Do you like your handwriting?
Posted by TechnicalTrash95@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 46 comments
If not why is it so bad and did you not put enough effort into it when you were at school.
Posted by TechnicalTrash95@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 46 comments
If not why is it so bad and did you not put enough effort into it when you were at school.
F1nut92@reddit
My handwriting is atrocious, regularly gets called Doctor style writing, but alas without the smarts to go alongside it.
Bright_Arm8782@reddit
If I put the effort in I can get it to "bad" otherwise it looks like I've dipped a spider in ink and let it go.
etang77@reddit
No. Mine is like a child’s just more tidy and uniform.
IncreaseInVerbosity@reddit
Mine is really good, I’d place money it’s in the top 5% of UK men for legibility. It does look eerily like my mum’s though.
TwirlipoftheMists@reddit
I started typing a long time ago. I don’t think I even have handwriting anymore.
MysticDolphin@reddit
Hell yeah. I am 30 for context so while I was at school there was some remnants of handwriting being important but it wasn’t pushed as hard as it was back in the day.
BUT both my parents had beautiful handwriting and all through school teachers often commented on it when I handed over a note. I always associated nice handwriting with being a proper adult so I asked my parents to teach me. Mine is not as nice as either of my parents and opportunities to show it off are quite rare but i occasionally get some compliments about it and I’m always volunteered to write notes on cards etc.
Nokturno@reddit
Not particularly. I'm left handed with most everything I do in life, but at elementary school I was forced by teachers to write with my right hand instead.
So now I'm just a bit shit with both and write predominantly in block capitals
Opening_Nose_2347@reddit
I'm 66 so I was educated having to use handwriting, when I was in Uni they would not accept type written work. I stopped writing by hand when I got a computer about 30 years ago; I seriously never write anything ever. I was tempted to see how my writing looks now due to this post but have no pens.
ilikecocktails@reddit
Mines scrawly but they say the harder to read the cleverer you are. I’m jumping on this.
Sea-Cantaloupe-9386@reddit
Mine is a scrawl, but it's 2026 so I only use a pen to sign things...
As for effort, I went to night classes as a kid to improve my writing, didn't help. My hands are XXL and ache pretty quickly squeezing down to hold a pen.
DangerousDisplay7664@reddit
Have you tried an XL pen? I know they made them for people with grip problems but it might be what you need! You using a normal pen is probably like me using a thin shoot of grass to write!
Sea-Cantaloupe-9386@reddit
Yea, and (when I was a kid) I had one with grooves for fingers to sit in. To be fair UniBall aren't too bad to use as they offer a bit of resistance vs Bic which slide all over the place. Fountain pens were a little better. Parents spent a small fortune on pens for me as a child.
sleepyprojectionist@reddit
I think that my writing could best be described as functional or mostly legible.
thatlondonerr@reddit
I probably have the worst handwriting known to mankind. Even if I try to write neatly, it still looks really ugly. When I don’t put effort in it’s barely readable.
doraisexploring27@reddit
Sort of. I get a lot of comments on how pretty and old fashioned my handwriting is. But though it’s pretty to look at, it’s not very legible
catmadwoman@reddit
Yes I quite like it. All my relatives know it's mine. Ive never noticed a similar one anytime before. I put it down to learning and using Pitmans for years, the way some letters/words join and some don't. Medium to large and quite 'round' I suppose. My three kids all write similarly though - all went to the same school (80s), slightly slanting almost printlike.
QueefInMyKisser@reddit
Mine is somehow neat but illegible. All the letters are consistent but they’re too consistent as a lot of them are indistinguishable.
Lessarocks@reddit
Yes I like mine. I’m quite arty and spent a long time as a child trying out different styles. It drove my teachers mad because every time they’d turn a page on my jotter, they’d see something different. I finally settled on quite a large curly upright style. Like most people, I don’t get a chance to use it much these days.
MLMSE@reddit
I put a lot of effort into my handwriting once - and the teacher still complained that it was terrible. So after that i haven't even bothered trying to have nice handwriting.
CMDR_Vectura@reddit
Same with me. I thought it was quite clear and readable compared to others, but kept getting told it was terrible. Now I just write in block capitals on the rare times I have to use actual pen and paper.
GuybrushFunkwood@reddit
It’s fine as long as you’re fluent in ‘epileptic spider halfway through a seizure just walked through spilled ink’
Real23Phil@reddit
Mines always been awful, my hands are worse now due to MS, maybe it was the reason, now I can't hold a pen, my precision grip is gone.
