There is Nothing Wrong with My Handwriting,
They Just Need to Pay Someone Who Can Read It
— Philip Hensher, THE MISSING INK
One might make the same statement about my typewriting.
This book was picked up at the library today. It is about “the lost art of handwriting.” When the author realized that he did not know his best friend’s handwriting something was missing. There are images of handwriting throughout the book. From sloppy scribbling through the neat business script and on to very nice calligraphy.
I realize that given three samples of handwriting I would be hard-pressed to identify the one from my wife. Fortunately, I would be able to identify my own. But that is it. Well, perhaps that of my mother. She writes beautifully, in cursive of course. My dad printed. My handwriting is a mix of the two forms of writing. I1 have read that is a no-no in such things. Choose one and stick to it. I am working on that.
Do you write? By hand? We have taken to typewriters. We are confident that people can read it. Provided our spelling is not too bad (payed? what was I thinking?) or filled with xxxed out passages. Yes, we can read it. (and yay! for us) But handwriting, the real question is “can you read your own handwriting a month later? a year later? That, I feel, I fear is a much tougher question to answer. Did you mean to have what you wrote to be read later? I know some, perhaps a lot of it, cannot be read by myself. Who knows if I had written something that would trigger a thought that would lead to my having better, “better”, thoughts. Something worth sharing. Something I want to write out in a fashion for others to read.
It is time to work on handwriting. Again.
— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k