When I was in primary and secondary school, I used to write oodles and oodles of letters - each averaging 12 pages at least. Needless to say, it played a vital role in improving my penmanship.

Nowadays, with the advent of computers and all things online, our youngsters have not much avenue to practice and improve upon their handwriting skills. It is no wonder when I see most of their handwritings resembling those of primary school kids.

Things like cursive writing are flung to the winds. And books can be written about the abbreviations that are so prevalent these days thanks to the rising trend of SMS and instant messaging. BTW, it's something that I'm also guilty of using *sheepish grin*

I'm also guilty of not penning as much missives as I used to back then. Perhaps it's because the satisfaction of pecking away on the keyboard is not the same as labouriously writing in cursive and inserting vital decorations like heart shapes and grinning faces in pigtails in appropriate places.

Like it or not, I have joined the throng of modern-day keyboard peckers and abbreviation users in the name of convenience. Still, would be good for penmanship's sake if us keyboard peckers actually take pride in writing manually in our best handwriting, and finding occasions for us to do so. A hard copy card instead of an e-card perhaps? Or maybe a lovely letter to accompany your gift to a love one instead of a brief note? A snail mail instead of an e-mail to your friend overseas - minus the abbreviations and the other what-nots?

The possibilities are endless!

Ttfn :)

My handwriting has gone to bits! The only time I use it is when taking notes, and then I'll be scribbling furiously to keep up with the person who's talking. Ends up worse than cakar ayam, sometimes I can't even read what I myself has written. Aiyoyo...

I used to write lots of letters, each at least 8 pages (four pieces of A4 paper, both sides). Had gazillions of penpals. But like you, now everything is email... and, while at the beginning I refused to use abbreviations in my emails, they're slowly creeping in! Eek!

Hehe... cakar ayam, eh? Reminds me of what my doc friend said about why doctors always use illegible handwritting on their prescriptions - so that when a patient dies after taking a wrongly prescribed medication, the handwriting is so bad that no case can be made based on it. Wonder if he was just pulling my leg though... hmmm...

Hehehe... looks like I'm not alone. I used to write pages & pages of letters to the extent that a friend of mine would bug me on when he was going to get his next "storybook" installment whenever I was late in writing to him *grin*.

I still write proper English when writing my email but it's just not the same as writing a snail mail. Miss those days.

One of my friends still uses pen and paper to write out her thoughts and writing. So I wouldn't expect a blog from her anytime soon... =P

But then, after taking notes for about 4 years in secondary school (1-3 years left!), I'm pretty glad using a keyboard! Hehehe...