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Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

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Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#3
I have notepads where I wrote that sentence. I didn't make the mistake of forgetting that the second animal is a dog. I did forgot to include an "s" in my sentence, though. Somewhat embarrassing when I realized I was writing a sentence to include all letters, but didn't include all letters.

I am still a fan of writing. More, drawing some diagrams, which I am terrible at. It really takes an intuitive sense of understanding space as you are drawing. All too often, I have drawn the boxes, without the space for names inside of them. It is frustrating.

Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#4
I recently started working on fixing my handwriting, which was often so bad that I couldn't even read my own notes. I found an excellent free resource, Handwriting Repair: The Italic Approach http://briem.net/8/2/205.html After going through the beginning worksheets a few times, I've already made a tremendous improvement.

The overwrite with zigzag and trace zigzag approach actually works quite well, even though it seems repetitive at first. But you're learning to change the easy-to-mess-up circular movements that most handwriting uses into oval movements, which can be executed more quickly despite looking more consistently nice.

Something else helpful for me was getting an inexpensive Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen. With this pen I don't need to exert any pressure at all; the use of pressure is something that messes up your handwriting, and of course also leads to hand cramps.

When you first begin to correct your handwriting, you will need to write more slowly. But as your proficiency increases, so will your speed.

Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#6
post #2

Weird, random bolding and italicizing? Spaces on both side of every parenthesis? A space before punctuation... sometimes? This guy's typing sucks too.

I was about to write the same comment. Since you beat me to it, I'll just point out that this guy really should put on a proper shirt.

Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#7
> I am sure the last time I wrote I did it as a novelty. I did it because I was penning down something that held a certain value to me or maybe I just thought that actually writing it down will make me feel more connected to it. Even as I type down the word “writing” the first thought that comes to my mind is actually typing on a keyboard. Whenever I have to write something down I use a KEYBOARD.

This honestly sounds like a humblebrag to me.

Typing on a keyboard is not a drop-in replacement for the act of writing by hand. It has very different effects on the brain and how it engages with what is being written.

If I'm working out difficult problems, in the early stages I much prefer a combination of doodling and handwriting over typing stuff on the computer. It actively engages the mind in a way the keyboard does not. Typing really only works best when the problem solution is already present semi-finished thoughts in my head and just needs to be fixated in external symbols, with a little bit of restructuring along the way.

Basically: I prefer handwriting for thinking, and typing for transcription.

Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#8
So leaving aside the fact that tools for converting your handwriting into a font already exist. The way the Latin alphabet is typeset is really inimical to this. Arabic is a much better match, because the font shaping engines understand that letters have different forms in different parts of a word, and that the strokes need to align. Maybe you could do this with learning pairs and glyph substitutions, but I doubt many people are going to have the patience

Re: Why My Handwriting Sucks: A Typographical Analysis

#9
post #4

I recently started working on fixing my handwriting, which was often so bad that I couldn't even read my own notes. I found an excellent free resource, Handwriting Repair: The Italic Approach http://briem.net/8/2/205.html After going through the beginning worksheets a few times, I've already made a tremendous improvement. The overwrite with zigzag and trace zigzag approach actually works quite well, even though it se…

Thanks, that is a very nice link! I'll give it a try, being a lefty with horrible handwriting.

Do you know if that font is anywhere on-line? The author suggests not focusing on the letters at first, so I was thinking: what if we make a scrambled character generator that creates work-sheets with non-words to trace? This might help with the unlearning process.

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