“Whoa, you write weird.”
I was a lab instructor for an intro to Geographic Information Systems class and I was scribbling something or another on the whiteboard. One of the students, and education major, noticed that my letter writing sequences were an abomination and called me out. I had never noticed it. So I proceeded to slowly write all the numbers and letters for their amusement and many of them drew gasps and chuckles.
I was reminded of this after reading this analysis of the cultural impact on a person’s tendency to draw circles in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.
It took me a while to get rolling on letters and numbers as a kid because I was inclined to write everything mirror-reverse. I chalk it up to being left-handed, and therefore, a societal aberrant. In looking at some recordings of my drawing order, I don’t really see a pattern of starting from the top or bottom, but I do notice that horizontal lines are easier to pull towards my hand.
Here are my numbers…
And letters (uppercase, anyway)…
I still don’t know which letter or number shapes I write in the “wrong” order (but I think “2” and “6” are probably deranged). But this is how it feels right and it’s far too late for me.
I would actually be interested in knowing which characters are written in a different than what-you-think-of-as-normal order, in the comments. Are you right handed or left handed? Thanks!
Adventures In Mapping 
Interesting to see! I’m right-handed and for the letters there are quite some differences but the numbers seem even more peculiar. Only the 3, 8, and 0 are written in the same way I write them.
1 is different for me, because here in Germany it is usually written with 2 strokes
2 is almost the same, but I start the other way around
3 same
4 I write the left part first and then add the downward stroke on the right
5 Maybe I just write it in an odd way, but I first draw the “sickle”-part of the 5 and then add the top stroke
6 Basically the same, but I start the other way around
7 German difference again, here the 7 has one stroke more, I also don’t begin it at the bottom, but at the top.
8 same
9 I write it the other way around
0 And the same again
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I quit cursive once I got to college and started taking drafting classes for my architecture education. So I tend to “letter” my documents instead of writing them. To this day if I’m doing a nice note card or thank you letter I will pull out a small drawing triangle and letter with very precise vertical strokes.
The biggest difference I see in my numeral depiction is that 8 is always two circles and never a continuous overlapping stroke.
Oh, I letter in UPPER CASE with the Starting letter of a sentence taller than the rest.
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Right-handed. Eastern Canadian, Public School. A stubborn kid with poor handwriting.
Differences:
2 4 6 7 9
B D J H T X
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Interesting. My daughter is 6 and learning to write. She’s right-handed, but writing a lot of letters/numbers mirror-reverse or from down to up.
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Keep an eye on it. She’ll probably want to become a cartographer.
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Watching this, I think the part that is “weird” to many is the fact that you don’t start your strokes from the top always. I know when I write (and looking at my daughter’s books teaching her to write her letters), all strokes start from the top. So when you start your 6 in the middle or the second stroke of the 4 in the middle, that looks odd (and is different from how many Americans are taught).
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John my penmanship looks similar to yours but I write my numbers and letters from the top down and every circle clockwise. Interesting to compare our differences! That’s spatial thinking.
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Right-handed anglo Canadian. My Swiss elementary school teacher nearly literally beat it into us that the only way to write a 5 is by doing the sickle part first, then adding the top stroke.
“Hyou dont bilt de hroof befhor hyou bilt de hauss!”
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Ha! I reject her inclination. For drawing a 5, anyway.
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