Arlene Miller's Blog, page 16

Musings About Babies and Books

This is the week I became a grandmother for the first time. 

This is also the week I realized I was a true book addict.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

So, first….I am the proud grandmother (I will be called Bubbe, the Jewish grandmother) of a beautiful little baby girl my daughter and son-in-law have blessed us all with. She is just two days old and is the center of much love. So now, when people misunderstand me, and think that I write “grandma” books rather than “grammar” books, they won’t be wrong! I did write an alphabet book especially for my new granddaughter. 

And I must say that my new blessing has a bookcase full of books! Her mother (my daughter) asked for books in lieu of cards at her baby shower. She has been showered with books. It makes my heart happy. And because I don’t sew or crochet, and knitting is a challenge (I did knit her a blanket), I decided that since I am a author, I would write her a book. 

Of course, as I have written in past posts, I love books and have told you the history of me and books from Uncle Wiggly to Nancy Drew to Janet Evanovich. 

I have recently discovered I am a true book addict because of these symptoms:

I have many books borrowed from the library simultaneously, both in print and ebook form. Since I put the unavailable books on hold, I never know when they will be coming to me, so having so many books to read is really out of my control! So I have to look at the library website and see when they are all due and then put them in order of when I need to get them read by. Heaven forbid I should not get to one of them! The print books are easier to handle. I have three weeks, plus two renewals if the books have no waiting list (but most of them do), and then if worse comes to worst, I can always keep them past their due date. There are no fines any longer, but I hate to keep the books when people are waiting for them. I mean, how do I feel when that happens to me? With ebooks, on the other hand, I have a mere two weeks, no renewals, and when they are due, I can’t keep them. The library grabs them back virtually. I keep making lists of recommended books that I want to read, and my lists are out of control. I get these recommendations from emails from places like BookBub, contest winners from places like Goodreads, and from bookstores. A local indie bookstore in California ( I used to live there) does a YouTube program a couple of times a year with book recommendations. I always watch and write everything down.

I usually read books about relationships: women’s literature. I wouldn’t really say I read “romance” in the way people think of romance books. Recently I have a read a few books that were different from my usual genres.

Right now I am reading Dinners with Ruth, by journalist Nina Totenberg. It is a nonfiction about the author’s long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So far, very enjoyable.I just finished A Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I am not a big Stephen King reader. I believe I have previously read only two of his books, the one about JFK’s assassination (11-22-63) and another about a carnival, but not a book typical of King’s style. I am not so much into horror. This, of course, was a very long book. I liked the beginning and the end, but I skimmed through the middle ,which was the part about an otherworld. I guess I am not into other worlds either.And recently I read Random by Penn Jillette  (part of Penn and Teller). It is a novel about — random. It was interesting and I would recommend it.  It takes place in Las Vegas.

Off to see baby!

 

Why (and How) To Create an Ebook

A guest post by Amber Ramsey . . .Image by Capucine from Pixabay

With some thoughts from The Grammar Diva!

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Amber is a career woman. She’s fierce, confident, and has the “can do” attitude we all strive for. Like most of us, she started out in the corporate world, but she found that her fire, spirit, and creativity were better suited to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Amber has been on both sides of the desk, as an employee and the boss, so she has plenty of career advice to share.

Ebooks have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to consume content. According to a study by Pew Research Center, three in four Americans have read an ebook in the last twelve months. That number is only going to increase as technology continues to advance. So why should a writer create an ebook? 

Why Create an Ebook?

If the fact that lots of people are reading ebooks isn’t enough reason to make one, there are plenty of other benefits to consider as a writer. Here are a few of them:

Ebooks are easy to produce. All you need is a computer and some time. Once your book is finished, it can be published and made available for sale almost immediately.Ebooks are cost effective. There’s no need to print and ship physical copies of your book. You can sell your ebook as a PDF or distribute it on sites like Amazon ‘s Kindle Direct Publishing.Ebooks are environmentally friendly. By avoiding traditional print methods, you’re helping to save trees and conserve energy. This is especially true for frequent readers who purchase many books.Ebooks can be updated easily. If you find an error in your book or want to add new content, you can simply upload a new version without having to reprint and redistribute physical copies.Create an Ebook in 6 Steps

Now that we’ve looked at some of the reasons why writers should create an ebook, let’s go over how to actually create one. Creating an ebook is easier than you might think and can be done in just a few simple steps.

