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Cursive

Sat, 12/02/2006 - 03:05 — kebernet

This isn't the only thing I have heard about the death of cursive. My boss even mentioned to me that his middle school aged kids are taught to read, but not write in cursive.

I have to admit, I just don't care. However, when I write with pen and paper, I never write in cursive, and it is something significant to me. Maybe or maybe not you know that my dad died when I was very young, but somehow, the block letters that they teach engineers and draftsmen is something that feels like a connection between me and my father. It isn't the cursive, it is the lean of the block letters and the high swoop of the R's.

I detest writing longhand. I am left handed. If I spend more than a few minutes writing on a piece of paper, my left hand ends up covered in graphite or ink. I have typed all of my papers since before typed papers were required for students, because I can type faster than I write and for all my misspelled words, I get a better result. Interestingly, though, while I can compose on a word processor or this text box, if I really care about the results, I have to print it to get a feel for what I am writing. I have run into this over and over with GWTiP over the last couple of months. It doesn't register until it is on paper.

I will drop this now and let Charlie talk about people who use the letter u improperly, though I care less about handwriting, but people who don't know the difference between "then" and "than" make me want to kill someone. Maybe it is because I am from the south, but those aren't even homonyms, how the FUCK can you confuse them?

Comments

Sat, 12/02/2006 - 10:27 — atrox (not verified)

RE: Cursive

Well I would agree about cursive, I am not a typing snob but frankly I was never formally taught to write cursive (somehow missed it when moving every year, one district had already done it, one was planning to do it next, I moved in between, etc). I can do it, but I dont do it, ever, unless signing my name (and that can hardly even be called writing, much less cursive).

As for "then" and "than" and "how are u 2 do it" - those all drive me crazy. Along with good vs well and lately "there's".

The "u" thing depends on the setting, I let it slide in a text message (though its still a bit annoying) - but it drives me crazy in a more public or formal setting (email or a newsgroup).

Good/well and then/than are pretty obvious - and really so is there's. However, nowadays I hear stuff like "there's a lot of good reasons to celebrate", and so on *everywhere*. I even hear this on the radio, television.
Now I admit that some folks say this acceptable in informal use, but I will also admit that those people are wrong. ;)

There's is a CONTRACTION folks, for "there is." "There is" is singular. "There is a lot of good reasons to celebrate." No. They're a lot of good reasons to celebrate.

BTW, "there's" some good podcasts out there - such as Grammar Girl.

Sun, 12/03/2006 - 23:12 — anonymous (not verified)

RE: Cursive

If you enjoy poor grammar, you will like this blog - http://literally.barelyfitz.com/ . It's literally a gas. ;)

Mon, 12/04/2006 - 07:41 — atrox (not verified)

RE: Cursive

That literally site is quite funny. And since I was being picky about other people I should note that I missed the punctuation inside the quote thing on one of my sentences in that previous comment, whoops.

Mon, 12/04/2006 - 10:50 — jeepmutt (not verified)

RE: Cursive

affect and effect are my big ass-chappers lately. And as for the punctuation, I think that might be time for an update or a new concept or something. For example, click on the button that says "OK." There is no button that has the letters and symbols 'O', 'K', and '.' on it. This is just wrong.

Oh, and it is never, ever, ever okay to use "u" instead of "you." (see that is not what I really meant.) And "r" instead of "are." (again) Come on people.

Mon, 12/04/2006 - 10:57 — atrox (not verified)

RE: Cursive

I agree with mutt, and since we are on the subject of new punctuation/grammar rules, I will again mention my apostrophe postulate. In contractions where it is obvious they don't need to be required (as in "dont" instead of "don't"). I know no one else is on board with this on the planet, its only me, but its quicker typing and less escaping/filtering for programmers (though thats pretty automatic nowadays I guess - at one time it wasnt).

Tue, 11/06/2007 - 18:27 — ylwalter

Cursive and Contractions

This is very interesting. I am a mother of a fourth grader and I was 'googling' for the rules about cursive and contractions when I stumbled upon your conversation. To be quite honest, I'm desperate enough to just ask my question on this site since I could not find the answer anywhere else. Does anyone know the rule about contractions when writing in cursive? My daughter had contractions for her spelling words last week and since they are required to write in cursive I told her not to place a space between the letters when writing in cursive. The apostrophe replaces the space so to speak. Well she got an 'F' and the teacher states that there should be a space and therefore my daughter failed. Does anyone know the rule for this? And if possible, where I can find documentation to verify it? I would appreciate any help I could get.
~Upset in Arizona~

Wed, 01/09/2008 - 12:43 — Anonymous (not verified)

cursive and contractions

I'm with you on the rules about connecting letters when writing contractions with cursive. I work in a school, there's four 3rd grades and two of them teach to connect and the other two teach not to. Talk about confusing. I too want to know if there are any official rules.

Mon, 03/17/2008 - 16:00 — Anonymous (not verified)

cursive and contractions

I wondered if you received a reply to your question. I am a second grade teacher and our grade chairman believes the there should not be a space, I believe (adamantly) that there should be a space for the letter that is left out of the word. Please let me know if you received a definite answer from anyone!

Mon, 03/17/2008 - 20:16 — Charlie (not verified)

I don't think there have

I don't think there have been any definitive replies here, because there actually isn't a definitive answer - it's more of a style issue.

First off, cursive is pointless to teach anyway. Kids aren't allowed to use it outside of 3rd or 4th grade or so, in high school and college papers have to be typed. In the real world papers have to be typed. It's really only useful for quick "joined" handwriting (the etymology of cursive indicates it means joined letters), and aesthetically pleasing handwritten prose, so not really worthwhile at all in an academic setting (I can think of a thousand better things to teach kids that age).

Second there really should be no "adamant" stance either way, because both ways are correct (it being a style issue, there is no incorrect/correct). Seems to me it is more logical that there would *not* be a space (it's "joined" writing after all), but whatever the teacher says is actually the "right" way, so tell the kids to pay attention to the guidelines before the test and they will be fine, spaces or not - and, once they get past 4th grade or so they can forget about it forever like the rest of us ;).

Third, just to stoke the flames anyway, after already saying there is no right or wrong way, if you look at the Declaration of Independence, the authors of that document, back in the days when writing did matter, did NOT use spaces in several contractions therein.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/readings/declaration_image.jpg
(...nature's god entitle them . . ., for example)

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