There are two types of lowercase g: the fish hook (like the one used here), and the double loop. Why can we recognise it but not write it? (And as an aside, why is the double looped g used more in books?)

http://time.com/5227714/letter-g-brain-writing-reading/

Divine Angel said:

There are two types of lowercase g: the fish hook (like the one used here), and the double loop. Why can we recognise it but not write it? (And as an aside, why is the double looped g used more in books?)

http://time.com/5227714/letter-g-brain-writing-reading/

Isn’t it just we aren’t taught to write it that way?

And having the hook connecting the two loops on the left just doesn’t make sense for left to right hand writing.

My 5th grade teacher taught us various ‘tricky” letters like this.

Exactly what I was thinking: we aren’t taught to write it that way. It’s easier to write fish hook. Same with lower case a: The circle with straight line is easier to learn.

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Bubblecar said:

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

The Rev Dodgson said:

Bubblecar said:

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

In printed gs I join then them more-less in the middle (but with the letter slanting to the right), removing the pen briefly after doing the upward tick on the upper loop, then doing the joint line and lower loop in one action.

Cursive gs are joined on the right, from the top of the letter, by the downward line that loops in one stroke to form the lower loop.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Bubblecar said:

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

Yes, write it down and then photo it and post the photo because I don’t know WTF a double looped g is.

Peak Warming Man said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Bubblecar said:

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

Yes, write it down and then photo it and post the photo because I don’t know WTF a double looped g is.

Of this general form.

Peak Warming Man said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Bubblecar said:

My handwriting has used the double-looped g for as long as I can remember.

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

Yes, write it down and then photo it and post the photo because I don’t know WTF a double looped g is.

Bubblecar said:

Peak Warming Man said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Connected on the left?

Let’s see a sample!

Yes, write it down and then photo it and post the photo because I don’t know WTF a double looped g is.

Of this general form.

Uh huh.

Writing is a pain, typing is exponentially faster

Cymek said:

Writing is a pain, typing is exponentially faster

With fewer hand cramps.

Divine Angel said:

Cymek said:

Writing is a pain, typing is exponentially faster

With fewer hand cramps.

True, being left handed I always remember ink smudging and often having to write in an awkward hand position so it didn’t wipe over what I had just written. I suppose for every day purposes the easier to write letters make sense

Divine Angel said:

Exactly what I was thinking: we aren’t taught to write it that way. It’s easier to write fish hook. Same with lower case a: The circle with straight line is easier to learn.

But some of us were taught it, even if it was just an exercise in addition to learning Italics and Modified Cursive.
We were also encouraged to use letters in decorative borders for special assignments.

Cymek said:

Writing is a pain, typing is exponentially faster

I love handwriting! In fact I mentioned to mr kii that I want to do more. It’s great exercise for drawing.

The only time I hand write now is my diary. Mini Me likes me to draw and paint but I am really sucky at it.

Divine Angel said:

The only time I hand write now is my diary. Mini Me likes me to draw and paint but I am really sucky at it.

You can probably get away with it will she is young and doesn’t know have crappy you are, I did with my kids and I can’t draw or paint either.

Cymek said:

Divine Angel said:

The only time I hand write now is my diary. Mini Me likes me to draw and paint but I am really sucky at it.

You can probably get away with it will she is young and doesn’t know have crappy you are, I did with my kids and I can’t draw or paint either.

Such sad comments from both of you :(

We all start out creative, but become very self-critical around 7. If we hear sucky things from those around us about our art, then some never try again.

I keep thinking that setting up an adult preschool centre for arts and crafts would be a great thing, but I don’t like adults.

kii said:

Cymek said:

Divine Angel said:

The only time I hand write now is my diary. Mini Me likes me to draw and paint but I am really sucky at it.

You can probably get away with it will she is young and doesn’t know have crappy you are, I did with my kids and I can’t draw or paint either.

Such sad comments from both of you :(

We all start out creative, but become very self-critical around 7. If we hear sucky things from those around us about our art, then some never try again.

I keep thinking that setting up an adult preschool centre for arts and crafts would be a great thing, but I don’t like adults.

My mind is more logical than creative, I have an active imagination but don’t really have artistic talent.

Art is a language I don’t understand.

My mind is more logical than creative, I have an active imagination but don’t really have artistic talent.

An active imagination is still creative.

Divine Angel said:

Art is a language I don’t understand.

Me either. Some of the work I see is way beyond my level of understanding. I did 6mths at art college and found it wanky.

I grew up with the children of the Boyd family, the Blackman kids and others. Artists were everywhere in Paddington back then.

In my family my sisters were considered the artists, I wasn’t. Younger sister could draw humans and horses, and older sister did pottery under one of Australia’s great potters. Which made me extremely self-critical of my “artistic” skills, but I had neat hand-writing and was relegated to official sign-writer for my mother’s political causes. I still can’t draw humans or horses, but I have a great sense of design and colour, and my handwriting is the bomb :P So people say.

I remember, going through school, and experimenting with the way I wrote things. I used the ‘a’ with the bit at the top for years (and sometimes lapse back to it) instead of the ‘circle with the back’. Also the g you describe, as Bubblecar does/did. However they do take a little longer to write and when you are ‘taking notes’ the quicker the better, so I have gone back to basics.

I also have changed numbering styles. My dad used to write 7 with a line through the middle, so that’s what I did, but that also can get messy when close to letters (stupid algebra).. now it’s just plain old 7.
4 is another one I have changed over the years.. I used to rite it with the open top,, but at some point I was doing some incidental study where the symbol for something (I think a planet – it may have been astrological) was like an open 4 with a curve, so I switched to the triangle 4, which I still write to this day.