Step 1: Choose Your Topic

The first step is to select the topic of your book. It can be anything you are passionate about and think would interest others. Once you’ve chosen a topic, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas for content.

Step 2: Outline Your Book

Put your content ideas into a structured format by creating an outline for your book. This will help you stay on track as you write and ensure that your book flows well from beginning to end.

Step 3: Write Your Book

Once you have your outline created, it’s time to start writing your book! Some people prefer to write their ebooks all in one sitting. But if that feels like too much pressure, don’t hesitate to break up the writing process into smaller chunks that fit into your schedule better. Just don’t procrastinate!

Step 4: Edit and Proofread Your Book

It’s essential to hire an editor to edit and proofread your book before moving on to the next step. This will help ensure that it’s free of any typos or errors and reads smoothly from beginning to end.

Step 5: Format Your Book

Now that your book is written, edited, and proofread, you’ll need to convert it into a format that can be easily read by anyone who downloads or purchases it. Look into the wealth of software programs that can help you sell your book as a PDF. And utilize online resources to learn how to edit a PDF document. There are many services and people who can convert your manuscript into the epub format that is used by all e readers including Kindles.

Step 6: Publish Your Book

The final step is publishing your book so that others can read it! Turn to a tried-and-true service like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Draft to Digital will distribute your ebook to many types of e readers of your choice.  You can also distribute your ebook for free on platforms like Wattpad or Medium.

Wrapping Up

Creating an ebook is an excellent way for writers to reach a wider audience with their work. Ebooks are easy and affordable to produce, and they offer many environmental benefits compared to traditional print books. If you’re thinking about publishing an ebook, following the six steps outlined above will help you get started. Who knows, it could be the next big thing!

And a Word or Two (or More) from The Grammar Diva

I actually have two books that are in ebook format only (a lesson plan book and a grammar cheat sheet, both short books). However, the rest of my books all began with the idea of a print book in my head. And then I did also make then available at the same time in ebook format.

Many writers, particularly those who write fiction, sell more ebooks than print books. To me, that is a foreign concept. I sell way more print books than I do ebooks. I would assume people find it easier to have a printed grammar book that they can just pull of the shelf when they need it. One that they can make notes in and put stickies on to mark certain pages. Yes, you can do that in an ebook, virtually, but it isn’t the same. And then of course, I have a couple of workbooks. Those are definitely better in print. 

What do you like to read? Do you read mostly print books or ebooks? Or maybe you mostly listen to audiobooks now. I have maybe listened to one audiobook in my life. And yes, I still consider it cheating. It isn’t reading — in my humble opinion. 

I love the feel of a print book. Make it a hardcover even! However, I have a Kindle, and I do use it, more now than ever. It is easy to et library books for the Kindle, and I find it is just easier for me to read on the Kindle — since I can make the font larger! I also feel I can read faster on the Kindle. 

To each their own…

 

My first grandchild, Emilia Rose, coming this week!

No Time for Leftovers

Some people are still enjoying the leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner, munching on drumsticks, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

And some people are looking at their calendars, wondering how it is suddenly the last  week in November — National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short — and they are not even close to their goal of writing 50,000 words by November 30. If you start on November 1 (and you are not allowed to start this “contest” any earlier), and you write every day, you need to write about 1667 words a day, or about 7 pages (assuming 250 words per page), to finish on time.  

And yes, your writing can be absolute junk  because you are probably writing a first draft. But if you try to game the system by  simple typing in the same sentence until you reach 50,000 words. you are only cheating yourself. It is (or was last year, when I did it) on the honor system. 

