Comment by cogman10

Comment by cogman10 3 days ago

5 replies

> not linking the letters together then?

Correct.

> Doesn't that just actually take more effort than just writing cursive? And is slower?

Probably yes to both counts.

However, when I'm handwriting I'm generally not in a position where speed or effort is the most important thing. To me, it's not much more effort to print and I get the added bonus of legibility. When I write cursive, it can be hard for me to understand what I wrote when I come back to it. I'm just a little too sloppy. It would take effort for me to get to the point where my cursive is neat and I frankly just don't handwrite enough to warrant that effort.

Consider this, do you use shorthand? I'd assume not. But why not? It's the fastest way to write anything. Cursive, by comparison, is both a lot of effort to write, is slower, and it wastes space.

I'd say for (some of) the same reasons you likely don't write shorthand, I don't write in cursive.

1718627440 a day ago

I don't get your point of not writing cursive. It is literally the same as what you are already doing, but just stopping raising the hand between letters. It is also not like you have that specific cursive, and then it is unreadable. It is a continuous tradeoff of faster vs. readable, so you can just slow down for some letters and not for others.

The thing that needs effort is learning to write, why did you waste time on learning to not connect your letters?

gambiting 2 days ago

>>Consider this, do you use shorthand?

I have no idea how to write shorthand. I assume you know how to write cursive, so no I don't think the reasons are the same.

  • cogman10 2 days ago

    You could learn it. It would take some effort but it's not insurmountable and it's inarguably superior to cursive in terms of effort to write.

    I can't write legible cursive. To do that would take time, effort, and practice. Much like it'd take that to learn shorthand.

    That's my point. You and I write the way we do because writing in other ways would take more effort than we want to spend.

    • gambiting 2 days ago

      Well, fair. Maybe I should learn shorthand.

      • cogman10 2 days ago

        A part of me wants to learn it as well. It looks so alien that it seems interesting to learn.

        Because of this conversation I've been reading up on it. There are multiple systems, but for English they all pretty much revolve around representing words phonetically. One form (Pittman) uses different line widths for different sounds, making it work best with a pencil or fountain pen. Gregg doesn't do that. Gregg is most common in the US and Pittman is common in the UK.