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The death of handwriting
Guardian Unlimited ^ | Feb 14, 2006 | Stuart Jeffries r

Posted on 02/14/2006 2:45:26 AM PST by Marius3188

We spend our working days tapping into computers. We communicate with each other via email rather than letter. And today, as chip and pin technology becomes compulsory on the high street, even our signatures have become obsolete. Could it really all be over for handwriting? Stuart Jeffries reports

Patrick McGoohan's words are becoming less and less true as technology extends its cheerless remit. "I am not a number," he declared in The Prisoner, "I am a free man." But increasingly we are numbers - digitised and quantified, rewritten as algorithms and asked for our personal codes to confirm who we are before call centre workers will deign to bandy words with us. As if to prove the point, from this morning anyone with a chip and pin card will be obliged to use their pin number and not their signature when making a purchase. It seems odd that the powers-that-be have used Valentine's Day as the deadline for their unromantic automatisation project. Who, after all, writes poetry about pin cards? Let's have a go. "Roses are red, violets are blue, my pin number is 3, 5, 4, 2" (It isn't, incidentally. I'm not that daft).

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: computers; handwriting; writing
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Interesting thought.

I must confess that my spelling has gotten worse since using Word. It's my fault for being lazy.

1 posted on 02/14/2006 2:45:28 AM PST by Marius3188
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To: Marius3188

Having had my right index finger's first joint amputated without anesthetic when I was 11 years old, my use of the 'puter is a godsend. I can still communicate!


2 posted on 02/14/2006 2:47:59 AM PST by Shady
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To: Marius3188
In Britain.... [o]nly in the 1930s was the semi-cursive or joined-up style known as round hand developed. Most schools now teach a variant of this.

I wonder what Gilbert and Sullivan, the famed Victorian era British operetta writers, were talking about in the song "When I Was A Lad" in H. M. S. Pinafore, penned in the late 1800s, when they wrote "... and I copied all the letters in a big round hand."

3 posted on 02/14/2006 2:55:25 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck

My handwriting is so pathetic.....i'm glad i learned to type in highschool....best elective i ever took.


4 posted on 02/14/2006 3:04:31 AM PST by chasio649
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To: Marius3188
Yuppers, handwritting, spelling, lots of other skills are evolving or just going away. OTOH typing skills ARE improving as is conciseness, creativity and perhaps overall communication.

Plus I just wanted to get onto this thread because I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered...

prisoner6

5 posted on 02/14/2006 3:05:05 AM PST by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out)
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To: Marius3188

I always tease the clerks in the store when they capture my signature electronically that we have all that technology and yet they can't make my handwriting any better. They never get it.


6 posted on 02/14/2006 3:06:12 AM PST by Hardastarboard (HEY - Billy Joe! You ARE an American Idiot!)
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To: prisoner6

"He has revolted. Resisted. Fought. Held fast. Maintained. Destroyed resistance.
Overcome coercion. The right to be a person, someone or individual. We applaud his private war, and concede that despite materialistic efforts, he has
survived intact and secure!"


7 posted on 02/14/2006 3:14:21 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: Hardastarboard

My signature has gotten worse since using those machines. It doesn't look anything like my driver's license signature.


8 posted on 02/14/2006 3:15:11 AM PST by beaversmom
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To: prisoner6
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered...
prisoner6

What's  ^   that?

:->

9 posted on 02/14/2006 3:17:18 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Marius3188

My handwriting is so bad it would have to be euthanasia.


10 posted on 02/14/2006 3:26:13 AM PST by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: Marius3188

I print because I can't read my handwriting. Does that count?


11 posted on 02/14/2006 3:30:24 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: Izzy Dunne
Well...I >should< say..."Questions are a burdon to others, answers a prison to ones's self." OR..."A still tongue makes a happy life."

But I won't ...insted I direct you to...
Retroweb

and
6 of 1

Do a little Google and you'll find LOTS of others sites.

BCNU, prisoner6

12 posted on 02/14/2006 3:33:03 AM PST by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out)
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To: Marius3188

agreed

you should see what 18-25 yr olds put on job aps these days.
most here would shake their heads in dismay.

some can barely write their own names.
worse some kids use netspeak on aps.


13 posted on 02/14/2006 3:42:13 AM PST by Casaubon (Internet Research Ninja Masta)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: Marius3188
I, for one, am glad.

I hated trying to decipher someone else's script. My Mom's script is particularly difficult to read.

I had horrible script handwriting myself .

On the other hand, once I learned to draft, and worked in the industry for a few years, had excellent block letters, and it was almost as fast as writing script.

I wrote everything in block draft after that.

I even learned to draft left-handed when I almost chopped off my right arm in a motorcycle accident.

It messed with my brain a bit to have to work with the opposite side, but I got pretty good at it.

As far as spelling goes, I was raised mostly in the pre-computer era, so I rarely have spelling errors, but still spell-check everything.

I wish some of the kids on FR would hit that "Spell" button more often, as it annoys me when I see horrible spelling errors, and denigrates their posts.

15 posted on 02/14/2006 3:46:21 AM PST by benjaminjjones
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To: Casaubon
5\/\/33+!

p|2i50N3|26

16 posted on 02/14/2006 3:53:31 AM PST by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out)
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To: Marius3188
Interesting thought. I must confess that my spelling has gotten worse since using Word. It's my fault for being lazy.

I respetfuly dizagre. Mi Speling haz not ben efected sins uzing the computer. Th computer haz not chanjed my abilitee to rite. Th articl iz veri mizleadin!
17 posted on 02/14/2006 3:56:34 AM PST by Man50D
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To: Marius3188
I do believe that hand writing will become a lost art....just like most kids these days can't tell time on a Non-digital clock.
18 posted on 02/14/2006 4:00:45 AM PST by Navydog
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To: Marius3188

This is just plane ridikulus.


19 posted on 02/14/2006 4:03:25 AM PST by Fintan (Proudly wasting FReepers time since 1998...)
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To: Shady
Having had my right index finger's first joint amputated without anesthetic when I was 11 years old

Yikes! That sucks!

I've had my scrapes, and hopsital stays, but I still have all my pieces-parts attached. Sorry about your loss.

Mine are all (luckily) still attached and still work, well, the right arm is about 95 percent.

Forget about the shoulders, they pop like kernels, but who's counting? At least I can still run like a MF, except when my ankle is broken (like right now).

Always take care of that lower half is my philosophy

Just got back from x-rays and found out my ankle was broken, after 2 weeks of slipping on the ice then walking on it. Stupid me.

20 posted on 02/14/2006 4:07:18 AM PST by benjaminjjones
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