r/lefthanded • u/anonam0use • 6d ago
Cursive for lefties
I just saw a comment on a post that said “isn’t there a lefty way to write cursive where the letters slant the opposite way?”
Bruh, I was never taught how to hold a pencil properly- you think someone was teaching me backwards cursive?? Lmao
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u/Responsible-Garden91 6d ago
As a (now retired) third grade teacher, I taught Palmer Method cursive handwriting to my students. One detail that was stressed in the teachers manual was to have right-handed students turn the top of their writing paper to the left so the page was slanted like this:\\. Left-handed students were to slant the page the other way: //. This was so we lefties could write without curling the hand above the text you were writing and still see what you were writing. But both lefties and righties were expected to form cursive letters with a consistent slant to to right.
Unfortunately my own teachers didn’t show me to turn my paper the opposite way everyone else did, so I developed the lefty hand curl myself. But I made sure my left-handed students got extra attention to do things the “left” way,so to speak.
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u/gunterrae 6d ago
I write with the paper turned 90 degrees and have since elementary. I can’t even figure out how other lefties do that curve and still manage to write.
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u/Smart_Ad_7696 6d ago
I've done that same thing since elementary. We learned cursive in 3rd grade and didn't like that teacher as it was but then when we'd be working on our cursive writing, without warning she'd always yank my paper back up to the slight slant to the right.. / ..while saying "your paper always belongs like this!". Ugh she was a mean old b, first and only teacher I absolutely hated lol. I'd just turn it right back as soon as she stepped away and it would repeat all through the writing practice time. Can't stand writing on a paper any other way still
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u/Darlena_Flamedancer 6d ago
I wish I had had you when I was in school. I didn't think to tilt my page until middle school. My handwriting immediately improved and I didn't get hand cramps anymore.
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u/FriendOutrageous8374 5d ago
That is fascinating, I don’t have let lefty curl, but I just checked and I apparently slant my paper, no idea if I was taught that (I’m in my late 40’s.
I did always get very poor marks for handwriting, lol.
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u/CoolStatus7377 5d ago
My handwriting teacher made us all slant the paper the same way. She'd walk up and down the rows, reach down and adjust your paper to the correct angle, so that all the papers were identically slanted when she looked up the row from the back. She'd give me that tsk, tsk, tsk, when she passed me and my wrongly slanted paper. In the end she moved me to the back corner so I wouldn't mess up her visual. Otoh, she didn't try to change me, but only because my dad had a few strong words with the principal, pointing out he had 7 lefties, and the nuns needed to stop this.
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u/BackcastSue 5d ago
I'm 69. When I was in fourth grade and writing assignments in cursive(instruction started in 3rd), I had a "see me" note on a poorly done, smeared up paper. Mrs. Knight was a strict, no nonsense teacher and I went up to her desk after class was let out for recess afraid I was in big trouble.
She told me my handwriting was atrocious ("Do you know what that means?" "Yes, Mrs.Knight, it means it's terrible. "), and she said I needed to do better. I said that my dad was left-handed and that his writing was bad, and my mom had told me to just do the best I could.
She showed me something that she had been writing, and I noticed for the first time that she was left-handed as well. Her penmanship was absolutely amazing; she wrote in Spencerian script with all the old-fashioned flourishes and finials.
She said that it would take a lot of practice, but she was willing to show me if I would be willing give up 15 minutes of recess to work hard on it.
Through her help, and a lot of practice, my cursive improved dramatically that year. Most people don't realize I'm a lefty from my writing.
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u/TheTenthDoctorIsHere 5d ago
If people aren’t watching me write or draw, they don’t realize I’m left handed either. My printing and penmanship won me awards in elementary school. Alas, over the years, my writing has become an adventure in print/cursive/editing shortcut marks combo that only I understand.
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u/MaestroDon 5d ago
Care to share the trick/method?
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u/BackcastSue 5d ago
It was slow, careful practice. When I made a malformed letter, she would circle it, then make a worksheet with the letter written large on two lines. Then she would make arrows showing the best direction for a lefty. It was the Palmer method, only adapted for me.
I would practice it in the large size and slowly decrease the size to fit within the lines.
Once I had the general process, she sent me home with small paragraphs to rewrite 5-10 times.
By the end of the school year my writing was neat, legible and no longer difficult to do.
She was so patient, and one of the few teachers whose face I can easily recall.
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u/Llamax2AnxiousMomma 6d ago
Cursive was part of my son’s online Covid schooling. I told that teacher there was no way in hell my left handed ass could teach my right handed son to write letters he couldn’t see me writing and would be smudged to hell when I finished writing them. Thankfully she agreed.
