question for you southpaws

[Skittles]

do you curve your hand this much when you write? I've only noticed southpaws doing this. An ex-boyfriend claimed it was from having to learn to write left-handed on a right-handed desk. What sayeth y'all?

[Suich]

1. In the "old days,"

we did that so we wouldn't smear the ink from the fountain pens we were using!

[petronius]

2. I do, but as I recall I learned to write on mostly big square desks (the kind

with the fold-up lid and the separate chair). I don't recall encountering the smaller desks or the swing-up-table amphitheater seating until college - and the illegibility of my penmanship was firmly developed by then.

I suspect it's not the desks, it's because it would be difficult to 'push' the pen when writing left to right...

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I do not curve the hand

and yes, I got lots of ink on it.

Happily, we now have puters and email.

[onehandle]

4. Satan! nt

[Demoiselle]

5. Nope, I don't curve my hand at all.

I remember being surprised when I realized that other lefties often do. It was never an issue ….or at least I don't remember if it was...

[RebelOne]

6. Southpaw here. I have never curved my hand.

And when I went to school all the desks were for right-handers. The only time I had to curve my hand was when writing on a spiral notebook. Why is it taken for granted that everyone is right-handed?

[Arkansas Granny]

7. Being left handed was discouraged when I was in school.

It was considered "wrong". The word sinister means of the left or left handed.

[RebelOne]

25. Yes, same thing when I was in school,

but teachers could not change my left-handedness.

[Skittles]

8. that left-handed ex of mine taught my southpaw autistic brother how to tie his shoes

we were all, of course, teaching him all wrong

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

24. One of my childhood memories

is of my mother trying to teach me to tie my shoes. She literally said "Aha!" and smiling at me said, 'I realize now what I've been showing you is backwards, for you. No wonder you weren't learning" She figured out that showing me as a left hander would make it easier for me, a left hander, to learn. She was right!

[mcar]

29. I couldn't teach my sons how to tie their shoes

For that reason. I tried the backward thing and it just didn't work. My husband had to teach them.

[Skittles]

31. lol, she was more diplomatic than my ex

if I recall right he said, "What are you all.......stupid?" We thought he wasn't learning because he was autistic.

[RebelOne]

41. I still have problems tying bows or shoelaces.

No one taught me when I was a kid and I learned on my own which was backwards and I still do it that way.

[murielm99]

42. I figured out that I had to teach my lefty son

by doing it backwards for me. But I have a lefty brother, so it was easy enough to figure out. Teaching him to bat a baseball was much the same. But I do remember going to speak with his Little League coach about how I had done it. He was nice about it, and found it useful.

I do a lot of things with my left hand anyway. Maybe it comes from learning to play the cello at an early age.

[blogslut]

9. It's an ink-stain thing but it's also a cursive thing.

Proper cursive inclines to the right and it's cramp-inducing for a lefty to write that way. In 1960's penmanship, vertical or 'back-handed' cursive was forbidden. There were two ways to deal with it: Curl the hand over the top of the line or turn the paper diagonally.

[magical thyme]

14. I was a rebel and wrote vertically

but curve my hand specifically to avoid the smudging.

[blogslut]

15. I complied merely to pass the course

I think, with me, penmanship was mostly taught in second/third grade. That's when I adopted the diagonal paper thing. After third grade, my handwriting techniques went all over the place, back-hand, vertical, print only...

As an adult, I write in a mish-mash of print/cursive that's mostly vertical with a wee lean to the right for my signature.

[riderinthestorm]

10. I'm not a southpaw (had it beat outta me by my mother) but my two daughters are

They both curl their arms that way when they write. They're 26 and 17...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. No, I don't. A lot of lefties do, though.

I always had a left-handed desk in school if that has anything to do with, maybe.

[LumosMaxima]

12. I don't. nt

[magical thyme]

13. yes, I curve my hand, but it's not due to right-handed desk but writing left to write

drags your hand over the writing, so you curve your hand to keep it from smudging the ink or pencil. If we wrote right to left, it would be the righties having to curve their hands.

