Are reading and writing (penmanship, not creative writing) two separate disciplines?

If you can use a pencil you won't necessarily be able to draw with a graphics tablet. It's an entirely different skill.

I see writing as a motor function and I remember that when I first learned to write, I used the thicker pencils (or thicker crayons) because the actual act of grasping a pencil is something you need to train yourself to do. So I can get that she could read but not write. But how long does she go from being entirely unable to write to being able to compose an entire letter? If it's a few months or years, I think that would be credible for the story - but not a couple of weeks.

Jamesaritchie said:

Where did you get that? We are expected to write in cursive. It's part of basic education, and if you can't write in cursive, you can't write at all.

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I think I had two lessons on cursive in elementary school (and it is being removed from a lot of school curricula). I can only sign my name. I've never had a problem communicating in print. People who can read cursive know what printed letters look like, but generally not vice versa (especially with people from my generation). Being unable to communicate in cursive hasn't prevented me from graduating college or doing PhD research, so...not sure how "basic" and fundamental this component of education is.

Jamesaritchie said:

If you believe any of that, I feel sorry for you.

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It's not a matter of believing it. It's only a matter of observing it.

DreamWeaver said:

I find this very interesting, because it took me a long time to realize different people learn to spell in completely different ways. I can visually see if a word looks right or wrong when I write it on paper, and I always attributed that skill to voracious reading. Obviously, despite voracious reading this doesn't work for your husband; spelling works in a completely different way for him. I conclude that it wouldn't be logical to expect someone who doesn't learn in the spell-by-sight way to be able to recreate writing without a book to copy from. Even then, it seems to me it would likely be slow, painful copying.


But I agree with the general consensus, that it's very odd to put such a plot point in without it being pivotal in some way.

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I'm not that great at spelling myself. I'm very much an auditory learner, not visual at all, so I tend to put the wrong vowels in a lot, based on how words sound, and be corrected by spell check.

thwaitesyellow said:

I think I had two lessons on cursive in elementary school (and it is being removed from a lot of school curricula). I can only sign my name. I've never had a problem communicating in print. People who can read cursive know what printed letters look like, but generally not vice versa (especially with people from my generation). Being unable to communicate in cursive hasn't prevented me from graduating college or doing PhD research, so...not sure how "basic" and fundamental this component of education is.

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Certainly in college (what non-USA readers would call university), and nowdays in high school and maybe even middle school, essays would be typewritten. Perhaps the only disadvantage of not writing cursive is giving an essay answer on a test. But I've printed all my life, and in college I passed the Regent's Test (requires writing a four-page essay, required to graduate college in Georgia) on the second attempt. Both times I took it I wrote in print rather than cursive.

ETA: This describes the Regents Test - it hasn't changed that I can tell in 35 years:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/essainst.htm
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/topics.htm

In a hurry, I scribbled out a long note of directions for my 18-year-old petsitter, and a couple of hours into my day panicked because I suddenly realized she might not be able to read cursive . I texted her right away, and she answered not to worry. She said she'd never learned to write cursive but had no problems reading it.