Writing clearly and concisely has become harder as I've gotten older. Lots of writers work into advanced years and I'm curious if the process of writing gets more difficult as time passes. I'm glad I don't make a living by writing because my productivity has declined to the point it would take far too long to produce anything considered passable writing.

It looks more like a 60 year old doctors prescription these days.
Typing has deteriorated as well, especially on a phone where typo's are so common I only respond here on a PC. Also hate proof reading so rely on spilchuk red line underscoring to identify the "Huh's"

It is starting ti resemble my Fathers, not good. But, it is still heads above the signatures and penmanship of the judges and lawyers I used to have to decipher for years.

I have heard that you drop off with age. So far, I haven't seen it in myself. If anything, it has improved.

One thing that may help: I have been writing a couple of hours a day for almost 20 years. It just became a habit. It keeps me sharp. Some of it is here. Some of it is elswhere on other forums. Some of it is ghostwriting assignments. If you write, it's a lot like a muscle; it needs a regular workout.

Mine is illegible, even if I print!!

It would be ok except for the broken fingers and the resulting arthritis. I have never typed either, I skipped those classes in middle school. Who would of thunk?

My cursive was OK when young, but deteriorated enough by junior high that I started printing--which none of my teachers objected to.

Part of my "problem" was that my thoughts often came faster than my handwriting--one reason I started to type when young. My parents were both teachers and therefore typists, so I started on one of their manual typewriters at around 10. But my fingers weren't quite strong enough then to type "correctly" on a manual, so ended up typing with each forefinger, to make the keys hit hard enough.

Got good enough at that to type pretty fast, and in fact retyped Eileen's master's-degree thesis faster and with fewer errors than she could. But by that time I'd written over 200 articles and a book.

As for the mental writing process, find that it takes longer to slap it into the shape I want when rewriting (which is actually the major process of writing )than when younger, which may mean my mind is slowing down, or I keep discovering too much new stuff!

My physical ability to write legibly has deteriorated to the point my ace assistant at work has likened reading my handwriting to learning a new language. Chinese in particular.

I was recently reading that mental processing speed and memory peak at a relatively early age but that we continue to build our vocabulary late into life. That makes sense to me. I have too many choices to make and the reduced processing speed has brought my productive writing to an irritatingly slow pace. It leads me to make an OK word choice and move on. Rereading a note or letter I've written often finds me wondering why I didn't make better word choices. Age has slowed me down in many ways and I don't like the realization that a short few years ago I could do better in less time.

Writing is just one thing getting worse. Anyone want to chime in about how difficult it is to play pool with a rope?

Writing or penmanship?

A large part of my income depends on my writing. Not fiction, but prose. I think that it holds up, especially if I take the time to refine my thoughts, and people seem happy to pay me for it.

Penmanship is another thing, and mine definitely hasn't improved over the years. They do say that doing a lot of rapid note-taking tends to do bad things for your penmanship, and I'll take that as an excuse for what some may say is nearly illegible.

My late grandfather rarely put pen to paper, but when he did it was a beautiful copperplate. Muscle memory developed many, many years before no doubt, and not corrupted by being in a hurry nor by age.

I can make mine look nice if I want to, but can scribble with any 5 year old if I’m in in a hurry.

I rue the days when I elected to take art or shop classes instead of typing classes back in high school. Mom typed my term papers and when I got into business, I dictated my letters for a secretary. Then a job change or two and hand written reports were unacceptable. My index finger grew a callous from hunting and pecking. I always had enough imitation to be able to spell a work a bunch of different ways. Thank goodness for technology because now writing to you guys I get a nice red line under a misspelled word and I don't need White Out to get rid of typos.

My penmanship used to be very good, like calligraphy. Now my hand cramps if I have to write much more than a couple of paragraphs.

I create marketing collateral and strategy for huge technology and telecom clients, so I probably write 20-30 hours every week, with the remaining 10-20 hours lost to meetings. My writing is better than it ever has been. When I look at my older work, I always see things I'd change, not because they're wrong but because they could be more elegant or concise.


Okie John

I can barely sign my name anymore. I never could write well as a left handed but arthritis has made it close to impossible.

When I first saw your question I thought it was asking whether or not it was more difficult or less so when composing thoughts and expressing them in writing.

My fellow CF members seem to be more focused on the handwriting part. I'e cursive.

So I'll answer both variations:

My handwriting (cursive) has gone from bad to worse. Never was any good, to start with. And as the joints stiffen with arthritis and other indignities, continues to erode. I can barely scratch out a grocery list any more.

My composition, on the other hand, seems to be holding up. In my biz I do a lot of writing on a keyboard. And lately am even picking up on writing projects (historical novels) I started many decades ago, but abandoned because of other priorities.

Older I get the better I was.

As a recovering gun writer I find I get to spend a lot more time shooting and hunting

Phil,

Am not exactly a recovering gun writer, but understand. These days I tend to write about more obscure rifles/cartridges--which of course require more shooting. The last article I submitted was on my new-to-me Marlin 1893 in .32-40, made just about 100 years ago....