[Skittles]

16. OK I tried writing backwards

with my right hand, going to the left (using block letters) and I don't touch the writing at all - I will say however that when I curve my hand it does seem easier on my wrist - a more natural positon

[davidpdx]

17. Proud lefty here

I don't curve my hand.

[Munificence]

19. I am a lefty

and I bend my wrist like this.

Outside of spirals, ink smears and right handed desk complicating the problem I think it boils down to the fact that we are "pushing a pen" across the paper to write where right-handed folks get to "pull the pen". If you are pushing something in your finger tips and requiring detail (like writing) then you need to "cup" your wrist to add stability for accuracy.

If you are pulling something with your fingers then it "flows" easier by not having a cupped hand.

[Skittles]

20. wow

that does make sense

and "bend your wrist" does seem more accurate than "curve your hand"

[KatyaR]

27. EXACTLY!!!

My mom taught me to write. I don't do the curl thing, thank goodness, I think that would be really painful after a while. I also can write beautifully perfect cursive backwards. I used to take notes like that when I was in college and then go back and rewrite them the "right" way. I had clearer notes and it reinforced my learning as well.

Long live lefties!!!

[trixicopper]

21. I'm extremely left handed

When we were taught cursive writing we learned to tilt the paper. To the left for righties and to the right for lefties. I don't write backhanded, but I do always wind up with ink on my little finger.

I did have a teacher in elementary school who tried to make me use my right hand. Until my mother heard about it and told her to leave me alone. Thanks mom!

[Skittles]

22. kudos to your mom

my mum did the same with my autistic brother - said if he wanted to write with his left hand then bloody well let him

[DFW]

23. Bill Clinton didn't curve his hand nearly as much as Obama does

But, then, Bill Clinton's handwriting is nearly illegible, too!

[Skittles]

30. I have a theory about crappy handwriting

Last edited Thu Feb 27, 2014, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)

we write badly because we think faster than we write

here's a pic of Clinton signing:

[DFW]

32. I was there when he autographed something

But he asked I give it back to him, so I did. I do have a handwritten note from him that he wrote me after he left office. When it came, it took me about half an hour to decipher. I thought he had written it in Urdu at first.

[Enrique]

26. i'm a fellow "hooker"

i'm not sure why we do it that way

[Skittles]

39. HOOKER

[mcar]

28. I don't

But most of the other lefties I know do. I don't know why I don't. I sure get tired of smearing ink all over the page, though.

[myrna minx]

33. I'm a lefty and I don't hook my hand, but my hand is always covered in ink.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. No, I'm a southpaw and never curved my wrist to write

Right-handers were taught to slant the paper with the right-hand corner up, and left-handers were taught to write with the left-hand corner up.

When I arrived in college and encountered those chairs with writing arms for the first time, I solved the problem by sitting next to an empty chair and using THAT arm as a writing surface. Nowadays, I notice, they have a few left-handed chairs in most classrooms.

By the way, the only things I do left-handed are writing, eating, and using a needle and thread. I'm not SO strongly left-handed that I need to tie my shoes or knit "backwards" or buy a left-handed scissors.

Left-handed supposedly occurs in a constellation with musical ability, language ability, allergies, and math. I was cheated out of the math.

[lunatica]

35. My mother was from North Carolina

She wrote the same way right handed people write without curving her hand. Maybe the desks in her school were not the same shape as the modern desks are. She would have learned to write 80 years ago.

[Orrex]

36. Being a southpaw and therefore inherently diabolical, I don't write at all

I simply voice my will and the words are scribed on the page by wisps of unholy fire.

[Skittles]

37. I GIVE AMBIDEXDTROUS ASS KICKINGS

YES INDEED

[LibertyLover]

38. Yeah, I curve my hand that much -

and yes, in part it was right handed desks, although lack of proper instruction when learning cursive writing also played into it. It's also to keep from smearing the ink. I will say that when I was doing Middle Egyptian in university, being left-handed was an advantage when we had to write hieroglyphics from right to left. For once it was all the rightees in the class who were smearing ink on their hands and not me.

[GreenEyedLefty]

40. No, I do not.

I write like Bill Clinton, except my writing is legible.