When I first learned about sentences, instead of making them linear, I wrote them in a list-like form:
The
cat
went
down
the
path.
The adults around me were concerned with the practice, one because it seemed I didn’t understand that the words of a sentence needed to be in a certain order, very close to each other, and two, I was going through a lot of paper.
Eventually I grew out of the habit, and I don’t know why it ever started. No one showed me how to write that way and my parents weren’t overly fond of listing. I think it was the different visual statement being made—mine was different from the rest of the class. I write letters much differently than most people—everything is sharp. I angle all the curves in letters, so my printing resembles a Greek (or heavy metal) inspired font. I went through the effort of changing my own handwriting purely for aesthetic reasons.
My relationship to literacy—how I chose to use the skill and adapt what I’ve learned—depends primarily on my preference. This isn’t good considering how many rules govern writing. Everyone looking at the first instance of “The cat went down the path” falling down the post know that this isn’t correct, despite it saying the exact same thing as the second occurrence.
I’m curious to know the ways you all break the rules in literacy. Do you read the last page of a book first so you’re not surprised? Do you write in purple as opposed to blue or black ink? Why do those of us who study English do so when there’s so much about it that doesn’t allow us to be ourselves?
I know exactly how you feel. My big one is the fact that I still write exclusively in cursive. It’s not even because it’s elegant, or the fact that it makes me feel all colonial. I do it because my favorite teacher in third grade taught us the cursive alphabet and I use it as a way to remember him. However, he would probably be very disappointed in how sloppy it is.
I feel as though these things are what gives us an identity in writing. As you were saying, there are tons of rules and regulations in writing and it’s very easy to see how everyone’s writing could look the same after awhile. But by having a particular voice, or even a special flair in your font, people will stil hear your voice and know that you’re different.
Also, your title for this post is fantastic.
I agree with the post above, but instead of writing in cursive, I write some letter differently than they are “suppose” to look. My k’s are smaller capitalized R’s, my e’s are occasionally just smaller capitalized E’s. When I was younger, I would also write my letters in a weird order as well, for example, I would write a V and then draw two lines off the sides to make it an M. Needless to say I was a slow writer. My strange font came from these awesome wilderness books I read when I was younger. They were field journals from botanists and dendrologists that had cool drawings of different plants and trees. Their font was very different; however, and I guess I thought it was so cool that I had to adopt it as well.
While it still takes me longer to hand-write notes and they tend to be sort of messy, I still like my handwriting. It sort of reminds me of my childhood and those books that were (and still are) so cool.