So what exactly is NaNoWriMo? It is a national online contest for those who want to write a novel in 30 days, or part of a novel in 30 days — or even a nonfiction book in 30 days. It is a writing motivator. Whom do you compete against? Only yourself.  What do you win? A certificate you can print out. You can also buy yourself a t-shirt, mug, or other swag, whether you finish or not. And who counts your words?

You register for this contest online. Then, you copy your words into their system and they count them. The website keeps track of your total words and how many words you write each day. It is pretty fancy. In fact, I am not even sure (I don’t remember) if you have to enter your words to be counted any longer. Last year, I might have entered my word count myself. Your Word program will give you that information.

And any time during November, once you have hit the 50,000-word goal, you win!

I have done NaNoWriMo a few times. The first time I did it was in 2011 when I wrote my first novel in about 26 days. I pantsed it. There are two types of writers: plotters and pantsers. I guess everyone is some sort of combination of the two. I was much more a pantser for that one. I started with only a vision of a character, and after reading a book or two on plots, I decided that the book would write itself. Aside from having major computer problems at the time, the book did write itself, including a twist I never could have predicted. And then I completed NaNoWriMo last November, when I wrote my first romance novel. I am just now getting back to reviving it. This one did NOT write itself and needs a major overhaul. The overhaul is much harder than the original draft, which can be  — and often is — word vomit.  I think I did NaNoWriMo a couple of other times to get my grammar books written. I might have given up once; the other time I think I finished. 

When I taught 7th grade, I gave my students the option of doing the Young Writers NaNoWriMo contest in which the teacher gets to set the word count. Depending on the class, I gave them counts of 5000 or 10000 words. Many students who started it finished it.  Extra credit!

NoNoWriMo is not a solitary event unless you want it to be. You can connect with other writers although I found it difficult to navigate that part of the site.. And there are write-ins, where people join together to write — kind of like parallel play! They used to be set up in coffee shops and bookstores. Then when Covid hit, they occurred on Zoom. 

So if you have always wanted to write a book, give yourself a push by entering NaNoWriMo next year. If you work hard at it every day, you still might have time for those leftovers!

The Story of “Me and Him”

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Last week I wrote about the overuse — and misuse — of myself. Someone reminded me that the horrors of I and me are still around and not to forget those grammar faux pas..  I know that by now, you know the difference between I and me — and I have written several blog posts about that sticky issue in the past, but just to review.

Me and my wife saw the best movie last night!

It was just me and him; no one else wanted to go.

Between you and I, I didn’t like the cake she baked at all.

Mom made the kids and I dinner last night. 

I and my friends are going away for the holiday weekend. 

You have heard them all. They are all incorrect. Does anyone care anymore? (Besides us?) 

I figure if you are going to say something, you might as well say it correctly. It can’t hurt. And you do want to sound smart, right? Saying it wrong becomes a habit, and then when you really do need to be correct (in formal business writing or academic writing)…

And it isn’t just I and me. It is all those other pronouns. The grammatical explanation is that some pronouns (like I, for example) are used as subjects in a sentence. Other pronouns (like me, for example), are used as objects. The non-grammatical explanation is that the subject pronouns (subjective) usually appear at the beginning of a sentence and the object (objective) pronouns will be nearer to the end of a sentence. But you cannot depend on that. Another way to figure it out is to find the verbs in the sentence. Then find the subject to each verb. Those pronouns will be the subjective type.

Subjective Pronouns: I, we, you, he, she, it, they, who

Objective Pronouns: me, us, you, him her, it, them whom

Subjective Pronouns are used as subjects and also after the verb to be in all its forms —  if it is the main verb. (for example “Yes, this is she.“)

Objective Pronouns are used as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions. 

And when you have two pronouns, or a name and a pronoun, and one is them is you, put yourself second please. 

He and I make a great team.  (subjects)

The winners are she and I. (predicate pronouns, following the “to be” verb are.)

