The Unheard Writing Essay, Research Paper

Ryan Diedrich

Professor Griegel

30 March 2000

The Unheard Writing

One day, in the second grade, the teacher told our class to get out their lined paper and pencils. As I made that first fancy loop, following the example on the board, I was wondering what possible situation I was getting into. Later in the year, I learned that cursive writing was time consuming and very difficult to master. In high school, I found out that we had a choice of cursive or printing. I asked myself why we needed cursive? Why are others putting aside this writing that consumed so much time? What are the pros and cons of cursive? This type of writing is established, and I never thought to evaluate its effectiveness or its need until now.

One such pro is that cursive an established form of writing. In grade school, we learned how to neatly write the cursive alphabet. The reason that so much time was spent on this area of development is because it is seen as professional writing. The teacher wanted to prepare us for the future, and without this ability we would be unable to read or write this type of writing. For example, many professional forms such as taxes, weekly paycheck and legal papers all require a signature.

Adding on to that, your signature is unique to each and ever one of us. In all the people in the world, there is only one signature that is like yours and that is your own. Yes, it is possible to forge a persons signature, but it is highly unlikely to be a precise copy of the original. For instance, most colleges require students to sign their exams. This procedure prevents the acts of cheating. Moreover, banks have convicted many people of forge checks. A unique signature prevented both of these situations. Who would of thought that personal ID?s were this important?

On the other hand, one negative attribute is the fact that cursive is sloppy. It is hard for many of us to read cursive that was quickly written. It was hard for me to write it neatly in school. It was also difficult to read other kids? handwriting because all the letters were smashed together and looked almost the same. Recently, there was a lawsuit involving a doctor and his cursive prescription slip. The patient received the wrong prescription. This mishap happened because the doctor was busy and wrote like a speeding bullet. Since he wrote it fast, it was sloppy and the patient received the wrong prescription.

Despite that fact, cursive is a much quicker way of writing. In this fast-paced world, everyone is looking for the faster way of doing things. Being a college student, professors will not wait on you; they will go at their own pace. Knowing this, I had to come up with some way to write rapidly. I used cursive because I don?t have to take the pen off the paper. Not taking the pen off the paper enables me to write quicker, thus getting most of the lecture notes. Lets take a video store for an example. One has to apply for an application to receive a membership. Knowing there are other people in line and you just want a video, you fill out that membership as fast as you can. You don?t really care if it is neat; speed is the key.

Another positive attribute is cursive is personal and has an aesthetic value. This beautiful witting looks pretty because of all the fancy loops and lines. Besides the beautiful picture it adds to the page, it is deeper. It touches the heart and adds something that is personal. For example, most wedding invitations are written out in cursive. It looks very professional and the receiver feels special for receiving a personalized letter. In general, I would rather receive a letter in cursive then typed or sent through email. I feel that the person took enough time and cared enough to write it out rather then sending it a fast and easy way. Many identifications such as a YMCA membership or a drivers license are in cursive. Remembering the day when I was told to sign on the dotted line, I felt important and I also felt like I had power.

Another point is that technology does not use cursive. All computers, keyboards, and even emails all use some other form of writing. The keys on the keyboards, the words on the screen and the letters that I type to friends and family are not cursive. With typing and computers so readily available, the formal use of cursive writing has become obsolete. Most teachers demand that students in middle school and high school use computers for all the writing that is turned in because computers make writing easy to read. Moreover, Professor Griegel demands that all assignment turned in, are done on a computer. In the business world, everything is done on computer.

In addition, most written news or information that is brought to you is not cursive. Newspapers, magazines, brochures, books, typewriters, and instructions of any kind all feature some other sort of writing. These items could be published in cursive, but that is not what the readers want. In the growing industry of email, cursive is not used. Most computers do have a font that looks like or is similar to cursive writing. However, how many times have you seen this in magazines or any other published print?

To sum it up, cursive writing, as we know it, is starting to phase out. This established writing is mostly used for each and every one of our unique signatures. This sloppy but faster way of writing has an aesthetic value. Many items and technology doesn?t use cursive. Many people now use lab tops and desktops to do online banking and emailing. Many people that learned how to write cursive have no idea how to write it now. This unheard writing is one that has very few uses in today world.