[Ads-l] Write vs. Sign

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

This message addresses the larger topic raised by the messages from
James and Rich.

The nature of a signature may be evolving. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust
states (in the NPR interview linked below) that many young students
cannot read or write cursive. The NPR piece states that in 2010
cursive was removed from the required "Common Core" Standards for K-12
education. This suggests that many young people will be unable to
write their name in cursive. The Fortune article below supports this
notion.

Website: NPR
Article: What students lost since cursive writing was cut from the
Common Core standards
Date: December 3, 20225:32 PM ET

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/03/1140610714/what-students-lost-since-cursive-writing-was-cut-from-the-common-core-standards

[Begin excerpt]
MARTIN: So in your article, you talk about a moment when you were
teaching, and you realized that two-thirds of your class couldn't read
cursive and even more couldn't write cursive. Could you just remind
us, what happened?

FAUST: Well, I was teaching a class, a seminar for undergraduates at
Harvard, Civil War history. And a student was giving a report to the
class about a book he'd read. And he said one of the great attributes
of the book is it had many wonderful illustrations, including
illustrations of documents from the Civil War era. But, of course, he
couldn't read those because he didn't read cursive. And I said, what?
What? Wait a minute. What do you mean you can't read cursive?
[End excerpt]

Website: Fortune
Article: Gen Z voters lack the basic skill of signing their names and
it’s thrown vote counting into chaos, election official says
Author: Orianna Rosa Royle (Associate Editor, Success)
Time-stamp: November 7, 2024, 6:55 AM ET

https://fortune.com/2024/11/07/gen-z-voters-basic-skill-signing-names-vote-counting-chaos-election-official/

[Begin excerpt]
More than 13,000 mail-in ballots had been rejected across Nevada
because people’s signatures did not match those recorded on the
voters’ driving licenses—many of them were Gen Zers who came of age
during the pandemic and become accustomed to typing instead of writing
in cursive.

Nevada’s Secretary of State, Francisco Aguilar, told the New York
Times in a live blog that “Gen Z voters who struggle with cursive
could slow the vote count.”

“It’s mostly the fact that young people don’t have signatures these
days,” Aguilar added, according to multiple outlets. “And when they
did register to vote through the automatic voter registration process,
they signed a digital pad at the DMV, and that became their license
signature.”
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Nov 4, 2026 at 11:58 AM Rich Lowenthal
<000018596069864c-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> I grew up in Maryland and was taught that "write your name" means to
> sign it in cursive, as opposed to "print your name." "Sign your name"
> also meant cursive.
>
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From "James Landau" <00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Date 11/4/2026 11:49:35 AM
> Subject Write vs. Sign
>
> >Yesterday I was a poll worker (New Jersey Linwood Ward 2 District 3).  For in-person voting New Jersey requires the voter to sign his/her name in cursive twice,  once on a computer (for signature verification) and once on hardcopy.
> >Several times when I asked a voter to "write your name" the voter replied "do you want me to write or to sign?"   I eventually found out that to these voters "write your name" meant to PRINT your name" and "sign your name" meant to put it in cursive.
> >I never heard of this distinction before.  Has anyone else?"
> >For those of you interested in statistics, out of 938 voters registered in Linwood 2-3,  110 voted early, 106 voted by mail (the computer system listed these as "absentee"), and 313 voted in person yesterday.   This is 56.4% of eligible voters voting, which is pretty good for a midterm election.
> >
> >James Landau
> >jjjrlandau at netscape.com
> >
> >
>
> --
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> www.avast.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org