Noah saw him and me at the concert, but he didn’t say hello. (direct object)

I gave the photos to him and her. (objects of the preposition to)

Mom made my brother and me a cake. (indirect object – the direct object is cake)

The last hint to figuring out which pronoun to use is to take out one of them. The pronoun you would use with one of them is correct when using both of them (or the pronoun and a name:)

 Mom made me a cake.Mom made my brother and me a cake.

 

 

 

 

 

When NOT To Use “Myself”

Image by Dgdom from Pixabay

Okay, by now I am used to sentences like this:

Me and my wife went to the hockey game last night.

My friend gave the tickets to Sharon and I. 

They are wrong uses of I and me, and I have just about given up letting it bother me.

But…..

The misuse (and overuse) of myself is driving me crazy. I hear it everywhere, said by educated, brilliant people. Rachel Maddow uses it on her new podcast: This podcast was created by “whoever” and myself.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Myself, as well as all the other pronouns that end in –self (yourself, himself, themselves, etc.) are called intensive or reflexive pronouns, depending on how they are used. They either bounce back (reflect) to the I in the sentence, or they emphasize (intensify) the I that comes before them:

I baked their wedding cake myself. (reflexive)

You might not believe it, but I myself baked that beautiful wedding cake! (intensive)

And those are the only two uses for those pronouns. They are not used as subjects or objects. So these are all wrong:

Jose and myself are taking a vacation to the Keys. (should be I)

Those books were written by myself a long time ago. ( should be me)

It is all up to you and myself. (should be me)

Generally speaking, you use myself when the subject of the sentence is I. Likewise, you use the other pronouns that end in –self if the pronoun matches the subject. These sentences are correct:

He went to the beach by himself.

The queen herself is coming for dinner.

The baby is learning to walk by herself.

Simple. If you can use I or me and it makes sense, that is the correct pronoun to use, not myself (or any other –self pronoun):

This pie was made by me. (Me makes sense, so don’t use myself).

She and I work at the same place.  (I makes sense, so don’t use myself).

 

 

 

 

Drunk on Words

A Guest Post from Lorraine SegalAbout Lorraine Segal

After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy, happily teaching, coaching, blogging, and consulting around workplace conflict transformation. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write her memoir, Angels and Earthworms. For more information go to https://BooklingPress.com

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In my eighth grade English class, we were supposed to read as many books as possible. Mr. Townsend had his own paperback library in the classroom and he

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

encouraged us to borrow. And we each had to keep a vocabulary notebook. When we came across a word we didn’t know in one of the books, or in a newspaper or on the radio, we had to write the word down, look up the dictionary definition, and quote a sentence which used the word in context. I found the process fascinating, and this began my lifelong love affair with words.

To this day, I love words and synonyms. In my professional writing and speaking, I do my best to use direct, simple, effective words, but when I’m feeling giggly and free, I use lots of the words that I used to call “big,” polysyllabic and complicated, because I get drunk on words!

Post-Mr. Townsend, I don’t think I formally studied words or meanings very much, at least in English, until graduate school. It was more of an organic process. Reading a novel, coming across a word I didn’t know, puzzling out the meaning from context, later encountering the word again and getting more ideas about the meaning. I will say that I enjoyed TV’s Jeopardy because I almost always knew some of the answers, partly because of my vocabulary, and partly because I have a huge grab bag of trivia about history and culture from reading so many novels.

And my two cents . . .

I guess being drunk on words is better than being drunk on some other things! I, like Lorraine, also love words. However, I remember as a student, I didn’t think I had much of a vocabulary. I don’t know when this changed, but I am pretty OK in that category now. Of course I always read a lot, but when I encountered a word I didn’t know, I think I might have been too lazy to look it up. However, I could sure spell well, probably because I read so much and once I saw a word, I could visualize it and “see” how it had been spelled.

