In an earlier column, I wrote about why handwriting still matters in an age of artificial intelligence. Recently, I put that idea to test by asking AI tools to read handwritten notes. The results were instructive, and often amusing.
Frequently, the response was a polite refusal: “The handwriting is not legible.” On other occasions, the tool made a confident attempt and got it delightfully wrong.
The irony is hard to miss. The same technology can write poems, pass examinations and summarise a 300-page report in seconds. Yet a hurried scribble can leave it stumped. It appears there is at least one thing machines cannot yet do.
As an educator, I see the consequences of poor handwriting every day. Answer scripts are marked on what the evaluator can read, and a correct answer that cannot be deciphered may not earn its full credit. Students who write clearly also tend to organise their thoughts better, because legible writing demands a measure of patience and attention.
I admit my own handwriting is not great. In my forties, it is unlikely to change now. My students, however, are still learning, and their letters can still be shaped. That is a responsibility of students and it deserves more attention and time it currently gets.
Here, at least, teachers still have the upper hand. Years of marking answer scripts have taught us to read the most mysterious handwriting. Where AI declares the page illegible, a teacher simply tilts the paper, squints, murmurs “I think that is photosynthesis,” and awards the marks. We know which student always writes “the” like “tea,” and which one’s “g” looks suspiciously like a “y.” We can often tell who wrote a page before reading a single word. No algorithm has yet learned to recognise handwriting by its personality, and experience, it seems, still beats the machine.
Good writing is a skill for a lifetime, whether for an examination paper, a note to a loved one, or a prescription that someone must read correctly.
Technology may one day decipher every scrawl. Until then, a clear handwriting remains a courtesy to the reader, human or otherwise.
By : Reshma Gowramma
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