Jump to content

Joined up writing


nsr

Recommended Posts

Why do schools teach kids to write joined-up? My son and heir is being taught this right now and it looks awful. Is anyone on P&B a teacher who can give insight into this peculiar practice? I've never liked it and taught myself not to do it when I was 10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, nsr said:

Why do schools teach kids to write joined-up? My son and heir is being taught this right now and it looks awful. Is anyone on P&B a teacher who can give insight into this peculiar practice? I've never liked it and taught myself not to do it when I was 10.

What don't you like about it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

What don't you like about it?

It's barely legible and wasn't even necessary for my generation entering the workplace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, nsr said:

It's barely legible and wasn't even necessary for my generation entering the workplace.

A bit like the 12 x table when I was at the school.

I was taught to write cursive at the school abroad but when I came to Scotland in 78 they were teaching some half arsed version. I was allowed to carry on with it. As already said, it alllows for speedy dictation but that's not really much of an issue now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, nsr said:

It's barely legible and wasn't even necessary for my generation entering the workplace.

The legibility is down to the way someone writes it though, it's not down to joined up writing. Of course it's not necessary for every workplace but speed writing and the like will be useful for some.

Seems like a strange thing to be bothered about, it's not doing any harm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's faster. Unless you can type really quickly it's still faster than typing or any other form of writing. I take minutes of a lot of meetings and there's nothing quicker than writing - plus, it's disruptive to sit there clattering away on a keyboard.

Throughout school kids are going to have to write a lot. There's no way in the near future they're all going to be sitting there with laptops in front of them in class, taking their notes. 

It's also nicer to look at. I don't think I'd like to get a Valentine's card written in small caps.

But schools are still miles behind, typing is an important skill now and they ought to be teaching it. And I'd happily see them spend less time on handwriting and more time on grammar and punctuation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are various studies which identify a link between cursive writing and the ability to learn in other areas, such as reading and spelling. Something to do with the way the neurons are trained.   It also helps develop motor skills at an early age and there are indications that notes taken by hand are retained easier than those which are typed. So basically, it makes you smarter. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, GordonS said:

It's faster. Unless you can type really quickly it's still faster than typing or any other form of writing.

I work in IT so that's probably it. Typing > writing quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, nsr said:

Why do schools teach kids to write joined-up? My son and heir is being taught this right now and it looks awful. Is anyone on P&B a teacher who can give insight into this peculiar practice? I've never liked it and taught myself not to do it when I was 10.

Do you not still need it for exams or are you allowed to type these days? It's surely much faster than lifting your pen off the paper every letter. My handwriting has always been poor but it's awful now having typed nearly everything for the last couple of decades.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would have been taught joined up handwriting over a period from 1999-2001, I think. It's much faster than writing out each letter individually. I was taught to do this, and I never understood how people the same age could end up writing without it. Especially so when you get oddballs that write everything in capital letters.

I can type much faster than I can write, and I find that typing makes it easier for me to keep my train of thought and remember the end of the sentence I've thought of. I don't work in IT, or anything with computers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate those stupid memes you get on Facebook of sentences with a few letters upside down or back to front or some other such shite - 93% of people can't read this...if you can you are a genius!!! 

The average person is subjected to thousands of people's individual shite handwriting throughout their lifetime and manages to understand it without being labelled a genius. 

I don't really know where I'm going with this tbh. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The trouble with cursive script can be that folk get sloppier as they get older and don't have a teacher hovering over them. Some of the notes I've seen from elderly folks have been completely impenetrable, and we all know what doctors are notorious for (other than bumping off the elderly).

<<< oddball who writes everything in capital letters

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do people here go to work meetings / lectures / conferences and completely rely on laptops  to annoy the **** out of the speaker with clattering of the keys?

I take notes on paper rather frequently through work and joined-up writing lets me write much faster than I would otherwise (also see post about writing in exams).  In fact, I'd struggle to keep up without it.

It's far, far less niche than a number of subjects that are being taught and there's still plenty of space for it across the board in 2018.  This said, touch typing in addition would arguably make a better life skill but it shouldn't completely take the place of writing imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...