I use waaaay fewer crayons.



P

They ought to do a country song on that...wait...

Via Luck, Texas

The worst thing that happened to my ability to write was my college English class, which taught a stilted, formulaic, form of expression. Somewhere along the way, I learned to switch to writing conversational English, and my product was better.

A big change happened a few years out of college, when I had to write for publication for my employer. I dutifully sent my work to the editor assigned to review it, and she did a marvelous job. The result was shorter, clearer, and expressed exactly what I wanted to say. So I asked her to teach me how to do that for myself, and she did, in just a couple of hours. I don't know that I always hit the high mark that she set, but I do try. I wonder if she knows the impact she had?

The most valuable course I took in high school was touch typing. Since I was in the "academic track," my mother made me take it in Summer school. NOw as I age, i often hit the wrong key.

Penmanship? Fuggedaboudit. I often can't read my own writing--or printing.

denton,

I don't know how or why that stilted (usually passive voice) writing style became standard in high school, and even in some universities.

In my 20s I made quite a bit of money turning university theses and dissertations into understandable English, along with field reports from a couple of historical/archaeological research companies.

Reading the first few post there seems to be some confusion between penmenship and writing. Taking you at your word I assume your are asking about writing. Yes, I notice a cognitive decline with age, but so far it is in significant.

It became popular because it comes off as confident and authoritative, which is important when you're a tiny and meaningless part of the university system.

John, you'd love a book called Ad Infinitim (https://www.amazon.com/Ad-Infinitum-Biography-Nicholas-Ostler/dp/0802716792). It traces a lot of the problems of modern English back to the Dark Ages when the church was the arbiter of style. Fascinating read.


Okie John

Interesting historical perspective there old-timer. Kind of like getting photos developed.

My handwriting is hard for me to read after it gets cold, so I now print.

Before computers as pervasive as they are now I had do handwritten condition reports on equipment here in the refinery. These reports had to be legible and sometimes several were done per day. I dropped cursive writing and started spelling. It was very legible and neat and remains that way years later. I'm lucky with no arthritis in my hands even after 25yrs of cutting near frozen meat in my former trade.

About 5 years ago, I started editing my work emails for passive voice. I was able to cut about 1/3 out of each one........

I started having this problem myself, compounded by the mechanical drawing I took in 7th Grade Shop. My printing is in that style, but the careful directional strokes I learned went all to Hell long ago.

When I was still working, I was a self-taught half-assed touch-typist, good enough for the short snippets I had to write. The use of an iPad has totally futzed that up. Now, on the rare occasions when I use an actual keyboard, it's a disaster, worse on a laptop with no numerical keypad.

I also keep finding my self stabbing the screen with my finger and wondering why nothing happens.

The thinking and formulating have always come fairly easy for me, and still do.
Getting my fingers to co-operate has become problematic.
My cursive, which was once beautiful, left years ago.
My printing is on a serious down-slide.
Hands cramp just writing a few checks - the only thing decent is my signature!
My keyboard work is slow, but tolerable.

When I'm really on a role, I can do about 2 pages of technical writing a day. At about our second class reunion, I told our typing teacher that was my most valuable high school class.

Because others have mention it, I will too. I failed penmanship early on in school, by third grade as I recall. Nuns made me stay after and practice that stuff that was tacked up above the blackboard all around the room. I failed art a lot too. Maybe there's a connection? I always told the nuns that I was going to be a Doctor or such and didn't need to write legibly. Well, I eventually learned how to print sort of well. Occasionally, I look back at some college notes I have from when I was in my late 30's.I used some sort of combination of cursive scratching and slanted printing, likely out of a need for speed and whatever I could get on paper could be deciphered later. I still print most written communications. I try hard to make them understandable to regular folks.

As for writing, besides a few emails on occasion for business and personal reasons, most of it seems to be here. If I know Travis (deflave) might be reading it I try to be as long winded as I can and use words as big as possible for the meaning I am trying to get across. It seems to bother him a bit. Besides, terseness has never been my strong suit. I have the ADHD stuff and get off into tangents trying to express ideas at times.

I can never remember if I use too many commas, or not enough. Teachers and I went round and round about that at times. At least I attempt to use punctuation, unlike some other members of the 'fire.

I am left handed and my cursive was pretty good until I retired. Now, after twenty six years of doing little cursive it is pretty poor. I can still print well and things like reload labels are legible. My signature has changed a bit. Like others I get finger cramps quickly these days if I write for a few minutes.

The sisters worked daily for,
The Father,
The Son,
And the Holy Ghost.
Not Simon and Shuster,
Or the Huffington Post.

Commas are, for editors, to check.,

You have always used the correct amount, but others have used more, or less...more or less.

Being able to put pen to paper was, for me, a powerful tool in achieving my goals. Being capable of writing a report, a critique or a justification for funding training or equipment was a portal to the big leagues. I learned at an early age that communicating via the written word was the difference between imagination and realization.
Being a good communicator is an art form that is a product of very hard work.

I do not miss the effort required to produce a meaningful product. Those that can create a written image that enthralls and illuminates have my greatest respect.