I know we did a lot of spelling in grade school, and I think we did a lot of vocabulary after that. Of course the SAT exam has quite a bit of vocabulary. When I taught 7th grade English, I included a ton of vocabulary. We studied Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. There was no spelling or vocabulary textbook, but I gave the students words of the day and spelling/vocabulary tests. They needed to know how to spell the word, its part of speech, its definition, and how to use it in a sentence. Some of them did pretty poorly most of the time. They didn’t study. 

I will never forget the day one of my top students in my advanced class brought me a word I had never heard of: defenestrate, which means to  throw someone out of a window. I quickly added that word to their vocabulary list and to the list for years to come!

And speaking of Jeopardy, I used to watch it from time to time, but for the past year I have been a steady watcher. I watch while I exercise, and I record it in case I should miss it, I am a lost cause most of the time on the history and geography, but I can sometimes ace a word-related category! 

This month I started doing a Word of the Day of new words added to the dictionary recently. You can see it if you follow me on Twitter or we are connected on LinkedIn or Facebook. 

For a while I was doing a daily crossword puzzle.

I am not so great at Scrabble, which I rarely play, so maybe with practice…

Oh, and I play Wordle.  Every. Day. I am pretty good at that. 

 

 

BOO! Halloween Trivia and Such…

DID YOU KNOW?

The pumpkin is a fruit because it has seeds, and it is in the same family as the cucumber.

Illinois produces 40% of the nation’s pumpkins.

The average household gives two pieces of candy to each trick or treater. 

Dracula means Son of the Devil.

Jack O’Lanterns were originally made of turnips.

Transylvania is in Romania

Nineteen people were hanged during the Salem witch trials.

$300 million is spent on pet costumes for Halloween annually.

Halloween is the second largest consumer holiday. Of course, Christmas is the first.

Halloween originated in Ireland.

It is said that people born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits.

Pumpkins originated in Central America.

People in New England call the night before Halloween Cabbage Night. 

Lewisburg, Ohio, is home to the world’s longest haunted house.

And….Psycho was the first movie to show a toilet onscreen  – in 1960. So now you know!

 

Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.

Ailurophobia is the fear of cats.

Chiroptophobia is the fear of bats.

Hadephobia is the fear of hell.

Hemophobia is the fear of blood.

Herpetophobia is the fear of creepy crawly things.

Myctophobia is the fear of darkness.

Necrophobia is the fear of dead things.

Nyctohylophobia is the fear of dark wooded areas or forests at night.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

Phasmophobia is the fear of ghosts.

Placophobia is the fear of tombstones.

Pneumatiphobia is the fear of spirits.

Wiccaphobia is the fear of witches. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

Hey! Where Are the Quotation Marks?

Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay

I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember exactly where I was sitting at a Redwood Writers (CA) workshop when I learned that some writers do not use quotations around dialogue. Actually, at this time one author was mentioned, whom I had not heard of. I think this particular author  used a hyphen or short dash at the beginning of lines of dialogue. I thought, “Oh, the horror!”  And life went on . . .

Several months ago, I read The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Excellent book. But I noticed there were no quotation marks to indicate dialogue. This was the first time I noticed I was reading something without quotation marks to indicate dialogue.  I don’t think there were dashes either. Just —  nothing.

Nonetheless I could read the book easily, and the lack of quotation marks did not bother me at all. Actually, it felt rather freeing not to have all those little marks in there. Shortly after I finished reading it, I spoke to a friend who was in the process of reading it. She didn’t even notice it had no quotation marks to indicate dialogue. At the time I figured it was because she was not involved in writing or publishing. 

When I was researching this post, I discovered that there are many books that don’t use quotation marks for dialogue — some of which I have read without ever noticing. And a few of them I read recently. 

Some of the more famous authors who don’t use quotation marks for dialogue are Samuel Beckett, Cormac McCarthy, E.L. Doctorow, and the forefather of this style, James Joyce (whom I read a while ago and choose to forget about).

A few of the books I have read and never noticed they were “quoteless” are Normal People by Sally Rooney, Groundskeeping by Lee Cole, and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (all of which I liked).

