reading cursive

October 18, 2009

Re:

Other things that let Italic gain faster speed for equally legible writing:

/1/ In conventional cursive, such joins as "sc" or "pa" or "qu" or "gl" consist of multiply-curved lines -- in Italic, instead of producing curved motions on paper to join these letters, you can (and often must) produce straight-line motions in the air. The straight line (the shortest distance between two points) saves so much time in the movement between letters that the time saved actually exceeds the time used in having the pen slightly leave the paper during this movement.

/2/ (a biggie) -- In conventional cursive, every time you write the letters "t/i/j/x" you must wait until the end of the word to finish the letter (by adding the needed dot or cross-bar), which means that you have to backtrack all the way leftward to the letter you need to finish, then place the dot/crossbar (and most writers need to slow down, for this purpose, if they wish to ensure that the dot or crossbar goes onto the correct letter instead of landing on some other letter), and then you must reverse your course again in order to move forward once more to the end of the word so that you can then -- only then -- begin the next work.
In Italic, though, when you write a "t/x/j" you normally make (and when you write the letter "i" you CAN make) the dot or crossbar without waiting for the end of the word and back-tracking: lift your pen, add the dot or crossbar (adding it immediately makes sure that the dot or crossbar stays on the correct letter), then proceed with the rest of the word ... and when you reach the end of the word, in Italic you HAVE ended the word (no need for backtracking!) and you can just go right on to the next word.

Why do you go out of your way to criticize cursive? The fact is, you are constantly starting and stopping with italic: a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, m, n, p, q, r, t, u, v, w, x, y all require multiple movements if done rigorously. The letters b, e, g, p, s, x in particular have the pen moving away from the direction of writing flow to finish the letter. A combination such as 'th' takes 4 movements compared to 2 in cursive. Depending on the particular style of italic, capital letters can take up to 6 strokes to complete, even in simple forms, some take 4. Actually, I am not even counting the movements to pick up and put down the pen and movement to the next stroke position. If I did a letter such as 'M' wouldn't be 4 movements, but 14.

Let's look at some examples you've given: 'sc' or 'pa' or 'qu' or 'gl'

With 'sc,' 'pa,' and 'gl' the first letter is completed with the pen moving away from the writing flow. 'sc and 'gl' are the worst because of the diagonal distance you must move to begin the formation of the next letter.(And quite frankly, this is no different than cursive, except the pen in not on the paper.) 'pa' and 'qu' take 4 strokes to complete as compared to 1 for cursive.

I also find it to be irrelevant to criticize the idea of finishing a letter at the time of formation as opposed to the end of a word. Actually, there are times this is beneficial. For example: the word attitude. With italic, you've stopped three times to cross each 't'. With cursive, I can do all three at once, saving two movements.

So, I've shown how anyone can pick apart any style of handwriting should they so choose.

Both styles of handwriting are important, but to put down cursive simply because you are a hard-core advocate of italic writing is non-productive in my opinion. If you prefer one over the other, that's fine. But it is disingenuous to make one seem superior to another, when in fact, I've shown it just isn't true.

-Bruce

October 18, 2009

Not being an educator by profession, I'm not current on the teaching side of this debate.

Cursive is easier to write (once you learn the technique) and takes a little more focus to read than printed English. As long as people need to hand write a lot, cursive will be widely used. People will naturally avoid learning what they don't absolutely have to know and our schools are must less demanding and insistent on absorption of knowledge than they were a couple of generations ago. Many American kids now graduate who can neither write or read cursive. Many of the same kids cannot subtract, multiply and divide without a calculator.

The gradual phasing out of cursive has more to do with the proliferation of computers and the age of instant texting, messaging, & email than anything else. When we can efficiently speak to our computers and have that translate into verbal & printed communications, people will lose the ability to type as well.

October 22, 2009

In the poll, I was conflicted about how to answer the question about what style of cursive I can read. My initial response would have been "I can read all styles" - but then I remembered the dickens of a time I have with Kurrentschrift and Sütterlin and chose "I can read some styles". Never mind that I don't read much German and that knowing the language is half the battle when deciphering a lot of the handwriting in styles I do understand.