In elementary school, I inevitably got C+ grades in Handwriting. My parents didn't care if that was my only bad grade, since they thought it was absurd that it was even a graded subject. (I guess my father had to say that; his writing was indecipherable by most people.)

I think my writing looks pretty good now. If I'm writing something that has to be read quickly -- like a shopping list, say -- I write in block capitals. Otherwise I use my own half-printing/half-cursive system.

Looking at it, it looks like I went with whatever makes it quickest to get from one letter to the next, and I got rid of most of the unnecessary strokes and loops. Also, I decided to go for print on any letters that look ridiculous in cursive (e.g., the lowercase z).

So for me, the lowercase word "the" would be: vertical stroke for the t, horizontal bar of the t immediately leading into an upward loop and downward stroke and hump for the h, immediately leading into a cursive e. The only time the pen would come off the paper is after the vertical stroke of the t. In most of my words, though, there are some unconnected letters, because it's quicker not to try to connect them (most uppercase letters, lowercase w and y, etc.).

-- Trip