time I get to the shop.

Anything I can do about it this late in life?

What's your writing like?

Just like yours. I'm the only one who can read it.

mine too - completely shit
mumsnet has totally made it worse. i rarely punctuate properly here becuase i am ususally intent in getting out my point.

so when i write notes for myself i often use made up on the spot shorthand ( if we are taking turns taking minutes at work or something) then i sit there for ages thinking ' what the fuck does DL MTG FL mean?

Anyone managed to improve their writing as an adult?

Bumperlicious yes I have.

My handwriting was very childish when I was younger, just printed words, think comic sans, and over the years I have trained myself to write ina more mature style, cursive if need be. But I can write either neatly, or really messily, if I wnt to, and can change the slant too, which makes a difference to how it looks.

It is generally neat and legible though, unless I'm only eriting for my own benifit, like lists ans things.

The moere I concentrate and focus on wiritng neatly, the neater it turns out.

I think if one doesn't write regularly - and lots of people don't post school/college - then the muscles used for writing weaken.

My writing's extremely neat but I write a lot- letters, stories, my book, lists etc. Not sure if there's a connection.

I have always had very boringly neat handwriting - the sort of Marion Richardson roundhand we were taught at school. Legible but juvenile. What changed it - by accident - was doing an evening course in calligraphy, at a time when I had hopes of designing and making my own cards. Some of the things we were taught, like the slope of the letters, just stuck and now my handwriting looks much better.

Could you do an evening course in calligraphy? Because it demands concentration it's a good escape from the daily grind. There are calligraphy manuals which you might be able to get from the library and probably books aimed at teaching handwriting to children which might cover the basics.

it's just practice

I had to consciously change my handwriting at 15 when it became apparent that there were marks available for handwriting in the Eng Lang exams - up till then I'd barely joined up and my letter formations were awkward and clumsy.
My (brilliant) music teacher forced me to join up my letters the same way she'd been taught as a girl, and as a result my writing began to 'flow' much better, and got faster without losing legibility.

I've now evolved a slightly more casual style but I can still do the nice italic thing if I need to.
Sadly DH is severely dyslexic and has real trouble reading it, so I have developed a further style and shopping lists etc chez Badger are done in print.

My handwriting is awful and always has been. I have to really concentrate to make it legible when doing cards ect. I think it might be to do with the fact that I am a bit dyslexic. I could never even write a foolscap page in school and when I did it was illegible. The funny thing is that now I earn my living from writing. As soon as I learned to type I was freed from the misery of handwriting. I wonder if I had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child (it was the dark ages) would I have had specific help and had an easier time in education?

I can do any style of writing i like, i think i have a gift in fact, i can copy anyones writing i see..perfectly!

(not that i do-of course!)

DP describes my writing as that of a "typical arty-farty person" .

Its legible and flows well but not in a neat, traditional (or, dare I say, anal) way IYSWIM.

I also do my a's like they are here on the screen, and in most print typefaces, not the way you're generally taught( ie.like an o with a small tail)

probably, Carmenere
DH was diagnosed at about 8, pulled from mainstream state ed at 15 and supported terrifcally through to A-level. University was a different matter but supplied a laptop, a scribe in exams etc.

Interestingly, I always thought his handwriting was shocking because of the dyslexia, but his sister and his father (neither dyslexic) both have a similarly awkward, hard-to-read unjoined style.

Fairies what a great talent!

Betty - me too. As child I did have a tendancy to pick up on other people's idiosyncracies and copy them. a's and also I write 4's as they appear on the screen. And for a while I used to do an inverted loop in my y's and g's.

Can illegible writing, and generally not being able to write properly (making mistakes) be a sign of dyslexia?

A discrepancy between academic achievement and real-life performance in practical problem-solving and verbal skills

· taking ages to read a book and understand it

· missing off endings of words in reading and spelling

· poor presentation of written work, poor spelling and punctuation

· not being able to think what to write

· reluctance to write things down

· confusing telephone messages

· difficulty with note-taking

· difficulty in following what others are saying

· difficulty with sequences

· reversing figures or letters or leaving words out

· problems with time-management

· trouble with remembering tables

· difficulty with mental arithmetic

I was just looking at these identifiers for dyslexia and one that stuck out for me was confusing phone messages, I'm very bad at leaving phone messages, but I always put it down to speaking before thinking, but one think I have always been really bad at is taking phone messages. Someone will tell me their name and I either don't hear it properly or immediately forget it and have to ask again. I also don't read things properly, and miss things. Or there are words that I have only ever come across on paper, and despite reading them regularly I come to say them out loud and can't, especially names. I also invert numbers a lot when I say them out loud (regularly when I used to work in a shop)I always thought it was because I read, write and speak very quickly.

I'm sure that's all it is for me, but I had never before considered dyslexia because I performed very well at school and uni.

My handwriting can be atrocious but can be far better - I've passed nine exams over the last three year so clearly a number of people HAVE been able to read my writing. I can write legibly and fast, I just find it a major physical effort to do so, so normally don't bother. I do find it much easier to keep my upright handwriting style legible than my slanted style (I have another style, which stems from teenage girl bubble handwriting, and that's the worst of all, it deteriorates into a flat line after a while). Both the upright and slanted style look like decent handwriting, they're just not very legible. DH's on the other hand, looks like the proverbial beered-up spider, but is almost always perfectly legible.

My handwriting varies but it can be beautiful when needs to - studied calligraphy

I like the idea of a calligraphy course

Put it this way, I should have been a GP.

Sheik- always say this about DS - if doctors qualified on their handwriting he'd be a neuro-surgeon! A spider escaping out at inkwell would be neater

DP loves my writing, but I did spend a lot of time making it be how I wanted it when at school.
I saw a friends writing which I liked, so copied her.
I write quite a lot though.

If I'm in a hurry then it looks like a drunk spider dipped in ink just rolled across the page. Otherwise I try and take care to keep it neat.

It is something I have tried to instill with dts, that good penmanship will get you noticed, or at least understood!

very good - but being a teacher - one needed to be legible on the black/white board. Doing lots of writing helped.

Now however trying to help dd1 learn to write and they have changed the script they use to teach children to write and I am finding it really hard.