396 - Goodbye–fair-hand

Tim Bray writes about the decline of his handwriting. I noticed this happening to my own handwriting. When I started making notes for my exams this year, my scribbles seemed far less legible than I remebered. My first exam was shockingly badly written; in fact, I conciously made an effort to improve for the sake of the markers in later exams!

Maybe I should practice some writing each day to get my hand back into the habit, similar to how children practice their writing. It seems a little silly, but perhaps required. It would be rather sad if my writing were to suffer a shoddy fate; especially when it used to be reasonable, or, at least, legible.

I agree with Tim, in a way: for writing large amounts a computer offers many advantages; not least the backspace key. For note taking, I still find the old pen and paper approach works best. For this reason alone, the decent into illegibility must be stopped!