In the beginning, 1st-century scribes used the diple (>) to indicate a line containing noteworthy text. After the invention of the printing press, compositors used a pair of commas – or hanging commas – to indicate quoted text. Quotes have been in print since the 16th century.

However, not all countries and languages use the double quotes for dialogue. In the United Kingdom single quotes are used, with double quotes used for quotes inside of quotes — exactly the opposite of how we in America do it.  In France it is customary to use dashes.

So, why not use quotation marks to indicate dialogue? Most authors (including me) still do.

Some say eliminating the quotes is more elegant and actually easier for readers.Lack of quotation marks blurs the line between dialogue and description, allowing readers to insert more of their own interpretation.If you write well, the reader should be able to easily tell the difference between text and dialogue.The page looks cleaner without all the little marks.

However, if not done correctly, the lack of quotation marks can be a problem.

It can be annoying to the reader trying to figure out who is saying what.It is not the reader’s job to determine what is dialogue and what isn’t. Therefore, some readers might just give up.

 

…And then there is e.e.cummings and his lack of capital letters. But that’s another thing entirely . . .

 

 

 

The Mark of Gutenberg: A Reader’s Memories

Image by Sabrina Eickhoff from Pixabay

I am very  happy to present this guest post by my friend Bart Scott — lawyer, musician, and writer.

Bart Scott set out to become a college English teacher but blinked and wound up in law school. He practices criminal defense in Northern California, and considers the human failings that feed his practice to be both real and literary. He has also been known to sneak literary references into his briefings.

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

He plays blues, rock, and country music on guitar and is anticipating retirement from the law within the next year.

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         When I was a child growing up in suburban California, reading was something that distinguished, and divided, me from my peers. I was small, shy, and near-sighted. There was no team for which anyone wanted to choose me. I had a couple of friends, but I was not a social butterfly. The transition to bookworm was easy.

         We had a bookmobile from the local library that stopped right in front of our house every Wednesday. My mother—an avid reader to this day—would check out books for the five kids.

         I still remember the book that taught me the printed page was a richer world than the playground at Portola Elementary School. It was Kee and Bah: Navajo Children by Elizabeth Pack. My guess is that I was in third grade, and I sat on an overstuffed chair in the living room and read until 11:00, way past my bedtime. My mother must have perceived an English major in the making; she let me read until I finished the book.

         From then on, books were my thing. I had no need for kickball (at which I sucked) or other sports. Were there other sports? I wouldn’t have known.

         In the fourth grade, I read Van Loon’s The Story of Mankind. I recall only one aspect of the book: the preface. He wrote that if there were a huge rock in the wilderness, and every year a bird came to the rock to sharpen its beak, when the rock had been worn away, one day of eternity would have passed. I know the book introduced me to a concept of the arc of history, but I have no idea if it was another apology for white colonialism. The important thing for me was the awareness there were other people living different lives from the repugnant playground.

         Then there was The Travels of Jamie McPheeters, an adult bestseller about America’s westward expansion. The protagonist was in a wagon train traveling west, and the book offered rape, murder, and—at one point—a guy getting deservedly skinned alive. I was in fifth grade. In my book report I wrote, with no suggestion of irony, that I would not recommend the book for children.

         The books kept coming. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in seventh grade; all of Kenneth Roberts’s historical novels; the Constance Garnett translation of the Brothers Karamazov in eighth grade. In fact, by the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had read every novel Dostoevsky ever wrote. The Brothers Karamazov taught me an important lesson about the acquisition of knowledge. When I reread the book as an adult, I realized that the Grand Inquisitor chapter of the book, in which the inquisition prosecutes Christ, had a major role in forming my religious skepticism. See? All those book-burning morons are right.

         During most of my life, reading has been a solace and a source of intellectual expansion. When I was in the Navy, I discovered the library on my ship had a damned fine collection of apparently unopened books. I read the entire Alexandria Quarter. Later I went to a Navy school to become a clerk—not that I didn’t love swabbing decks, and, yes, we really did that. The chow hall (yes, that’s what we called it) was a bus ride from the classroom. My fellow students would dash out to the bus at noon to get their ration of shit on a shingle; I pulled out a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses and read as I walked to lunch. Leopold Bloom and the urine scent of cooking kidneys.

