At this late stage in life, I’ve decided to try to do something about my awful handwriting. It’s not exactly illegible, but it is really ugly. So I’ve been Googling for methods of doing this, and frankly am a bit overwhelmed by all the options presented on the Internet. There are lots of books on the subject (some of them very expensive), and even more individual web sites discussing various systems.
I’d like to get started without breaking the bank, but am having trouble getting off the ground and thought that this Board might be a good place for advice.
Have any of you Dopers ever done anything like this? If so, could you send some advice my way - what worked, and what didn’t? How long did it take to get a reasonable attractive hand? I would really like to learn Spencerian or Copperplate, but I have a suspicion that these are beyond me, at least for a while.
Anyway, I would be grateful for any information you can provide. Many thanks in advance.
I personally have never had good handwriting. In grade school I was one of those geeky kids that got all As on my report card - except for penmanship - straight Cs, every quarter. When I became an engineer and had to start signing forms and such, my handwriting really went to crap. My signature isn’t even legible these days.
So I’m probably not the best person to ask for advice on handwriting.
But I will tell you this. I used to know a guy who had absolutely perfect handwriting. Until I met him, I wouldn’t have believed that such perfect handwriting was even possible. I asked him about it one day, and he said it started with calligraphy.
So there you go. Buy yourself a cheap calligraphy pen, and start practicing. You could end up with phenomenally good handwriting.
A lot of problems with handwriting stim from a poor grip, especially a hooking grip. Modifying the grip to a better, more repeatable angle is one key to good penmanship.
Like the o.p. I made a special effort much after college to improve my penmanship, and while it is far from perfect, it is. uch improved. The process is like improving your dancing steps or golf swing; a lot of practice in doing it correctly, over and over again, starting with individual letters and then common words.
Second on that suggestion and also doing a lot of repetition in pencil in a notebook and comparing the results over time. Basically the old fixed sentence drills us older people did in school.
Yeah, I totally changed mine but it took “practice, practice, practice”. It started with noticing how cool architects’ writing was, then I developed my own Wright-esque alphabet.
Then I had to use it. All the time. Over and over.
I still revert to barely legible scribbling when I have to write fast, or when I’m lazy. But when i’m careful, I can look cool.
My boss comes to me to write captions on the boards in big presentations to clients.
I am not clear on what is meant by the hooking grip. One thing I’ve noticed is that when I write, the point is held between the thumb and first two fingers and the barrel comes between my thumb and forefinger. When I see young people write the point is in the same position, but the barrel comes between the fore and middle fingers. Is this how it is now taught?
I just got a letter from my 22 year old grandson who is about to graduate from college and it was all printed. Very neat and very legible. I am not sure he can do cursive, but I see he doesn’t do it. Something to keep in mind. Yes, it is slower, but how much does anyone handwrite these days anyway?
More than you would think. Like libraries, land-lines, and other things we could list I figure we’re 20-30 years away from it being rare. It is just adapting in modern times to more specialized applications from the general communication it was used for.
Back in the day my job required nice handwriting. I worked in a bank when General Ledger tickets were filled out by hand (it wasn’t that long ago, shut up!). Poor handwriting could cause later keying errors and cost real money. My poor previously poor handwriting got better by slowing down a bit a first, then became second nature with practice. Interestingly enough, after not having to have nice handwriting for many years it’s regressed to about where I started.
I learned cursive in grade school just long enough to sign my name. Then I went right back to printing everything. It helped that I used to be a draftsman and everything was hand written. Then l I modernized and got CAD on a computer. After that my lettering was perfect. But I always liked drawing fonts even back in grade school. I print everything.
But one thing I learned is that you have to think every letter before writing it. I had a student draftsman one year and he couldn’t write clearly either. I told him to write everything in block italic. He had to pay attention and it got better. He actually liked writing that way. So we had a couple of sets of drawings with italic writing. If I had to change something on his drawing I wrote in italic too.
If you’re left-handed you probably learned how to write from a right-handed teacher, which didn’t help at all.
Some people just don’t have the motor capability to have good handwriting. But assuming you do…
I reformed my handwriting in my first two years of college, so when I was 18/19 years old. That’s young, but still an adult. At the same time that I was writing by hand a lot–because I was taking notes in class, and that was before laptops in classrooms–I found a handwriting font that I admired, with somewhat nonstandard capitals, and emulated it.
I ended up with handwriting that was sometimes mistaken for a computer printout. It’s worth noting that I did all my writing with a rollerball. A felt-tip pen is handwriting-friendly also. Ballpoints mostly make my handwriting worse, though the Papermate Inkjoy is okay.
So, to get good handwriting, try to get good handwriting, and try a lot.
I finished all my college-y stuff over a decade ago, and my handwriting isn’t as nice as it was. Still pretty good, just not perfect.
I third the suggestion of studying calligraphy. I have not done it myself, but my mother did. She always hated her handwriting, and then one day she decided to change it. She got a book and some special pens and practiced, practiced, practiced. Now everyone oohs and aahs over her handwriting.
Besides being left-handed, I just had horrible handwriting. I used these Two Simple Tricks to improve my handwriting from crude and illegible to merely crude.
Write more slowly
Break your letters apart and move your hand more. What I mean is, insteadoftryingtowrite something that’s an inch or longer in a single movement, try writ ing thre e or four lett er s at a ti me and reposition your hand more frequently.
Treat yourself to a dip pen and bottled ink. Without practicing, a dip pen led me to develop an entirely different writing style. Just something about it, the feel of the nib on the paper, different inks – puts you into a different world.
My wife is a lay preacher at her local church. She has taken responsibility for writing out marriage and baptism certificates.
Her handwriting used to be pretty poor and it doesn’t help that she is left handed, but by writing slowly, sitting at a desk; with practice she has improved enormously.
Thanks to all for your replies. It seems like there is a recurring theme , to wit:
Whatever system you decide to use, practice, practice, and then more practice is required. Gotta try that.
I have found that, as mentioned in some of the replies, slowing down makes a big difference. So I am now starting slow, but keeping things slow instead of gradually speeding up is really hard for me.
I taught fourth grade for a year, and i dreaded teaching loopy cursive. Try italic cursive. It’s basically joined printing. It’s super fast to learn. I used to have sloppy handwriting… now I get compliments.
Two questions: Is there a difference between plain “handwriting” and “calligraphy”? I don’t need to learn all the swoops and flourishes. How does that related to “lettering” in comics, art and drafting?
Okay, that’s more than two questions, but I also want to ask if anyone here has learned Spencerian or some other non-D’nealian script? Is it worth learning if all I want to do is write like a 19th century clerk? What kind of time/effort commitment am I looking at?
Honestly, I learned D’nealian cursive in the 3rd grade and promptly forgot it as soon as they stopped making us write that way (around 5th grade) and went back to printing, except for my signature, which has evolved into a personal scribble. So in attempting to go back and practice cursive again, I have considered trying another script entirely, like Spencerian. If so, does anybody know how or where I should start?
