Typophile

Question about a slanted "s"

micki_a

Hi, there.

This might be a really stupid question, but I am anxious to find an answer, and this is the only reason I have subscribed to this list. So please give me a break and put me out of my misery by shedding light on my ignorance.

I am currently doing an on-line job that involves grading standardized writing tests for seventh graders. Something peculiar I have noticed in their handwritten answers is the odd writing of an "s". Instead of the top and the bottom of the "s" being at 12 and 6 o'clock, these "s"'s have been written so that the top and bottom are more at like 2 and 8 o'clock. And they are always very fat and very curvy.

I am culturally deprived, as I do not watch tv, nor do I follow much but music and politics. I am also a tad older (48), and therefore am sure I am not running into the same things that a seventh grader would.

So, can someone help me out here? I've tried googling "s" logo images, and I even thought maybe Justin Bieber wrote his name this way (I do, after all, get some popular culture exposure when I log on to my e-mail account, so I know he is all the rave with this crowd). But no go.

Any kind soul prepared to help me out with this one? I thought it seemed like a good place to ask the question. And I am a curious sort, at that.

Jason Pagura

Without images of the writing you're seeing compared to the writing that you expect, I can only guess. What you describe may be "round writing", a common youthful feminine hand that seems to transcend cultures and even scripts.

Does this resemble the sort of writing you're seeing?


excerpted from http://www.kinsellaresearch.com/new/Cuties%20in%20Japan.pdf

I realize that may not be particularly helpful in this case, the example being hiragana and possibly not exhibiting the traits you describe.

Jason Pagura

It seems normal for the stroke of an S to begin at 2 and end at 8 o'clock. To begin and end on the vertical would seem to make an S lean backward. Are you perhaps seeing something more like an integral symbol, or a sine wave?

Luma Vine

Are you saying that the S begins to look like 8?

Reynir Heiðberg...

Nope, I think that the S's are Excessively Oblique Extended. And, no, I have no idea if the kids are emulating a celeb or a teacher.

Justin_Ch

It seems normal for the stroke of an S to begin at 2 and end at 8 o'clock. To begin and end on the vertical would seem to make an S lean backward.

I think they mean that the loops of s are in these clock positions rather than being two separate clock faces. So rather than being upright, they are slanted.

Is S the only slanted letter and all the others are upright?

Luma Vine

Is the OP still around with an example?

Captured from web.archive.org on 17 Apr 2011. view this capture