As a resolution for next year, I want to improve my penmanship. Here’s my writing style as of today for this exercise:

I’d like my handwriting to be genuinely cursive. Somehow, over the years, it has evolved into a hybrid between cursive, some print, and some illegible.

As a side note, I’d like to thank Travelling Life for sharing this entry which is very inspirational for this goal and truly captures its essence. I hope she someday returns to 43T. For now, I’m glad she didn’t delete her profile and left us not only this entry but all her writing for us to enjoy and be inspired. 3 years ago

A couple of years back, this was one of the many goals I wanted to do here in 43T. I happened to stumble upon it today, and I decided to do it as a pre-goal for improving my penmanship.

The original entry with the proposal for the goal appears to be deleted —most likely along with the entire profile of the original poster. Anyway, I remember he/she mentioned that “Clarissa” is one of the longest novels of the English language, and also posted the text to reproduce in our own writing. Since it’s no longer available in that deleted entry, I dug in my Stickies, and, sure thing, there it was —after finding this, now I’m afraid I’ll find rats in there, too! lol

Here’s the text:

To Mr. JAMES HARLOWE.
Friday Morning.
SIR,
If, notwithstanding your prohibition, I should be silent, on occasion of your last, you would, perhaps, conclude, that I was consenting to go to my uncle Antony’s upon the condition you mention. My Father must do as he pleases with his child. He may turn me out of his doors, if he thinks fit, or give you leave to do it; but (loth as I am to say it) I should think it very hard to be carried by force to any-body’s house, when I have one of my own to go to.

Being English my second language, I had to read and reread the excerpt, plus write a couple drafts, and I’m still not sure I totally get what it says. The original printed version on Google Books is even harder to read, where the “s” looks more like an “f”. Here it is in case the link is not available:

If you’d also like to share your handwriting, join in! 3 years ago

but I did get to practice some writing and use my fountain pen. 5 years ago

When I read the text, I decided that she sounded annoyed and defensive, so I wrote quite quickly. 5 years ago

that this isn’t just another procrastination method.

:-)

Now, should I write fairly neatly, or should I write the way I do for my class notes?

I guess as it’s a letter, I should write it as if I were writing a letter to someone, that is – relatively neatly, but not painstakingly. 5 years ago

I have several styles, sometimes I’ll write bigger, taller, looser; here’s the smaller efficient version—as if I’m writing in my notepad that I carry around everywhere. 5 years ago

I did go to this site for handwriting analysis, insults, and seduction by a 2-D pseudo-scientist. Surely that counts for something. 5 years ago

I hope this is legible. 6 years ago

Here is my handwriting in its current incarnation. I mostly write in small caps these days though the occasional break into traditional printing has been known to occur. I barely remember cursive anymore. I hope you cannot tell too much about a person from their handwriting as this is not much of a statement in my favor.

Most of my notebooks are this kind of graph paper. If I write without lines, my text wanders up and down the page with little rhyme or reason. Also, I like to draw graphs and work math problems so the graph paper can be useful. It even helps when I do Japanese puzzles like sudoku or kakuro. So, consider it a useful affectation and you won’t be too far off the mark. 6 years ago

My handwriting has now been preserved in the annals of history with the recitation of Richardson’s “Clarissa”.

There are so many goals and sentiments on 43 Things that express some measure of disappointment that the beauty of the pen has been superceded by the expedience of the digital age. The expressions of our age which were once contained in leather bound journals, handwritten letters and scribed manuscripts are now uploaded onto the internet in microsecond speed and saved into html text onto large capacity hard drives. We have exonerated effiency and convenience but in doing so, have evidently lost some of the enjoyment and characteristic qualities of writing and penmanship.

This goal served as a prudent reminder to never overlook the intrinsic qualities and expressions that characterise us as individuals. 6 years ago

Marmotry’s handwriting, I wanted to join in! I’ve written out the designated chunk of Clarissa to share with the world. Enjoy :) 6 years ago

Phillip Dormer Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield wrote a letter to his son reflecting on the ‘Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World.’ In this epistle he placed a high regard on the importance of high penmanship by writing, ‘A man’s penmanship is an unfailing index of his character, moral and mental, and a criterion by which to judge his peculiarities of taste and sentiments.’

Perhaps this estimation of Phillip Dormers’ is a little overly embellished, however I believe the core of what he assert is correct – that our styles of writing and penmanship do reflect greatly on who we are as unique self-expressed individuals. When we have opportunity to view a manuscript or ancient writing of elegant text, we often find ourselves more captured by the eloquence of the penmanship than the writings themselves. Why? Because the style evokes imagery where words cannot, it expresses another dimension of the writer that cannot be described in even the most eloquent of prose.

