on handwriting

Hi, I recently have received some "complaints" from some friends and
coworkers about my handwriting. It is cursive, and I use F/M nibs (of
course fps). What's going on? My handwriting is not bad; it is not
like that rounded and separated letters some (most) people use though.
A coworker even suggested me to use printing (!!!???)
Do I have to pretend I'm in kindergarden so as my handwriting can be
read or what? Has anyone had similar experiences?

Note: I know that since you haven't seen my handwriting it might seem
hard to have an opinion, but trust me, it is not bad, just cursive
with a fountain pen.

Juan

Specific to your own handwriting, no one here can judge objectively w/o
seeing it first. How about scanning a sample and putting it in the
a.c.p-p.binary NG?

My handwriting is not bad; it is not
like that rounded and separated letters some (most) people use though.

Well, proper rounding and separation are core requirements for
legibility, aren't they? The worse these attributes, the more has to be
assumed from context, and context can provide guidance to a reader only
up to a certain point. I can recall an old postwar Pelikan ad that
contained a writing sample that was absolutely atrocious and illegible
(should've gotten the student held back in first grade), and I can read
and write in German!

My gut feeling is that there is a real problem and that the only unknown
is the degree of seriousness.

Juan wrote:

Hi, I recently have received some "complaints" from some friends and
coworkers about my handwriting. It is cursive, and I use F/M nibs (of
course fps). What's going on? My handwriting is not bad; it is not
like that rounded and separated letters some (most) people use though.
A coworker even suggested me to use printing (!!!???)
Do I have to pretend I'm in kindergarden so as my handwriting can be
read or what? Has anyone had similar experiences?

Note: I know that since you haven't seen my handwriting it might seem
hard to have an opinion, but trust me, it is not bad, just cursive
with a fountain pen.

Juan

Handwriting is a means of communication first and foremost. If
others can't read it, then it fails at its primary function
regardless of whether you can read it yourself or like its
"look." That said, it doesn't mean you have to revert to
printing. Having suffered from the same type of problem,
others found my cursive writing became much more legible when
I slowed down my writing. That alone resulted in more time
spent forming each letter, producing the desired result:
legibility. Whether that works for you or not, it seems some
type of adjustment is needed.

Mark Z.

mz wrote in message ...
Juan wrote:

Hi, I recently have received some "complaints" from some friends and
coworkers about my handwriting. It is cursive, and I use F/M nibs (of
course fps). What's going on? My handwriting is not bad; it is not
like that rounded and separated letters some (most) people use though.
A coworker even suggested me to use printing (!!!???)
Do I have to pretend I'm in kindergarden so as my handwriting can be
read or what? Has anyone had similar experiences?

Note: I know that since you haven't seen my handwriting it might seem
hard to have an opinion, but trust me, it is not bad, just cursive
with a fountain pen.

Juan

Handwriting is a means of communication first and foremost. If
others can't read it, then it fails at its primary function
regardless of whether you can read it yourself or like its
"look." That said, it doesn't mean you have to revert to
printing. Having suffered from the same type of problem,
others found my cursive writing became much more legible when
I slowed down my writing. That alone resulted in more time
spent forming each letter, producing the desired result:
legibility. Whether that works for you or not, it seems some
type of adjustment is needed.

Mark Z.

I've tried to slow down, and it is more legible, but that doesn't seem
to be the problem. I'll try to explain: I haven't had this "problem"
before; rather the opposite: people used to say that I had a nice
handwriting, and it hasn't changed since.
When I use a fp, I use a different angle than when I (rarely) use a
bp, so line width variation appears (I like that). Then there's the
question that even a F nib writes broader than a M bp, so I have to
use bigger letters to make them legible.
The problem seems to be that many people is not familiar with fp
handwriting; at least that's my impression.
As a reference, the handwriting here

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink-02.htm#blue

resembles mine, although my letters are broader.

Any opinions? Juan

"Juan" wrote in message
om...

I've tried to slow down, and it is more legible, but that doesn't seem
to be the problem. I'll try to explain: I haven't had this "problem"
before; rather the opposite: people used to say that I had a nice
handwriting, and it hasn't changed since.
When I use a fp, I use a different angle than when I (rarely) use a
bp, so line width variation appears (I like that). Then there's the
question that even a F nib writes broader than a M bp, so I have to
use bigger letters to make them legible.
The problem seems to be that many people is not familiar with fp
handwriting; at least that's my impression.
As a reference, the handwriting here

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink-02.htm#blue

resembles mine, although my letters are broader.