I scribbled in pencil in spiral notebooks and had suffering secretaries to translate my thoughts into meaningful prose. I hate to type.


mike r

While I am a decent typist, whenever I have a writing project I find that I have the best result if I hand write the first couple of paragraphs and then I type that up and continue to compose on the computer. I think the handwriting slows me down just enough to get my mind well into the project.

I am envious of my wife. She is a fabulous writer - she learned lots of grammar in her years in a Catholic grade school.

I never was a John Hancock, but my God the last 20 years I've written very little. I'm always typing on one of these things. I got a Bachelors Degree in Legal Studies on line at the age of 63. I actually Did it with my BS skills. I figured out too late in life that I could probably been an author. I made the Dean's List numerous times and the president's list once and it was because of my writing. However, my penmanship sucks. Especially the last 20 years as I write very seldom. I can barely write a check. My signature looks different every time I sign something. Then there's my spelling which gets worse as I get older. If it wasn't for spell check I'd never gotten a degree.

BTW, I'm a self taught touch typist.

But thank God I'm not a gun writer, LOL!

LOL!!!

Interesting subject, writing.

I remember when I began to frequent sites such as this one back in 1999. Most of the writing I saw was awful. It seemed that no one knew or cared about grammar, punctuation, complete sentences, or clarity. Contrasting that with what I see 21 years later, the difference is really remarkable. Maybe practice has made the difference.

I can't say whether my writing has improved over the last 13 years, but I've had to learn to be much more conscientious in my writing over that time. This began when I took on my current and ongoing project, which requires a lot of correspondence with German nationals who happen to be engineers for the most part. I found out early on that if there is a way to misconstrue an intended meaning, they will certainly find and employ it. I often compose an email then save a draft for review a few minutes later, editing several times before finally sending it. An email the length of this post often takes two hours to compose and edit.


Edit: actually, this post looks much longer than it actually is when viewed on my phone. It looks like a lot less text on a PC.

Ma spellin suks. Ya gotta cut me sum slak cus ah be lerned ta spel in da publik skoos.

Great question and thread.

I've had more notable trouble with liner thought, and as such my writing...sucks.

Thank you kind Sir,

Commas amaze me.

Seems the Euro folks like to use them instead of periods at times, as in 1,005" which in European I do believe means one and five thousandths inches, not one thousand five inches.

My CZ and Swedes shoot 9,3mm and 6,5mm projectiles according to the folks on the other side of the pond.

And what's with the Mexicans and Spaniards and such. Upside down question and exclamation marks??? What's up with that. At least I got an early start in writing Spanish and sorta know where to put those and accent marks.

With the evolution of language, and because of the ongoing confusion, dashes have entered into the magical equation of language.

For some reason, fewer people have problems with dashes.

With the evolution of language - and because of the ongoing confusion - dashes have entered into the magical equation of language.

Dashes help - until an editor changes some into commas. There are still rules after all.
Dashes help, until an editor changes some into commas.

I would have loved to have a one on one conversation with Elmer Keith's editors.

Steve,

I have had conversations with people who edited Elmer Keith's typewritten copy. More than one has said that (perhaps due a quirk in his typewriter) the word "shot" often appeared with an "i" instead of the "o". This is understandable, since "i" and "o" are next to each other on the standard keyboard.

I wrote Elmer around 40 years ago, when I was getting a 1903 Springfield rebored to .338 OKH, asking about loads. I still have his letter, and while it isn't perfectly typed, unfortunately it does not contain that particular error.

Slumlord says I write like shiet !

😁😁

Steve,

it has always amazed me listening to folks read aloud something I was reading along with them to myself.

Commas, semicolons, periods, and yes - even dashes mean something when reading. Exclamation points TOO!

I'd be willing to bet teaching that stuff went out the window along with memorizing the times tables.

Reading and editing Elmer, or anyone else for that matter, might get interesting. And could be fun - maybe?

I-O mistakes happen to me frequently John.

Due to the wonders of modern technology I can correct it easily enough with a "backspace".

Thank the powers that be I no longer have to type on mom's old Remington.

My mother had beautiful handwriting, even when she did not know her own name.

That gene missed me by a mile.

John, I read that Elmer got the words out, but left it to the editor to.polish. I'll write the damn story and you make it look pretty!

Punctuation has changed markedly. You. Can. Write. Like. Bill. Shatner.

Or socialmedia write and never bother with puncticating because it makes things faster to write so they say.

Or, if you're older, remember what Miss Grammar Lady tried to teach you.

Or, OMG, rite texty! lol.

u r fny

The recent change I have encountered which bothers me unreasonably is the substitution of periods in place of dashes which separate parts of a phone number.
Jim

Yes, that can be annoying. Some others want the 10 numbers - xxxxxxxxxx - with no dashes or periods.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


THIS



But if the OP is referring to written work-i.e. articles/presentations etc. that I can type out on the computer, then my writing, like a fine wine, has improved with age.

Can you imagine learning to write left handed at 58 years old? I couldn’t write right handed legible to begin with!! 😁