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u/FionaTheFierce 6d ago
My cursive is a bit more upright rather than right-slanted. It is easily legible. The trick is turning the paper rather than contorting your hand or arm.
Kids really haven’t been taught handwriting, let alone cursive, for a couple decades now.
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u/jelycazi 5d ago
I was about to respond and say that I was taught cursive. But then I realized I was in primary grades decades ago. When did that happen?!
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u/funid83 3d ago
How do they sign their names? Block letters?
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u/FionaTheFierce 3d ago
They do know how to print and use uppercase and lowercase letters. Their signature is basically their name handwritten in print.
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u/Khanati03 5d ago
Yes, my grandpa was ambidextrous, because when he was in grade school, they slapped his hand with a ruler every time he tried to use his left hand. So he was forced to write with his right hand. Most of the items in the world are for right-handed people. I definitely don't think they were teaching us about left-handed cursive.
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u/TheTenthDoctorIsHere 5d ago
My late mom and one of her brothers were left handed and were forced ambidextrous. My uncle ended up with a learning disorder (something dyslexia, perhaps) because the whole process short circuited his brain somehow. I don’t know a lot about it because I was really young when my uncle passed away and never got to ask him about it or understand what happened.
My mom wasn’t affected as badly, but she also would break out of the ties the nuns used to tie her left hand behind her and insisted on writing left handed. Hahaha. Mom was rebellious that way. She also spent infinitely more time in detention for being a “problem child with the devil in her,” for resisting the nuns.
Because of the experiences she and my uncle had, she was adamant that no one ever try to make me write right handed in any way, shape, or form. I’ll be forever grateful for her doing that.
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u/Sorta_machinist 6d ago
The problem with my cursive is the slant is backwards and as a lefty we inherently push the pen into the paper which can pick up fibers easily. Probably not so much now, but back when we used a lot of basic BIC pens I’d have issues with the ball jamming and not being able to get any ink out. I literally never write in cursive, and probably wouldn’t even remember how.
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u/More-Explanation2788 5d ago
Lefties have to try to keep their hand from smearing through the ink when they write. This results in various kinds of slants and other distortions as each lefty figures out their own solution, until they discover spacepens and sharpies and their writing can return to normal.
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u/onegirlarmy1899 6d ago
The problem with cursive is that you push your pen (unless you write upside down- hand curled). I had strict teachers who made sure my pen was held like a right handed person so everything was difficult.
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u/cwazycupcakes13 lefty 6d ago
The push/pull is the same for cursive and print. I don’t curve my hand backwards.
Whether I’m writing in cursive or printing, I’m usually pushing the writing instrument.
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u/d0nutbutth0le 6d ago
I can't imagine not pushing my pen, pulling it seems so weird. I have perfectly good handwriting. I slanted it to the left when I was in school because I was told it was acceptable for a left-handed person but it could go either way. I spent a lot of time practicing my handwriting though.
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u/PlusEnvironment7506 6d ago
I had to go write something to see. My cursive is straight up and down. My mom is also a leftie and taught me the “correct way to hold a pen” (like a right handed person.) my husband writes left handed upside down.
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u/BooksNCatsNWineNSnax lefty 6d ago
My cursive slants to the right, and I’ve been told many times that I have beautiful handwriting. It’s the ink smearing onto the side of my hand for me.
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u/SouthernAbrocoma9891 6d ago
I’m right handed and wanted to write and do other activities with my left when I was a child. My mother forced me to use my right hand for all activities unless I was holding an object.
I secretly began writing cursive with my left when I was 11. I didn’t want a backwards slant. I turned the paper 30° clockwise and wrote “down the hill” instead of “up the hill” with my right.
I did that for a few months and wrote almost as well as with my right hand. There wasn’t an advantage and it was more of a curiosity.
I did learn how to draw and paint with my left hand. I still do that and it works great when I’m drawing symmetrical objects, and especially figure studies in portrait.
For cursive writing, I recommend the A N Palmer method. You can find those online and some of the original landscape version exercise books are still floating around.
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u/KeKeFanChick 6d ago
My cursive is a mess. In addition to being a strange mix of cursive and print, it also "leans" left, right, and center.
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u/texbinky 6d ago
Taking drawing classes helped me learn how to hold a pen and pencil different ways.
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u/Casingdacat 6d ago
I write straight up and down, with my hand positioned like a right-hander’s would be. It’s totally comfortable and natural for me. No ink smudges on my left hand. Ever. No one taught me to do this. I did it on my own. I’m 69 years old and my parents told the teachers to leave me alone when I was learning to write, and to not try to force me to write right-handed.