I found myself gravitated towards this goal simply because it gives each individual an opportunity to express themselves in a way that cannot be conveyed through the digitilization of our modern technological age. It preserves a small part of ourselves that may one day no longer exist. 6 years ago

I’m going to spend my time in the studio tonight writing letters from the new character I’m developing to his ex-girlfriend. He seems the sort that would write letters to his ex in an attempt to expunge her from his memory. I think his writing would be all caps and fairly readable, with a very slight slant to the right and each word roughly the same height. His lines wouldn’t be entirely straight and the spacing between words would be even and moderate. He’d always write in black and the lines of each letter would be fairly thick. He doesn’t like ballpoint pens and the writing is fairly angular, though the right downstroke on his Hs and the leg of his Rs add a little curve.

I can see his printing so clearly. What an interesting way to approach a character. 6 years ago

I have to do it too. I wasn’t going to {my hands have been hurting pretty bad lately, writing is difficult: enough said}

But, I did it anyway, let me point out something…

Look where I used the white out {was not about to rewrite all this, nope}.
I have a tendency to use all the paper {I’m made fun of for this, have been most of my life} I see no borders or margins just more space to fill with words and information. So I kinda ran out of room there. You can see how I tried to be all marginal on one side {took all my will power}...

Yes, I write my F’s back ward. I have since I was a child and it actually hurts my brain to write it the proper way. You will never see it like that. Okay I have showed and told.

Next maybe handwriting, cursive. 6 years ago

Don’t blame ME…Catholic boarding school for my primary years.

Blame the Penguins… 6 years ago

My writing varies quite a bit, but this is quite typical. 6 years ago

There it is. 6 years ago

I was forced to clean out my camera before I photoed this . . . the memory was full. :/ 6 years ago

I’ve enjoyed looking at everyone’s penmanship! : ) Here’s mine… 6 years ago

I felt as if I should dig out my quill, inkwell and parchment for this little excersize, but owing to the late hour I substituted a common roller ball pen and a sheet of computer paper. I feel so pedestrian…
By the way, the dear gentleman who invited me to this goal has yet to post his own handwriting. Just thought I’d mention it, hint hint. 6 years ago

My handwriting tends to be cursive and print mashed together. (I figured Richardson would’ve used Post-it notes too had they been available to him.) 6 years ago

the first time I’ve written in cursive since grade school, and I liked the look of it. I hadn’t realized cursive was a dying art. I can see myself working on my cursive and reserving print for practical purposes. More and more and more cheers to Marmotry for starting such a fun goal! 6 years ago

all give me grief over my handwriting. it’s been an on-going theme.

i have to say though, it’s not as bad as my dad’s (yet)

the more i use the computer the worse my handwriting becomes.

i don’t know how my lecturers read my exams – i think they make up the marks.

i used a blunt pencil. 6 years ago

with my stupid POS camera. First attempt at downloading to the computer. Also I had to write with a Sharpie—definitely not my preferred implement. 6 years ago

I’m not a huge fan of my handwriting, but unlike a lot of you guys, I do prefer writing cursive to printing. It’s much faster for me. Speaking of printing vs. cursive, I recently read an article about grade schools dropping cursive from their curriculum. 6 years ago

I love seeing everyone’s writing! it’s so intimate, and authentic :)

It made me think of this piece of paper I saved, and if you’ll indulge me, I’ll share it with you, because it makes me laugh.

This is roughly when I started suspecting my preceptor is crazy, when she did this to a sheet of paper in an “attempt” to describe to me how cardioversion works. (can you feel the annoyance on her part?)

Cardioversion is an attempt to pace an erratic heartbeat by finding the R wave (this drawing has absolutely
. . .N o t h i n g. . .
about it remotely similar to or resembling cardioversion) so she was litterally sort of stabbing at the paper, and slashing it…I was afraid for my life a little, and have to tell you I took a half step back from her.

It creeps me out to look at it now. 6 years ago

Phone cam quality image.
Kindergartner quality penmanship. 6 years ago

I haven’t wrote in cursive since high school (I would be afraid to see what that looks like) so I print. (If I did this again I wouldn’t leave a blank space between the first and second lines. I don’t like the space, it bothers me.) This was fun! I like looking at everyone’s chicken scratch. 6 years ago

Thank you so much for this goal! I’m having great fun looking at people’s handwriting. I’m attaching a pic of my non-dominant (in my case, the left) handwriting, which just goes to show that I need more to do at work. 6 years ago