Arts said:

I remember, going through school, and experimenting with the way I wrote things. I used the ‘a’ with the bit at the top for years (and sometimes lapse back to it) instead of the ‘circle with the back’. Also the g you describe, as Bubblecar does/did. However they do take a little longer to write and when you are ‘taking notes’ the quicker the better, so I have gone back to basics.

I also have changed numbering styles. My dad used to write 7 with a line through the middle, so that’s what I did, but that also can get messy when close to letters (stupid algebra).. now it’s just plain old 7.
4 is another one I have changed over the years.. I used to rite it with the open top,, but at some point I was doing some incidental study where the symbol for something (I think a planet – it may have been astrological) was like an open 4 with a curve, so I switched to the triangle 4, which I still write to this day.

I do my 0 (zero) with a line through them as when I did programming at TAFE we had to differentiate between a O and a 0

My handwritten notes from high school Geography were so perfect that my older sister photocopied sections as handouts for her students where she was teaching.

I do the European 7.I like it.
I also like raw carrots over cooked carrots.

Cymek said:

Arts said:

I remember, going through school, and experimenting with the way I wrote things. I used the ‘a’ with the bit at the top for years (and sometimes lapse back to it) instead of the ‘circle with the back’. Also the g you describe, as Bubblecar does/did. However they do take a little longer to write and when you are ‘taking notes’ the quicker the better, so I have gone back to basics.

I also have changed numbering styles. My dad used to write 7 with a line through the middle, so that’s what I did, but that also can get messy when close to letters (stupid algebra).. now it’s just plain old 7.
4 is another one I have changed over the years.. I used to rite it with the open top,, but at some point I was doing some incidental study where the symbol for something (I think a planet – it may have been astrological) was like an open 4 with a curve, so I switched to the triangle 4, which I still write to this day.

I do my 0 (zero) with a line through them as when I did programming at TAFE we had to differentiate between a O and a 0

You do the same on military message pads.

I have great difficulty in understanding my own handwriting.

sibeen said:

I have great difficulty in understanding my own handwriting.

You’re not on your Pat Malone there.

Michael V said:

sibeen said:

I have great difficulty in understanding my own handwriting.

You’re not on your Pat Malone there.

Alex probably too

Capital G in the version of cursive I learnt as a child is a very satisfying letter to write. Although my examples are more finely formed than the specimen below, with more artistic up-&-down stroke.

As a youth I was much praised for my graceful up-&-down stroke.

Ha! Some of the first lines in this movie….“You have beautiful handwriting!”

Bubblecar said:

Capital G in the version of cursive I learnt as a child is a very satisfying letter to write. Although my examples are more finely formed than the specimen below, with more artistic up-&-down stroke.

As a youth I was much praised for my graceful up-&-down stroke.

Refrains from making crude comment

Cymek said:

Bubblecar said:

Capital G in the version of cursive I learnt as a child is a very satisfying letter to write. Although my examples are more finely formed than the specimen below, with more artistic up-&-down stroke.

As a youth I was much praised for my graceful up-&-down stroke.

Refrains from making crude comment

Yeah, I’m saying a lot of nothing.

Divine Angel said:

There are two types of lowercase g: the fish hook (like the one used here), and the double loop. Why can we recognise it but not write it? (And as an aside, why is the double looped g used more in books?)

http://time.com/5227714/letter-g-brain-writing-reading/

I don’t understand what you mean. Are you saying there’s a kind of g you are unable to write?

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

There are two types of lowercase g: the fish hook (like the one used here), and the double loop. Why can we recognise it but not write it? (And as an aside, why is the double looped g used more in books?)

http://time.com/5227714/letter-g-brain-writing-reading/

I don’t understand what you mean. Are you saying there’s a kind of g you are unable to write?

It’s not a very good article. The upshot is that most people don’t write the common double-loop form of g and therefore struggle to reproduce it, even though they’ve read it umpteen times.

I’ve always written that form of g (and the “a” form of a) so it’s hard to understand the fuss.

http://img.font.downloadatoz.com/download/imgs/g/o/t/Gothic%2057%20Normal-lower.png

https://urban-fonts.s3.amazonaws.com/samples/11457/10167d380eaddcdb65df92301610612a.jpg

not sure how useful all that research was

Arts said:

Michael V said:

sibeen said:

I have great difficulty in understanding my own handwriting.

You’re not on your Pat Malone there.

Alex probably too

I’ve never understood sibeen’s handwriting, but I get complimented on mine at least weekly.

OCDC said:

Arts said:

Michael V said:

You’re not on your Pat Malone there.

Alex probably too

I’ve never understood sibeen’s handwriting, but I get complimented on mine at least weekly.

Fake Doktard!

(Points.)

Michael V said:

OCDC said:

Arts said:

Alex probably too

I’ve never understood sibeen’s handwriting, but I get complimented on mine at least weekly.

Fake Doktard!

(Points.)

Sibs are both teachers. Sibs both have terrible handwriting.

The fish hook g first came in with the style of handwriting known as “modified cursive”. I was taught it in the 1960s but my father was taught the older style of handwriting with the looped g.

The change in handwriting styles came about as a successful attempt in Australia to make handwriting easier for children to learn. Typed text tends to be older so retains ancestral characteristics.

That said, I have seen some handwriting from the 19th century that looks remarkably modern.