{"id":117,"date":"2002-11-26T23:45:00-05:00","date_gmt":"2002-11-27T07:45:00+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/wordpress\/?p=117"},"modified":"2002-11-26T23:45:00-05:00","modified_gmt":"2002-11-27T07:45:00+00:00","slug":"writing-hand-see-penmanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/blog\/2002\/11\/26\/writing-hand-see-penmanship\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing, Hand: see Penmanship"},"content":{"rendered":"

My writer friend*<\/a><\/sup> and I were recently discussing our personal writing styles, particularly in the context of e-mail, and we discovered that we share the same quirk; as she puts it, my fingers… can’t keep up with my brain<\/q>. This is odd, because we perform the process of writing quite differently: she writes in a very stream-of-consciousness method–quickly, thoughtfully and precisely–whereas I plod along editing and re-editing in what I call stream-of-un<\/em>consciousness. (Not unsurprisingly, she’s a better writer than I am.) When we write, though, whether it’s in a continuous maelstrom or in a short burst of inspiration, we’re both limited by the bottleneck of the act of putting fingers to keys.<\/p>\n\n

I’ve always used this as an excuse for my illegible handwriting–either that or that it’s genetic (my father’s handwriting is also difficult to read). Coincidentally, today Jeanne Thelwell<\/a> pointed out an article in Education Week<\/cite><\/a> that suggests that the effort of the physical act of forming letters can interfere with the writer’s thought process<\/q>. The article is more about helping grade school students to learn language skills, but it struck a chord nevertheless–I find that if I don’t write quickly, and hence illegibly, my mind will dash ahead to other thoughts before I’m done.<\/p>\n\n

*<\/a> Writer friend<\/cite> doesn’t come close to describing her or the odd relationship we’ve formed, any more than skater friend<\/cite>, almost-married friends<\/cite>, runner friend<\/cite>, or magician friend<\/cite> describe the various levels of bond I share with other people, but it’s germane to the topic at hand.<\/p><\/div>

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