Any opinions? Juan

Hopefully, the writing on that site looks better in RL than it does on a
computer monitor because, IMO, it's bad enough that I'd refuse to read
anything by anyone who wrote that way. Since your writing is broader, I
might not have such a negative reaction - it's hard to tell w/o actually
seeing it.

I'm curious:

1. When you used to get compliments, was that when you wrote with a bp *and*
with a fp?

2. Why do you change angle when you use a fp? Are you a leftie? What happens
if you don't change angle? Do the complaints cease? I might be dense because
I'm not understanding how people not being familiar w/ fp writing can be the
problem because, to me, writing is writing whether it's pencil, bp, fp,
felt-tip, whatever, and it's either easy to read or else it has varying
degrees of difficulty which progresses until it's illegible. Yes, you might
have to adjust your writing to compensate for the type of line that the
instrument produces or else change the writing instrument, but that's just
part of the drill.

3. If your handwriting hasn't changed since you received compliments, what
did? It seems to me that something must have changed for you to go from
receiving compliments to receiving complaints. That's seems to be a pretty
drastic swing even if the people viewing your writing aren't the same as
before, even if they aren't used to fp's.


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Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Bluesea" wrote in message
...

snip

3. If your handwriting hasn't changed since you received compliments, what
did?

Have you changed ink or paper? Maybe there's more feathering that is making
your writing more difficult for others to read than before.


--
~~Bluesea~~
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Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Bluesea" writes:

Juan wrote:
The problem seems to be that many people is not familiar with fp
handwriting; at least that's my impression. As a reference, the
handwriting here

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink-02.htm#blue

resembles mine, although my letters are broader.

Any opinions? Juan

Hopefully, the writing on that site looks better in RL than it does
on a computer monitor because, IMO, it's bad enough that I'd refuse
to read anything by anyone who wrote that way. Since your writing is
broader, I might not have such a negative reaction - it's hard to
tell w/o actually seeing it.

Hmmm. My handwriting uncomfortably resembles the handwriting on that
Web site. Uh oh. Nobody complains, but then maybe nobody bothers to
read it!

"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
"Bluesea" writes:

Juan wrote:
The problem seems to be that many people is not familiar with fp
handwriting; at least that's my impression. As a reference, the
handwriting here

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink-02.htm#blue

resembles mine, although my letters are broader.

Any opinions? Juan

Hopefully, the writing on that site looks better in RL than it does
on a computer monitor because, IMO, it's bad enough that I'd refuse
to read anything by anyone who wrote that way. Since your writing is
broader, I might not have such a negative reaction - it's hard to
tell w/o actually seeing it.

Hmmm. My handwriting uncomfortably resembles the handwriting on that
Web site. Uh oh. Nobody complains, but then maybe nobody bothers to
read it!

LOL!

You might include "free money [here]" and see how many people show up :P.


--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

Bluesea wrote:
"Juan" wrote in message
om...

The problem seems to be that many people is not familiar with fp
handwriting; at least that's my impression.
As a reference, the handwriting here

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink-02.htm#blue

resembles mine, although my letters are broader.

Any opinions? Juan


Hopefully, the writing on that site looks better in RL than it does on a
computer monitor because, IMO, it's bad enough that I'd refuse to read
anything by anyone who wrote that way. Since your writing is broader, I
might not have such a negative reaction - it's hard to tell w/o actually
seeing it.

I'll side with Juan on this one. OK, the handwriting on the referenced
web page may not go into an exemplar. But heck, in the days before
computers printed everything, that would have been considered highly
legible handwriting. (Unlike mine in those days!)

Perhaps we've raised a generation that can't write longhand, and as a
result can't read longhand.

Pat
--
Apologies to those easily confused. Address is spam-resistant.
Correct email address like pdlamb 'round-about comcast point net.

On Thu, 06 May 2004 19:31:25 -0500, Patrick Lamb
wrote:

[...]

Perhaps we've raised a generation that can't write longhand, and as a
result can't read longhand.

That's certainly true for me. My grandmother writes like that, and I
have a really hard time reading it when she sends me letters.

--
Be seeing you.