Nowadays, Writing Is off the Wall

So say the nation's penmakers, and they have a point

Nearly everyone has had the frustration of receiving a phone message, restaurant bill, mechanic's receipt or note from the boss that turns out to be about as easy to decipher as Egyptian hieroglyphics. Weaned as they are on telephones, typewriters, computer print-outs and other communications gadgetry, Americans have simply forgotten how to write clearly --when they write at all. So bad is the situation that the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association, which annually celebrates John Hancock's birthday, Jan. 23, as National Handwriting Day, has decided that it is "hopeless" to go on using the occasion to promote legibility in signatures. But the retreat is only partial. Says Frank L. King, W.l.M.A.'s executive vice president: "We may have weakened on signatures, but not on anything else. We will continue to vigorously provoke people's awareness of bad handwriting."

By W.l.M.A.'s reckoning, business loses as much as $200 million yearly as a result of illegible records and messages. Sloppily filled-out returns hamper tax collection, while indecipherable addresses account for much of the 38 million pieces of mail that wind up in dead-letter offices at a cost of nearly $4 million a year for extra handling.

Rotten writing is scarcely a new problem. Napoleon's script was so miserable that one of his generals once mistook a letter of his for battle orders. Charles Hamilton, a Manhattan dealer in autographs and manuscripts, contends that Writer Gertrude Stein's oblique prose style may be explained by the fact that compositors often misread her cryptic script. Poet William Butler Yeats often could not read his own work. Horace Greeley, the editor of the old New York Tribune, had a notoriously illegible scrawl. He once scribbled a note to a reporter telling him he was fired for incompetence; so indecipherable was the missive that for years afterward the man was able to pass it off as a letter of recommendation.

What dismays pen and pencil makers today is that woeful writing seems to be spreading. Particularly upsetting is the poor example being set by the White House. Among recent Presidents, Richard Nixon's script was barely legible, while John Kennedy's was so erratic that he seldom signed his own name the same way twice. Though Jimmy Carter's hand is clear, it seems almost juvenile when compared with the elegant, flowing scripts of early Chief Executives like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Among professionals, doctors continue to live up to their reputation as the worst scribblers. A study published in the American Medical Association's Journal reports that at one hospital 33% of all the physicians' notes were essentially illegible (general surgeons and urologists were the worst offenders; gynecologists and cardiac surgeons did somewhat better). Pharmacy Times magazine regularly reproduces particularly hopeless prescriptions.

Beyond the fact that much less communication is handwritten now than it was in the days of the quill pen, experts point to several causes of scriptural sloppiness. Some blame a spreading weakness of will. Says Sam Toombs, a Houston psychologist: "Bad handwriting is a way of saying something and taking it back at the same time. People scrawl signatures on material for which they don't want to be held responsible." Others cite the hurried nature of modern society, in which speed is given a higher priority than clarity. Pen makers decry poor instruction: while courses in calligraphy are gaining in popularity among adults, schools have de-emphasized instruction in penmanship. Promoters of good script point out that at schools in Oregon, where italic handwriting is taught as a way to instill clarity, students not only develop superior penmanship but get higher-than-average grades all round.

No purist on penmanship, W.l.M.A.'s King admits to a feeling that script that is just a little sloppy may indicate "a more complex and exciting person." Nonetheless, W.I.M.A. recommends 17 steps toward more legible handwriting, including "Slow down. Sit properly. Watch out ftr tricky letters... a, e, t and r cause the most difficulty." And at the end of the list "Think of the person receiving what you write, and be merciful."

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