I'm a Terrible hand-writer. Did Pitmanscript help?

 Hi there

Way back in secondary school I got the dubious title of being The Worst Hand-Writer in my class.  I was the only pupil to fail the Chamber of Commerce Hand-Writing Exam.  I have always been a sloppy hand-writer.  Or 'joined-up writing' as teachers in primer classes tend to call it.

When I grew up - I was in my late thirties - I took up the then 'new' style of shorthand called "Pitmanscript",  My hand-writing became worse; I had been warned this would happen before I started teaching myself the subject at home.  My already terrible penmanship did deteriorate at a rate of knots.

The other day, I decided to hand-write a letter to a friend.  It was an important letter, on real lined writing paper.  I wanted to show her exactly how important I felt about all the work she had put into being my friend.  I wasn't going to buy a card, or telephone, or email, or text....

But then came the realisation.  I couldn't do joined-up writing anymore!  Pitmanscript had ruined me.

Pitmanscript has gone the way of the earlier Pitman's shorthand and Gregg's shorthand processes.   I think Pitmanscript was Pitman's last stand at trying to keep the process going.  I did pass the Trades Certification Board Shorthand Exam. 

But my hand-writing, now, really is horrendous.

above photo: Book 3

Over and over and over again I practised the exercises in Pitmanscript Book 3, working my way up from 'baby' Pitmanscript in Book 1.  The great thing about Pitmanscript is that there are no strict rules about what you must put down.  If you can make up something so a sentence is faster, easier for you, just do it.  This worked for me. By the time I sat my TCB exam, a lot of the original learning had been shortened by me.

above photo: from the 2000 Most Common Words book. I learnt all the words off-by-heart, studying them every day.

above photo.  the very first exercise in Pitmanscript Book 1