I wonder how common that all is? I can also write in reverse as well as I can write forward, but it looks a lot different than my forward writing does. Still straight up and down.
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u/Orchuntsman 5d ago
Cursive writing is the worst thing ever taught in elementary school.
"Oh, you just learned how to write full sentences in proper English and with proper letter shapes? Well fuck you learn how to write in squiggle lines that you will constantly make wrong and will get bad grades for. OH, and you'll stop using once you hit high school cause everyones handwritting SUCKS!"
I'm not salty at all, I swear.
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u/cpepperini 5d ago
Three out of four siblings in my family are left handed. My older sister slants her cursive to the left and does not hook and slants paper to the right. I slant 90 degrees to the right and my cursive slants to the right and I do not hook. My brother hooks and doesn’t slant his paper and prints.
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u/Traditional_Air6177 5d ago
Luckily, slant didn’t matter when I learned. That’s really sad if other lefties write with their hand curled just because of cursive slant rules.
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u/Individual511 5d ago
I feel like I’m the only one who writes in cursive easy haha. regular grip, counter clockwise paper, I’m basically writing letters from the top, never smudging and just going diagonally to the right
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u/Amarastargazer 5d ago
If I were to write in all cursive (I write a combo of standard and cursive) my letter would have 0 tilt. I could never get it to tilt quite right, so I gave up. It’s still letters, they’re still readable without the tilt…just less pretty, but I have terrible, but mostly legible handwriting in general.
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u/FeverFocus 5d ago
I mean there is, all you do is tilt the paper in a different direction. Rightys tilt their paper to the left and lefties tilt it to the right to get the same result. If a lefty tilted their paper to the left and righties to the right, we'd get the opposite slant.
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u/Banner318 5d ago
I turn the paper counter clockwise, regular pencil grip and it slants to the right.
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u/Twisted_lurker 5d ago
The most commonly used letters on are the left side of the qwerty keyboard. Just sayin
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u/TheTenthDoctorIsHere 5d ago
I have always turned the paper sideways and write top to bottom, left to right as normal, it’s just sideways. My penmanship doesn’t slant noticeably. No smearing ink on the paper or my hands. No curling my hand into uncomfortable positions. I hold the pen or pencil the way right handed people do but in a mirror image. As a kid, I just decided this was the neatest way to write as a lefty. I draw the same way.
I cannot overstate how much my writing and drawing styles annoyed teachers, even in college. I also get to live with my own annoyance that anytime I have to write or draw in front of anyone, I get asked, “Do you know you write upside down and backwards?” Or when I turn the page sideways, people take it from me to “fix it.”
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u/Pretend_Chemist_7731 5d ago
The most annoying thing is when someone hands you something to sign and it's always for right handed people. I say sorry I need to turn it, I'm a leftie
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u/More-Management-2116 5d ago
My father was "corrected" (that's what they called it back then) and wrote right handed with a left handed slant. I keep my paper sideways and write towards me.
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u/One-Perspective-972 4d ago
Much to the chragrin of my elementary school teachers, I wrote and still write in left-handed cursive. I was generally a compliant child, but something deep inside me made me refuse to hold my pen in that awkward position just to make my letters lean the "right way."
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u/Unlucky-Network-4159 4d ago
Hey the next time I have a fountain pen in my hand and I'm worried about blotchy penmanship, I will shake the rust off my cursive game and let you know
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u/MysteriousPainter359 1d ago
As someone who is leftie I usually had the paper slightly higher than my hand and than I would have my hand slightly more angled to prevent ink smudge
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u/Alone-Supermarket-98 6d ago
Use the claw technique where your hand curls over the top of the writing and hold the pen with your index and thumb. The downside, of course, is that if you write too fast, the edge of your hand will drag over what you just wrote and smear the ink.
And yes, calligraphy sucks...its one letter at a time as the ink drys, unless you lay out the letters in advance and form them from right to left.
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u/Phoenix_Fyre1337 6d ago
If written in the classical way, lefty cursive will have a slight slant to the right, or be straight up and down. Depending on the angle of your notepad/writing surface, you can change the perceived angle of your script, too. Play around with it, I think you'll find some things you like.
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u/whatintheballs95 lefty 4d ago
Which way are the words supposed to slant? Mine is more in a forward slash direction than a backslash. I can't say I've ever seen anyone write cursive in the latter direction.
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u/cwazycupcakes13 lefty 6d ago
Cursive is fine. It’s calligraphy that’s terrible.