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National Handwriting Day: What does your handwriting say about you?

National handwriting day

National Handwriting Day is January 23rd and has been going for 40 years. If you want to know what your handwriting says about you then read on. If you wondered what your scrawl tells others about you then take the test at the bottom.

On National Handwriting Day, take a look at what your style of writing could say about your personality

Is the pen mightier than the keyboard?

The rise of computers may eventually kill off handwriting but, for now, there are still some aficionados out there who refuse to put their pens down.

National Handwriting Day on January 23 celebrates the handwritten word, with the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) encouraging others to use a pen or a pencil to “rekindle that creative feeling through a handwritten note, poem, letter or journal entry”.

“Though computers and e-mail play an important role in our lives, nothing will ever replace the sincerity and individualism expressed through the handwritten word,” said David H. Baker, WIMA’s Executive Director.

The rise of the computer keyboard Almost one in 10 children who go online believe information from social media websites or apps is “all true” – doubling from last year

WIMA adds: “Throughout history, handwritten documents have sparked love affairs, started wars, established peace, freed slaves, created movements and declared independence.”

But what does your handwriting say about your personality? Research by the National Pen Company in the US claims handwriting can give clues about 5,000 personality traits.

It’s all based on graphology, the process of analysing handwriting, which is classed as pseudoscience as it is considered to be without scientific foundation.

Here’s what the research by the National Pen Company says: click through for more via National Handwriting Day: What does your handwriting say about you? – Telegraph

Apparently I’m very private and hard to read. Probably true but not once you take time to get to know me.

Bring back the pen – Virgin.com

The Art of Handwriting – Is it Lost?

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National Stationery Week

Business Opportunity, cards, stationery, request a brochure National Stationery Week

The Power of the Written Word

Writing, and being able to write by hand matters and is as important as ever, even in an increasingly digital world. There are many reasons for this – it isn’t a question of just using one or the other. Click here to read the A-Z of why writing matters. According to YouGov research commissioned by National Stationery Week, 92% of adults think that writing by hand is important. While 97% think it is important for children to learn to write.

National Stationery Week celebrates the written word and all things stationery – the products which make it all possible, and give pleasure to so many people. You can never have too much stationery! Its aim is to get people all over the world talking and writing about stationery, and why writing by hand is important. And to send more letters and cards, and not just text or email.

2015 marked the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, and is a reminder of how handwriting has stood the test of time. It also saw the launch of the first #WorldStationeryDay in April, as part of National Stationery Week.

Let’s get more people putting pen to paper and writing more often – especially children. Let’s send more letters and cards, especially to those we care for, rather than just text or email.  It’s much more personal.

Source: National Stationery Week

birds and birdhouses note cards If you want to get started why not take a look at these handy note card sets. They come in packs of 10 with coordinating envelopes. Ideal to keep for when you want to send a quick note to someone. Why not challenge yourself to send 7 note cards or even the whole 10 on National Stationery Week?

My favourite design at the moment is the Birds and Birdhouses one, illustrated by Sue James.

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Stuck for words?

I thought I would start something fun and I’m asking you to help. How about sending someone a card or note this month? Someone you wouldn’t have sent to otherwise, could be someone who needs cheering up, someone who is having a rough time or just someone you want to surprise. Stuck for words? Then take a look at this video – it’s brilliant!

[vimeo 57981044 w=500 h=281]

Originally found on ohjoy.blogs.com

…and to help you get started I’ll include a free card and a stamp in every order this weekend!*

* Really sorry but only in the UK – hope that doesn’t stop you joining in if you’re somewhere else!

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Grammar Girl : Why Did People Stop Saying “Thou”? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™

(I thought this was fascinating, a friend shared it via her FB page Barefoot in Belfast, she sells gorgeous children’s books by the way, and I thought with all the romantic poems we often write in cards it was interesting to see what happened to thee and thou, this is only part of the article, see the link at the end for the full thing, well worth a read!)

We know language changes—we don’t say thee and thou anymore—but have you ever wondered why? Often, it’s not clear, but there’s a particularly satisfying answer when it comes to these two pronouns.

A couple of weeks ago, after I talked about how the pronoun you fills so many roles, I started wondering why we stopped using thee and thou.

It turns out that English used to have formal and informal pronouns like many other languages. German has Sie and du, French has vous and tu, Spanish has usted and tú, and during Shakespeare’s time, English had thou and you and thee and you.

Thee and Thou Were English’s Informal Pronouns

Since thee and thou have survived mainly in religious and poetic writing, you may be surprised to learn that thee and thou were the informal pronouns. Yup. You was formal, and thou was informal.

In a book called The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages, Stephen Howe says that in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, thou was generally used to address someone who was socially inferior or an intimate. For example, parents called their children thou, and children called their parents you, but then the use of thou sharply decreased in the seventeenth century, starting in London. Thou was used the longest in areas that were farthest from London, and in fact, it’s still used in a few regional dialects including those in Yorkshire and Cumbria, which are both quite a bit north of London.

When Social Status Became Unclear, People Started Using You More

The reason people stopped using thou (and thee) was that social status—whether you were considered upper class or lower class—became more fluid during this time. You had social climbers striving to talk like the upper class, so they used you all the time instead of thou, and since you couldn’t be as sure as you used to be about who was in what class, it was safer to use you instead of thou because you didn’t want to risk accidentally offending someone in the upper class by using the wrong pronoun. You didn’t want to call someone thou when you should have used you!

via Grammar Girl : Why Did People Stop Saying “Thou”? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™.

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The Art of Handwriting – Is it Lost?

Cards lost art of handwriting

Have we lost the art of handwriting? I hope not. With social media being a part of our lives that it never was when I was young I see changes in what we teach our children. Quite rightly they learn how to touch type on a qwerty keyboard from an early age. But they still have their handwriting book too. How important is handwriting in a technical age? Does it matter anymore?

Despite the common perception that ‘no one sends cards anymore’ the opposite is true. According to a recent survey 95% of British households still send cards. So surely it’s important that what’s written in them is readable? Or is it?

I did a little research on the lost art of handwriting.Phoenix Trading

This article on The Art of Handwriting about letters by artists is worth a look just to see the handwriting. I’m not an artist so my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired but I just adore neat, artistic handrwriting.

Here is a very inspiring TED talk on the lost art of handwriting – you might be inspired to pick up pen and paper after listening to these shared memories.

Now, going back to my earlier complaint about poor handwriting, there might be an answer in this. A hi-tech pen that could improve my handwriting!

…and if you’re still not sure you need to bother brushing up on your handwriting then this 8 year old has a very good reason why it’s important – how else will he fill in his contract to be a major league player?!

So, is the art of handwriting important or not?

Does it matter if my scrawl looks pretty or is it enough just to be readable? It’s a well known fact that sending handwritten cards and notes has a positive impact on someone’s mental health. So perhaps I shouldn’t get too hung up on how good or bad my handwriting looks but worry more about if I am writing enough. After all the only way to improve my handwriting is to practise, practise, practise. I no longer have a handwriting jotter like my children at school so perhaps my best practice is to send more cards and letters.