Handwriting vs. Penmanship

When I was in elementary school, we learned to print in the first grade (I did not go to kindergarten.)  We had large lined papers, like Big Chief Tablets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chief_tablet and pencils that were fat http://www.pencils.com/all-pencils/jumbo. 

I think it was the third grade when we started having penmanship.  It was not handwriting or even cursive, although sometimes it was called cursive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive.  But it was penmanship.  And, my school system used the Palmer Method of Penmanship http://palmermethod.com/. With that, you would think that all of our handwriting would be very similar, but the truth is, that was not the case. We each put our own distinctive style in our handwriting, no matter how much the teacher tried to get us to make letters that looked like the examples in the Palmer books.

As the years progressed, my hand writing has changed some. It actually can change in the course of a few minutes.  A colleague noted that one time when we were in a meeting, that my handwriting got larger and sloppier the more stressed I was.  That day, there was a great deal of noise outside the meeting room, and as the noise continued, my handwriting got worse. When the noise stopped, my handwriting became more what I normally wrote like.  That was not something I cognitively realized about myself, although I did know that when I am stressed, my handwriting changed.

I do not do much handwriting anymore.  Most of the documentation I do at work is on the computer.  So, when I have to hand write something, my handwriting is jerky. Another colleague noted the same thing has happened to his handwriting. My printing is usually better, but very often I will start printing something and it will evolve into a kind of cursive that is not full cursive but is not printing, either.

I recently read a book, The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.  He commented on the writing of "the madman," Dr. William Chester Minor, which was a form of Copperplate.  He had very neat handwriting.  I suspect the presentation of the information he shared was very important to him.  Sometimes, I feel the same about my handwriting, but mostly, I do not even notice it.