So why does everyone have a different style of handwriting?
The teaching of handwriting within the UK National Curriculum has, in recent years, embraced the teaching of the continuous cursive style to students in primary schools. Continuous cursive handwriting is where all the letters, apart from capitals, are joined up. The theory behind it is to promote faster writing and a uniform approach across all abilities. This style of writing requires a level of concentration and coordination which some young children may not possess. Currently, the jury is out on whether this is useful or not.
Teaching the fundamentals in writing has always been the same. The focus is on keeping to the lines and the sizing and spacing of letters. Students have always learned the basics before blossoming into their own individual styles of handwriting. More on how to get the handwriting letter size correct.
When teenagers develop their own style of handwriting.
Teenagers and older students in particular tend to abandon the continuous cursive style and instead put their own personality into their writing. This can be something like looping the lower-case letters or writing a circle instead of a dot. This results in taking longer than the continuous cursive method.
Not only this, but it does sometimes encourage sloppier writing, which can become illegible. Some exasperated teachers, faced with such scribble, are apt to discourage students from developing different styles of handwriting.
What Can Make a Difference in Handwriting Styles?
There are lots of ways in which handwriting can vary; even among students who are taught using the same methods. When individuality comes into play, handwriting styles can vary widely. Some will start to write faster and this will make a vast difference in the appearance of writing.
Tiredness and lack of enthusiasm plays a part too in whether handwriting looks neat or otherwise. When you have, for example, a report or essay to write and you really don’t want to, you may tend to put it off. Then with the deadline looming, you may rush to complete it. Handwriting can be very different in these circumstances.
On the other hand, when writing is done for pleasure, such as writing a greetings card or a letter to a friend, the handwriting will tend to be much neater and easier to read.
Even the choice of pen can make a difference to how handwriting looks. A scratchy ballpoint pen which is continually running out of ink makes you an impatient writer. This makes the handwriting look messy whereas a roller ball pen glides across the paper making writing much less of a chore and much more clearly legible.
Handwriting Styles Create an Impression
A person’s handwriting is often said to be a reflection of their personality. A busy or impatient person’s handwriting can often look messy, illegible or spidery. Doctors are notorious for messy handwriting so could be a perfect example of this. But while chaotic handwriting could indicate the speed at which a person operates. Meticulous and careful handwriting can say something entirely different. Each stroke of the pen and variation in forming letters or punctuating a sentence is indicative of some aspect of personality and this is why handwriting styles are sometimes studied in criminal and legal cases.
Whatever your handwriting looks like now, it’s a reflection of who you are, the situation you’re in and how important the matter you’re writing about is.
Consequently, it isn’t just that everyone’s handwriting is different from each other; their handwriting is also likely to be different now than it was some years ago!
