Once an essential life skill, writing by hand is now saved for special occasions like wedding invitations. Sometimes, we do it when we need to scribble down a quick note.
As we observed generational differences in handwriting, we wondered what led to these differences and the future of writing by hand.
Did the way we learn to write change? Did our handwriting become less legible as we write less and type more? Is handwriting still meaningful when we mostly call and text our loved ones?
To begin answering these questions, we analysed handwriting samples we collected from our participants to see how they differ across generations.
We asked each participant to write the same sentence, which includes every letter of the alphabet, also known as a pangram.
The handwriting samples can be classified into three primary styles: scribbly print, bubbly print and cursive. We found that there was a high correlation between styles and age.
Sixty-one per cent of our samples had a scribbly print style.
In this group, most letters are written upright and separately, though some loops or joins may appear depending on the writer.
Younger participants often wrote in bubbly print style, where the letters look playful and round.
Many of them are still in school, where writing clearly and neatly is still important.
The bubbly print style is often the easiest to read, with upright letters and minimal embellishments.
Let’s not forget cursive, appearing in about 17 per cent of the samples.
Gen X and boomers were about seven times more likely to write in cursive compared with other generations, while none of the Gen Alpha participants used it.
In cursive handwriting, letters are connected in a smooth, flowing way. It also tends to be the most slanted, especially in letters like “l” and “f”.
Having trouble reading cursive handwriting? Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems face the same challenge due to cursive’s connected and varied letterforms. In this case, the system we used was able to detect only 71 per cent of the text accurately.
For most of our cursive samples, the OCR system was not able to extract the sentences correctly.
Our bubbly print samples, on the other hand, had the highest accuracy scores.
Preserving historical documents is essential for understanding our past, but accessing their contents isn’t always easy, as many of these records are handwritten. OCR converts handwriting into machine-readable text, allowing users to search for keywords instead of reading through multiple images.
While OCR works well for recent handwriting and printed documents, it often struggles with historical materials. Older scripts are full of flourishes and stylistic quirks that confuse automated systems.
“When you’re writing with a flourish, ‘f’ looks like ‘l’, ‘m’ looks like ‘w’, ‘e’ looks like ‘a’,” says Mrs Vandana Aggarwal, 63, who has transcribed more than 14,000 handwritten pages for the National Archives of Singapore.
In addition to handwriting, there are other factors that make transcribing documents a challenge. Pages and ink might have faded. With no spellcheck, there might be irregularities in spelling.
These irregularities may confuse computers, but they’re exactly what make handwriting distinct.
In the handwriting samples we gathered, we noticed some distinct ways that some letters are commonly written. See how your writing compares!
Everyone’s handwriting has unique characteristics that reflect our lived experiences. Illness, injury and even mood can affect our motor skills and change our writing a certain way.
Ms Nellie Cheng, a consultant forensic scientist with the Health Sciences Authority, analyses handwritten texts for law enforcement agencies. Her work ranges from cases of vandalism and threatening letters to determining whether signatures or documents have been altered.
Her tools are her eyes and a microscope. She looks at the thickness and quality of the lines, whether letters end with a hook or a stroke in a particular direction and the spacing between characters.
Ms Cheng prefers to have several contemporary samples of writing from the alleged author for comparison. “Every time we write is different. In the morning after a cup of coffee compared with when you’re tired... your posture is different,” she says.
We all start off learning handwriting similarly. Why does it look so different across generations?
We reviewed more than 20 handwriting books from the 1960s to the early 2000s and found a consistent structure: Most begin with patterns and drawing exercises to build finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination. These are then connected to letter forms, before progressing to copying full sentences and paragraphs.
The common components of a typical handwriting book are broadly similar
“The fundamental principles of handwriting have remained largely unchanged,” says Ms Zenda Leu, a publisher at Teachers’ Production and the author of the Stellar Handwriting series.
Still, despite the similarities in how handwriting is taught, the focus has shifted. There is now greater emphasis on typing and digital skills over traditional penmanship, says Ms Leu, a former teacher.
So what caused handwriting to evolve this way? Let’s take a closer look.
Before typing took over, good handwriting was an essential job skill
For the longest time, learning to write beautifully in cursive was important. Writing beautifully opened up opportunities for jobs, so even adults took penmanship lessons.
Even after typewriters became more common, some jobs still required candidates to apply in their own handwriting. Until the 1980s, many job ads asked for candidates with good or neat handwriting.
The Palmer Method is a writing system that gained popularity in the US in the 1920s. It advocated the use of arm muscles, which helped people write quickly and for longer periods of time without getting tired, crucial before typewriters became widely used.
The writing exercises featured sentences that would be used in a business setting, such as “Louis Lanning paid his account in full”.
However, over the decades, typewriters and then computer software took over the job of creating professional documents. Handwriting became less important as a business skill. Office workers needed to know how to type, not how to write in beautiful, flowing script.
Overtime, legibility became more important than style
Cursive handwriting was once a clear expectation in schools. In 2001 in Singapore, pupils were expected to write in cursive by the end of Primary 4. But over time, its importance and emphasis in the English syllabus faded. Today, students are far less likely to encounter cursive writing at all.
