Completely random, unimportant survey

[measi]

Just curious about this. I think it's because I've been working with clinical trial data today, and I'm noticing how different my handwriting is from my coworkers.

So - when you write:

[Poll #1331635]

I always cross my 7's and z's - which supposedly is unusual in North America. I figure it's because I picked it up from overseas penpals as a kid (liking how their handwriting looked, etc.)... or maybe I just was misscored on too many algebra problems due to bad handwriting.

*shrug*

Comments

[ct]

I never cross my z's.

I don't usually cross 7s, but on exams I'll cross them and also put the extra lines on the 1. I have messy handwriting, and otherwise 7 and > look too much alike, as do 1 and | and lowercase l. (| is used in computer programming)

[roxyk630.livejournal.com]

Germany began schooling early, preschool at 3, kindergarten at 4 etc. I didn't do a Ton of writing at that age... but we did start alphabet and numbers. When I turned 5 we moved to the US where most of my handwriting was taught. I ALWAYS Cross my 7's and sometimes I'll cross my Z's it depends on the word and the location of the letter. My uppercase Z's are more likely crossed since my lower case are kind of... cursivey.

[solarflar3.livejournal.com]

I mostly cross 7's, though not Z's. Its almost unknown in the UK to do that, but I did spend 6 years of my childhood in Madrid and went to school there. So maybe that is where I picked it from, I honestly cant remember.

[masquedbunny.livejournal.com]

My handwriting is fairly regular and legible. I think I came into the habit of doing both out of boredom more than anything else. Early fascination for calligraphy may have also played a role.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_borntolose/]

I have terrible handwriting so I always do it for clarification (even if it's my own clarification later!)

[goblynn.livejournal.com]

I always cross both--upper and lowercase Zs, included--I can tell you definitively where I developed the habit: French class.

Frankly, I find it much easier to read, particularly numbers. It leaves no doubt as to what's what.

(Granted, I'm fairly certain it helps everyone else, as my penmanship is nonexistent. Chicken-scratch is the best way to describe it, I think.)

[measi.livejournal.com]

You know... French class could have something to do with it, too. And for all I know, having grandparents who are Polish (and just seeing their handwriting, where z's are often crossed) may be part of it.

But yeah, I cross both upper and lowercross Z's. And yes, I find it easier to read, too.

I have decent handwriting. I can write in cursive decently, but prefer to write something that's somewhat between printing and cursive because I can write faster that way. My handwriting is primarily printed letters, but the letters are still somewhat connected.

Taking two years of Russian REALLY threw off my cursive, though. If I start writing in cursive, I start making mistakes - not bringing the loop around on p's, for example (which is a lowercase R in Russian script).

[goblynn.livejournal.com]

"I...prefer to write something that's somewhat between printing and cursive because I can write faster that way. My handwriting is primarily printed letters, but the letters are still somewhat connected."

...

I do that exact thing, as well. O_o

So, is that another French-class trait? Many of my lowercase letters are connected, and the print form of many letters evolved, over time, into an amalgam of print and cursive.

Love this topic, BTW--it's always interesting to learn about others' quirks and habits. :D

[measi.livejournal.com]

No, that's definitely a Russian class trait on my end. Learning to write Cyrillic letters actually changed my handwriting in a big way - and honestly for the better. Even in English, my capital H's are now like the N in Russian (which looks like an H to us English speakers), and a few other letters got modified. I can't write in English quickly anymore.

So I had to come up with something different. I was in high school prior to computers being common (in my area, anyway), and our term papers had to be written long hand, double-spaced, and had to be in cursive.

I learned to cheat by connecting printed letters and got away with it. :)

[myownwench.livejournal.com]

I developed my crossing of 7s habit in French class as well!

[wiggiemomsi.livejournal.com]

I never used to cross my 7s until I got married; my husband is from the Middle East, and always crosses his!

*Hugs*

[beckella.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where I picked it up, but I think it had something to do with the fact that my cursive is beautiful (I've been told by friends that they'd love it as a font) but my printing is...less than gorgeous. Ironically, when I print, I cross my Z's (both upper- and lower-case), but when I write in cursive, I don't cross my t's or dot my i's, etc. It stems from taking notes in class and realizing that you can go much faster when you eliminate the crossing and dotting. It's become such a habit that when I write a card or something, I have to stop myself and go back and cross and dot so people won't mistake my occasionally loopy T's for L's.

[lafemmezilla.livejournal.com]

I only started crossing 7s when I got a job processing business card orders for a very large realty franchise. Thousands and thousands of mostly hand-written order forms makes for an immediate appreciation of the clarity of the crossed 7. For Zs, only if it's something that would appear in close proximity to numbers, like a license plate, to avoid confusion with a 2.

[balance0.livejournal.com]

I don't cross either. As far as messy handwriting, I got in trouble more w/ 6 vs 0 and 4 vs 9. I make my 1 like a lowercase l...just a line. I suppose if I were writing an alpha numeric sequence, like a product verification code, I would put the extra bits on the one and a slash through the zero. Eh, I'd probably use caps for the letters and just the slash in the zero....(I don't otherwise slash my zeroes).