         It was thus a forgone conclusion that I would be an English major.  But I never pursued literature for the intellectual calisthenics. For me, reading was always an open window to other people’s lives, an expansion of perspective, a check on personal assumptions. The palliative for the risk of being an autodidact: the assurance that there would always be a voice in my head besides my own.

         And reading has allowed me to live in my head, a place that, for all its inconsistencies, is just fine by me. Does reading still divide me from my peers? I don’t know; I just know that I have an attention span of longer than 15 seconds. You kind of need that if you are going to read.

 

 

 

 

The Curse of Cursive

Image by Amanda Truscott from Pixabay

Can you write in cursive? Chances are you can. You may or may not do it often, but you probably are able to write it and read it. 

I taught in California from 2004 through 2015. Since I taught 7th grade, I assumed my students had been taught to write cursive in elementary school. And they had been. However, many of them would deny every learning it, and most of them would say they couldn’t do it — or if they managed to do it, they told me I wouldn’t be able to read it. Truth told, I usually could read it better than their printing. In 7th grade we had no established handwriting curriculum, but all five of us English teachers believed in teaching cursive. Most of us required cursive writing for things like in-class essays (this is before students had computers in the classroom).  One teacher wrote in cursive on the board — some students could not read it. During the last couple of years I taught, we were told we could not “require” students to write in cursive.  

In 2010 Common Core standards were adopted by the United States Department of Education. Those standards did not mention handwriting at all. Common Core has since been dropped by or is dying out in many states. 

In 2016 fourteen states required cursive as part of their curriculum. Now, twenty-one states do. Here are those states:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia

Besides Delaware and Massachusetts, those states look to me to be conservative (or red) states. In a way it makes sense because cursive is not exactly progressive; it is more traditional.

Some states, like California, leave it up to the individual school districts whether or not to teach cursive. When I left teaching there in 2015, I believe it was taught in 3rd grade in my district.  Generally, in the states that teach it, cursive is taught between third and fifth grades. Some states expect competency by fifth grade. I began to learn cursive in second grade in Massachusetts back in the Dark Ages.

Why is there a controversy about cursive at all? We teach kids to print. And now, just about everything is done on a computer anyway. Isn’t keyboarding a more important skill to learn?

Opinions range on the usefulness of cursive. Some teachers say it is a thing of the past, and there are more important things to teach in a packed curriculum. Some say that cursive should be taught, as well as keyboarding; all the skills are necessary.

Aside from the obvious uses of cursive, like being able to sign a check (who uses checks anymore?) and being able to read original documents like The Declaration of Independence, there are several advantages to learning and using cursive:

Many studies have shown that writing in cursive improves comprehension and retention of the material written.Learning how to join letters in a continuous flow engages the brain on a deep level.Writing cursive enhances fine motor dexterity.Cursive gives children a better idea of how words work in combination with each other. College students who took notes on a laptop took more notes, often verbatim from the professor. Students who used cursive paraphrased what was said and had better recall of their notes.Cursive is advantageous to dyslexic students who can get confused by printed letters that look similar, like b and d, whereas cursive letters all look different. 

My personal opinion of cursive is – I love it. When I scribble something on my grocery list that hangs on the fridge, I use cursive. (Yeah, I know. I could just ask Alexa to add something to my list.) But when I neatly copy my list over again (because I am a Virgo), I will likely print. I am the secretary of two boards, so I need to take copious notes at board meetings. If it is a Zoom meeting, my computer is already occupied, so I can’t type the notes anyway, but it is much faster and much more accurate if I use cursive, and I always do. I rarely have taken notes anyplace with a computer.  And when I go to a conference — usually made up of authors and people in publishing — the numbers of  plain old paper notebooks always outweighs the number of laptops. 

Call me a luddite. And proud of it.