People who "cross the T's and dot the I's" in their hand writing, how do you visualize a word when you write?

Honestly it feels like it's just 2nd nature, I don't even really have to think about it. Every time the pen comes off the page (usually every word, but it can happen mid-word in some cases), I just go back and finish off any letters that need it.

My signature is a personalised scribble I learned a long time ago, it comes naturally due to the number of times I've signed things, rather than anything linked to handwriting in general.

I've not hand-written in an accented language for a while, but I'm pretty sure I treat the accents similarly

I think you are overthinking writing. How do you visualise tying your shoelaces?

Nobody writes in full cursive any more. You can cross the T and dot the I right after you write it.

It has to do with the stroke you make as you write. In all three ways that I know how to write by hand (full cursive, my actual current style, and print), crossing the ts and dotting the is is just the last stroke(s) of writing the word. The word is not complete until those are done, just like an A (if you write it as a ball with a tail) is not complete without its tail, and sword is not complete without a d at the end.

You keep track on your head the same way you keep track in your head that a word is not finished up until you have written all the letters in it. My first language uses accents, and it is the same process. And yes, you can forget, not just for longer words. Teachers would certainly mark it on homework and tests. I struggled with accents, in general, but just like learning how to spell a word, you just practice it when you get it wrong until you get it right and it becomes muscle memory for how you write that word.

My signature doesn't, however, since I have not built enough muscle memory to reproduce it. Yes, it is technically cursive, so that part is easy to get right; but the flourishes that make it a signature instead of just me writing a word like every other kid who learned the same cursive style would aren't muscle memory due to lack of practice.

a ton .3g and some fat

As most answers talk about writing, pretending that the question is a valid one, I suggest to take a step back. Crossing the ts and dotting the is is a saying, originating from times when penmanship was important in making good impressions in correspondence. Today, people use this saying because it is a common and short way to describe a certain type of activity without getting into specifics. People today don’t use this saying because crossing ts is always on their mind.
Your question is like asking: when you look the gift horse in the mouth, what are you exactly looking for? And then lemmy users stating to make up stories how they one day actually got a gift horse but before accepting it they wanted to make sure vet bills wouldn’t be crazy high.

I didn't. It was just muscle memory.

So for the letter t, do you just keep track in your head to write the vertical curve first then remember the horizontal dash after?

I would do them right after finishing the letters, not at the end of the word.

I also dot my lower case "j's" and cross my lower case "f's".



About the only mental processing going on when I'm writing is what word I want to use next. In school, writing the letters was drilled in to me so that it is simple muscle memory to make them. That goes for both print and cursive writing.


Now when I took French in high school, I did have to stop and remember when the accents were required. I never reached a fluent proficiency with the language.


Contrast that with my wife who is fluent in French, both speaking and writing and she writes the accents with no additional thought.

Block writing, do it with the letter, linked/cursive do it at the end of the word. Many linked writing words turn into a block-linked hybrid for legibility. Idk, just picture how well it will be read and write accordingly. Single strike-out if you mess up, it lets the reader see what you were trying to write but messed up, helps with homonyms...

Pretty much the only time I regularly sign anything these days is when I pick up my medication at the pharmacy. Their touch pad for doing so is so bad and at such an awkward angle that the result never resembles my actual signature. In fact, yesterday I had to use it and the result was just two straight - though differently angled - lines.

I guess you could have described it as some very abstract art.