It was kind of funny to me to read about poor handwriting being a sign of poor English skills in Errors and Expectations (Shaughnessy 14-5). I found it funny due to the fact I have been teased about my handwriting for years and I have a B.A. in English. Though I am not saying that I have fantastic English skills. I am usually told my penmanship is horrendous or cute like a third grader's. I am a frequent writer. I write a lot for class and for a creative outlet. I also usually write on paper with my favorite number 2 Ticonderogas. So the use of a computer as opposed to handwriting does not really explain my poor penmanship. Though I think our discussion in class about computer usage now compared to the importance of handwriting during the time of Shaughnessy's book was an important factor to consider.
I found it interesting Shaughnessy put handwriting and punctuation together. Though I love English and am in graduate school, those two fundamentals had always been two of my writing weaknesses. It has made me wonder if my own writing problems have some kind of link as well. One explanation of the connection from Shaugnessy was "Thus matters like handwriting and punctuation and spelling become important, if only because without some measure of ease, without being able to assign some operations to habit, or even to indifference, the novice writer is cut off from thinking (14)." I think one of the differences for me was that I was not self-conscious about it. So helping these students to just write and edit later will help them get their feet off the ground.
Works Cited
Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.
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3 comments:
I don't have the best handwriting either! I've heard that probelms with putting the pen to paper represents a general distaste for writing. Sounds pretty psychoanalytical huh?
I have my BS in English Ed, and I'll tell you that college algebra was by far my toughest class, but that's only because there wasn't a handwriting course required for my degree. I probably couldn't pass third grade with my current penmanship. Cursive? Forget about it. And apropos of the penmanship issue, I offer this scene for Billy Madison:
Billy Madison: Bunt. B-U-N-T, in perfect cursive. Got any more brain busters?
Veronica Vaughn: How about 'Rizzuto'?
[Billy ponders, then writes]
Veronica Vaughn: Rirruto?
Billy Madison: Those're Z's.
Veronica Vaughn: They look like R's to me.
Billy Madison: You're cheating! Rizzuto's not a word! He's a baseball player!
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