[measi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I have longer alpha-numeric sequences (car VIN numbers and insurance policy numbers, for example... since those come up in my job frequently), I will slash zeros and usually do a formal "1" with both the little hook on the top and the underline to make sure it doesn't look like an I or a lowercase L.

I just always slash my z's, and I don't remember why. Maybe at some point I didn't put a loop in my 2's or something (I do now, though).

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

I picked it up from a professor in college I worked a lot with; she said it helped make things clearer (she was American born and raised, too, but she might have picked it up from a European-trained professor sometime in *her* academic training). I figured she was right.

Also, if clarity is an issue (like when I'm recording long, alphanumerical serial numbers and such), I put a slash through zeroes.

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

I grew up in So Cal but had French from the 3rd grade where the influence was instilled. Then I moved to France after high school for 3 years so it's permanent.

[mydwynter.livejournal.com]

Always cross both. I have no idea why; I certainly wasn't taught to. (Maybe it was learning calligraphy when I was a pre-teen? I don't know.) I used to slash my 0s, too, although somewhere along the line I fell out of the habit and only do it when things have to be legible (addresses, zipcodes, applications, etc.)

In all of the places I've lived here in the US, crossing the letters sometimes seems to confuse people rather than help---especially if they haven't been educated very much and might not have seen it before. (I don't mean that to sound snotty in any way, just as an observation.)

[(Anonymous)]

I've never run into problems with people being confused with my slashed z's that I can remember. Or at least, if they do they don't tell me. But then again, I've lived in the Boston metro area for 15 years now, and we tend to have a lot of immigrants, so maybe people around here are just more used to the variations.

*shrug*

[measi.livejournal.com]

That was me. I fail at logging into my own journal again.

*sigh*

[mydwynter.livejournal.com]

:)

[mydwynter.livejournal.com]

Well, there's gonna be variety in everyone's experience, I suppose, no matter where you live. I've lived in some seriously high-immigrant populations, and some rural pockets of nothing, and places in between, and the spread of those-having-seen-it and those-who-haven't is pretty evenly distributed no matter where I am when I go to the post office or the bank or whereever it is that people read my writing.

It's mostly my slashed 7s that they comment on, for what it's worth.

ETA: ...which I can understand, expecially if they're more accustomed to people writing their 1s with a foot than they are with a slashed 7; they're bound to wonder why the foot for the 1 is halfway up the number, and so then they ask.

[emmalee32.livejournal.com]

I started crossing my 7s when I took middle school french and my teacher' did it because her 7s and 1s were identical (and neither resembled a number) but the cross was the only way to tell them apart. Anyway, I like the idea and I cross my Zs less frequently but because I like to distinguish from 2s. I guess it depends on how I've decided to write that day.

[rommies-voice.livejournal.com]

Never crossed a z in my life, its never even occurred to me do do that till just now. I put I never cross 7's either but thinking about it sometimes I do.

[azure-shades.livejournal.com]

I put that I always cross my 7s, when to be accurate I'd say I cross them about 90% of the time. But Zs, I do cross them sometimes. It's generally for clarity, particularly when writing alphanumeric insurance ID numbers. Same for zeros, actually, given the O/0 issue.

[gladdecease]

Why I was growing up, my mom always crossed her 7's, and my dad never did. So now, more often than not, I cross my sevens. Sometimes as an afterthought, like saying "hey, look at those 7's I wrote just now. *crosscrosscross*"

I don't know where I picked up crossing my z's, but it's about the same frequency. Less as an afterthought with z's, though.

And I've lived in the US my entire life, so. I guess I'm weird, or something?

[ariestar.livejournal.com]

I started crossing my 7's in high school because when I would write my math homework too quickly, I would sometimes put little tails on them that made them look like 2's. As for Z's... I usually just write them in script anyway, also to keep them from looking like 2's.

Why not just put a loop in 2's? Because whoever's reading might not have a "2" to compare... to.

I don't cross anything when transcribing, because the symbol for the voiced alveolar fricative is [z], without a cross, and the Script z is a different sound (for "azure" and "measure"). Of course, when transcribing, I write script [l, t, i] for clarity, and typeface [a], even though I don't when I write.

[flyingblogspot.livejournal.com]

I didn't learn the crossing of 7s and Zs at school; I think I may have picked it up from my German Oma and father.

[starlightmoonla.livejournal.com]

I usually cross my 7s and that's really more of a conscious decision, because it just looks pretty. The Zs I've always crossed and again I'm pretty sure it was because I liked the way it looked and it has felt natural to do that.

I remember one of my employers wanted to fill out some paperwork with numbers because she had the tendency to write the numbers a certain way, I think she was Swiss German, and I made a comment that I wrote the 7s a similar way but it wasn't natural for me, if that makes sense. ^_^"