I’ve started a new job, and it will require a lot of handwriting. Problem is mine sucks, really bad. I can do an ok job of it if I slow down. I’d like to improve, at least a bit. Looking at what I just wrote a few minutes ago I have a bit of a hard time with what I wrote, not much, but I’m sure others will.
I normally try and write with a pencil, but for my job I will have to write in pen and pencil. I tend to smear when I write with a pen. I also only write in block letters, and I believe that’s how they want it at the new job.
So help me out those with gorgeous penmanship.
It’s like getting to Carnegie Hall, you need to practice.
When we were learning to write in grammar school, there was a workbook with sample sentences. Letters were either dotted or dashed and we traced them a time or two and then practiced writing them freehand below the example. Here’s a site that lets you create and print sample workbooksheets.
This site has some photos illustrating how to hold the pen. Also, you need to move your hand and arm as you write. It gets messy if you try to rest your hand on the desk/table and just move your fingers.
Practice using pencils and different types of pens, too. If you’re comfortable with the grip and ink flow, your writing will look better. (In school we were required to use fountain pens exclusively until about fourth grade.)
It also helps if you can get a mean nun to stand over you, watching and ready to smack you with a heavy steel ruler if you screw up.
Are you left-handed? My husband is and he has this problem when he forgets to angle the paper correctly. This website talks a bit about it. I also find I write more neatly when the paper is at the right angle.
Just my experience: I had terrible handwriting when I was young! Then, one year, for Christmas, my mother bought me a calligraphy set. It included a fountain pen (the kind with cartridges, not the kind you ‘dip’), parchment paper, an instruction booklet, guides of correct form, etc.
After a winter with that puppy, my handwriting got so good that, at age 15, a local realtor hired me to hand-address post cards she had to send out to prospective clients!
IOW, first, learn to write much better than you have to, then writing ‘really well for the circumstance’ will come easy!
No, not left handed, though I almost said something about that. I’m not sure where I can find a nun at the office, but I’ll look around.
http://www.cep.pdx.edu/titles/italic_series/faq.shtml
The link will give you information about italic cursive.
Take a lined notebook and do continuous loops across each line staying between the lines. Make sure you slant slightly the loops to the right. This is how I was taught. I think it was the Palmer Method.
Here’s a site, complete with worksheets, etc., which you need for “loosening up” your writing hand.
http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm
When I was in Grade Three, my teacher complained to my mother about my handwriting (back then, they started to teach us to write in Grade Two). My mother, who had beautiful cursive handwriting, and who had even taken penmanship class when she went to high school then made it her mission to improve my handwriting.
It worked, and only took a couple of months, an hour each night, to learn cursive. Since then, I have received many compliments over the last 40 or so years, including “You have such nice handwriting for a man,” which is probably my favorite. When I went back to college, people who missed class would ask to borrow my notes because they said they never had a problem reading them.
Assuming I’m writing on a flat hard surface with sufficient space, my handwriting gets neater if I slow down. And I had a similar experience to what norinew is referring to.
Way back in the day, I had the incredible good luck to have lunch with the late Kelly Freas, an award winning science fiction artist. As I recall he was asked to autograph something. He pulls out a felt tip pen and writes “Best wishes” or some such and signs his name. And it was gorgeous !!
I turn to him and say, “Wow!! That was beautiful !! How’d you do that?”
He shows me the felt tip pen has a chisel point. “You can get them at almost any office supply store.” he says.
I was hooked. Before long writing became fun and then my penmanship got really good.