WelshBen@reddit
I was once in a handwriting contest at the East of England show when i was 10 years old. It was judged by the Queen Mother who shook my hand and asked me what i'd been doing on the day. I said I'd been playing on the computers and making pottery. Anyhow, i didn't win and more to the point i didn't think my handwriting was much good either.
ClericalRogue@reddit
I can read it. Other people can usually read it. Good enough. Do i like it? Not really 😅 do i care? No.
EvilRobotSteve@reddit
Mine's terrible. It's always been pretty bad. I did try really hard in school, but I was even one of those kids who had one of those triangle handgrip things on the pen to force it into the correct angle, so it never really was something I got on well with.
What's weird is, when I was that age I couldn't write well, but I could draw better than most, mostly using the same pens I'd write with, and I could do things like "balloon writing" no problem.
Now because most of my writing is typed, when I do actually have to handwrite something, it's pretty rare and so if anything it's gotten worse due to lack of practice.
Swimming_Possible_68@reddit
I used to get such grief for my handwriting at school. Down to getting my knuckles wrapped by a teacher because it wasn't very good.
The thing is, it wasn't due to laziness, it's just that my fine motor control isn't great. Never had been, never will be. I've never been diagnosed with anything but when I found about the existence of dyspraxia (as an adult) I always wondered if I had it.
The rise of computers has been an absolute blessing, except for when I do need to write, because now I write so infrequently my handwriting is actually illegible even to me!
StGuthlac2025@reddit
Mine significantly improved when I went back to using a fountain pen rather than cheap biros.
Rhiyxnnxh@reddit
Whenever I see awful handwriting I ask myself the same thing.
Bad handwriters will joke about not being able to read their own writing and proceed to make 0 steps towards improving it. I really do wonder why
But yea, I like my handwriting, it gets complimented often too hehe
LastofAcademe@reddit
Don't mind it. Always get told I have "teacher's handwriting", whatever that means. My dad thinks it's scruffy, though.
lavayuki@reddit
No, I learned cursive and can only write in that, it used to be really neat in school when I was forced to write with fountain pens and we had handwriting competitions for prizes. But now it’s a messy illegible scrawl that most people can’t read.
Thankfully I never have to write anything by hand, have been electronic only since uni days.
Fine_Analyst_4408@reddit
It starts off quite nice but I can only do it for about 30 seconds before my hand is in too much pain to continue. It steadily gets larger and harder to read. People always comment on the way I hold my pen/pencil too but I don't think it's what causes the pain.
barriedalenick@reddit
After a lifetime doing IT for a living and typing virtually all "written" communication, my handwriting looks like an spider took acid and fell in some ink. Nothing to do with what effort I put in at school
PleasantCucumber2615@reddit
My handwriting is awful. It used to be quite neat.
I hardly wrote anything for years and when I went back to actually went back to writing I had forgotten how to do it. 😃
DangerousDisplay7664@reddit
Nope, it's always been really scrawly and messy and I have a hard time reading it.
I have chronic illness and it literally hurts my fingers to hold a pen. The skin will start to feel sore and red and it REALLY hurts if I have to write for a while 😫
ProfPMJ-123@reddit
No, I don't, though I do handwrite a lot, still.
I did put a lot of effort into it, but the reality is I have poor fine motor skills - always have. That has a big negative impact on my handwriting.
Fancy-Professor-7113@reddit
Yes! Though I say so myself I have really nice writing. My friends get me to write things like signs for outside their shops and menus and wedding invitations 😂
A client once got me to write a poem on his office wall that he got someone to go over with a brush and paint (I'm crap at that - pen skills only)
Tall-Reputation-9519@reddit
Mine's awful, I read what I just wrote, think "that's awful", try better the next line down, think "that's a bit better" then write nothing again for two weeks and the process starts again.
WarriorDerp@reddit
Like? No. Care? Also no
WhatWouldMedusaDo@reddit
If I put effort in the yes. I usually just scribble
walnutwithteeth@reddit
Mine was great at school. 20 years of having to type rather than write means it's nowhere near as neat as it was. Shopping lists, greeting cards, and meeting notes are the extent of its usage.
Decent-Cattle-332@reddit
Not the one I use when writing quick notes but if I put effort in then I do like it. I switch between a few different styles and like them all.
GrimQuim@reddit
This feels like OP is a chemist annoyed at the GP.
Proud_Durian6956@reddit
I like it. It pretty bad though
Chopsticks_Charlie@reddit
I can't read mine tbf
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
Haha no mine is atrocious.
But I don't care enough to try and fix it at this stage of my life.
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