In 2010, the syllabus still mentioned cursive, stating that “pupils will be taught how to join letters and to increase writing speed through the writing of cursive script as soon as they are able”. However, it also made clear that no particular style was preferred, reflecting a shift away from formal penmanship standards.
The most recent syllabus published in 2020 makes no references to cursive writing and requires pupils to learn to write neatly and legibly.
This ongoing shift away from formal handwriting instruction is also evident in the classroom. Although handwriting is still introduced in primary school, many teachers are unable to dedicate curriculum time to it due to packed schedules. As a result, most handwriting practice is now assigned as homework.
Teachers and parents continue to question the importance of handwriting, especially cursive writing, in today’s digital age.
Once focused on drills and repetition, handwriting education is now part of a more holistic approach to learning
Compared with previous generations, children today start handwriting education earlier, but with far less emphasis on copying letters or drills.
Instead, they begin with activities designed to build the fine motor skills needed for writing. Activities like rolling, pinching, flattening and squishing Play-Dough help children develop the fine motor skills needed to grip and control a pencil.
Other activities include tracing lines, curves, waves, shapes and letters to develop muscle memory and support proper letter formation. Stamping and matching games help students recognise different letter shapes.
“In the past, handwriting was a major focus in schools. Students spent a lot of time on penmanship drills with an emphasis on repetition and precision,” says Ms Melissa Ang, centre leader of Kinderland Pre-school at Pandan Valley. “Today, there is a shift to offering hands-on learning and multiple approaches.”
This is in line with the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) 2023 pre-school syllabus where less emphasis is placed on perfecting handwriting and penmanship skills as most pre-school children lack the appropriate hand maturity and dexterity. Instead, the focus is on encouraging children to express themselves through writing.
Today’s handwriting lessons are not just about writing neatly. They also help children express their thoughts and ideas, focusing on communication as well as handwriting skills.
For example, in a classroom exercise, pupils of the same age might work on different writing skills based on where they are developmentally.
After reading a short article together, such as a story about Singapore-born panda Le Le getting into a brawl with another panda in China, pupils were asked to respond in writing.
More advanced students may write longer sentences, while developing writers are encouraged to write shorter responses or include drawings. This provides a low-pressure and engaging way for all students to practise expressing themselves through writing.
This shift reflects the understanding that writing skills should be taught when a child is developmentally ready, not just based on age.
Handwriting may seem less important today, but not everyone thinks so
Not everyone agrees with the decentralisation of handwriting. Ms Pearly Chai, 78, has been teaching penmanship to children for 60 years.
She penned the most popular handwriting guides in Singapore in the 1990s, and versions of her work are still on the MOE’s list of approved textbooks for primary school.
She says: “As handwriting is increasingly being replaced by digital devices in education, it is essential to understand its impact on cognitive and neural processes.”
Ms Chai still teaches primary school pupils privately today. She says that children today are less able to articulate their thoughts than her past pupils. According to her, penmanship drills and writing more by hand helped to give “order and routine” to thinking and analysis.
Her views are backed by a 2024 Norwegian study showing that handwriting leads to improved connectivity between regions in the brain, compared with typing. Such brain connectivity is shown to facilitate memory and learning. The researchers recommend early handwriting exposure to help develop these neural patterns for better learning.
Why handwriting is here to stay – it conveys a personal, intimate connection that typing and digital text often lack
Despite doubts on the importance of handwriting, there is no indication that handwriting will go away any time soon.
Journal writing is making a comeback as a way to practise mindfulness and mental well-being. A handwritten card still feels different and more personal than a text message.
The tactile experience of putting pen to paper offers convenience and a creative outlet to many. When Ms Dorothy Lim-Chew, 58, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, she began keeping a therapy journal.
She recorded the dates of her chemotherapy treatment, as well as her symptoms and side effects. “I would draw little graphics to show how many glasses of water I drank, what my energy level was like... I kept a record of the food I had, my side effects and so on. I couldn’t do that online,” she says.
Ms Lim-Chew is also an avid calligrapher who hosts in-person meetings for people interested in learning different embellished scripts. She is part of a calligraphers group on Facebook that has more than 2,000 members.
Writing can’t be displaced. There’s such a range of experiences you can have through writing, from art to self-expression to regulating emotions.
Scroll to explore these handwritten artefacts, which hold personal significance in a way digital text cannot convey.
Even among digital natives, handwriting remains relevant. Ms Anshika Karri, 19, still writes birthday messages by hand to her friends even though she usually communicates through social media and messaging apps.
Since the age of seven, she has collected the handwritten notes and birthday cards she receives in a box. Among them is a loving note her mother wrote to her when she left Singapore to study in Britain. “She told me to read it when I was lonely. I read it a lot during the start of university because I was alone in the country,” she says.
Ms Karri also keeps a “happiness journal” where she records highlights of her life. She tries to write in it at least once a week. “I think it’s important to maintain the skill of writing and practise it,” she says.
Most of her schoolwork at the University of Bristol, where she is studying psychology, is done on the laptop. Yet, when revising before examinations, she writes her notes by hand. “Typing doesn’t help me retain information as well,” she says.