Correspondents should write clearly and honestly; illegible

Quote★★★

To correspondents we wish that elevated attainment of moral honesty, a disposition, not a capacity, to write a fair, open, honest hand. An unintelligible, slovenly chirography would seem to be the original sin of genius, not the mark of it, as some seem to suppose. We would duly appreciate every premonitory symptom of genius, but for the life of us we can see no finger-prints of Divine inspiration in a bush-fence of hieroglyphics as illegible as snail-tracks on the sea-beach.

— Burritt

The point

Correspondents should write clearly and honestly; illegible handwriting is not a sign of genius but of slovenliness.

Audience

Adults

Tone

Critical · Practical

To tell aloud

under a minute · 80 words

Subjects

Writing Honesty Communication Integrity Handwriting

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