Re: of interest re handwriting
- From: "Kate Gladstone" <handwritingrepair@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:09:49 -0500
Roger and other scribal "old dogs learning new tricks" - follow these
eight tips, one by one, and you should end up with a pretty nice
Italic handwriting.
Start with tip #1 - do just that one until you feel pretty
comfortable - then add tip #2. Once you can comfortably fit both tips
into your handwriting, add tip #3 to the mix ... then tip #4 ... etc.,
etc. Give yourself a week or two per new-added tip, and in two to four
months (once you've built all eight tips into your handwriting) you'll
have Italic. Then you may (or may not) need to come back to me for
some tips on building more speed. (I don't give out speed-suggestions
until someone has the basics "down pat" - focusing on speed before
quality would destroy, rather than build or rebuild, a handwriting.)
1. Cross lower-case t's and x's as you write them - dot lower-case i's
and j's as soon as possible after you write them. Don't wait till you
finish the entire word to go back and finish a letter. Finishing
letters when you make them actually takes much less time and effort
than later having to go backwards after you finish the word so that
you can dot or cross before you can go forward again. Also, finishing
your t/i/j/x "on the spot" makes for a neater, more accurate placement
of the dot or cross than hurrying back to put it in later.
2. Don't feel that you have to join all letters in a word. Research
shows that the fastest, most legible writers tend to join some but not
all letters when they write. High-speed high-legibility handwriters
use only the easiest and fastest joins. If any combination of letters
would require a difficult join that could slow down writing, the
high-speed high-legibility handwriter does not use that join.
High-speed high-legibility handwriting tends to look like fast
printing with some joins.
3. Emphasize the downstrokes of letters. Keep them parallel, at only
about a 5 to 15 degree slant to the right (Too much slant interferes
with legibility).
4. Wherever you can, eliminate loops on letter-stems (the long
up-and-down strokes in letters like h and y). Simply retrace your
initial stroke on ascenders, or lift the pen without looping on
descenders. (Most adults who write fast but legibly eliminate many or
all of the loops in their handwriting.)
5. Join letters with straight lines, not curves. For examply, join o
to o with a straight, short horizontal line instead of a
time-consuming and hard-to-decipher curl or dip. If you "print" your
writing, explore using straight-line joins at least out of the letters
t, f, and o. Try this in words like "to" and "from." You'll see that
straight-line joins out of t/f/o increase the speed and fluency of the
writing without requiring you to change its print-like appearance.
6. When printed and cursive letters disagree in shape (this happens
mostly with capitals and with the lowercase letters b/f/k/r/s/z),
integrate the printed shapes into your cursive. Don't bother with the
cursive shapes. High-speed, high-legibility handwriters tend to use a
high proportion of printed letter-shapes even when joining letters.
7. Position the paper in front of the writing-arm's shoulder. Use your
non-writing hand to hold the paper, and turn the paper so that its
left and right edges parallel the forearm of the arm you write with.
(Left-handers should have their paper parallel the left forearm -
right-handers should have it parallel the right forearm.) If you write
with a "hook" hand-position and cannot seem to change it (this happens
mostly with left-handers), instead of having the left and right edges
of the paper parallel to your writing forearm (left or right) you
should have the top and bottom edges of the paper parallel to your
writing forearm.
8. Did you know that the law does _not_ require cursive for
signatures? (Ask a lawyer!) According to legal definitions of
"signature" and "writing" in BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY (a standard legal
reference) and the revised Uniform Commercial Code (law in all 50
states), any way of writing (not just cursive) qualifies legally as
your signature if you use it for your signature. Of course, make sure
to register a new signature with your bank before you use it - the
same as you would if your signature changed for any other reason (such
as a severe change in your vision or general health - or the common
case of a bride adopting her husband's surname). Tell the bank that
your handwriting and therefore your signature have changed - perhaps
tell the bank-official how the change came about - and make sure that
the bank DOES NOT get rid of your old signature-card: you may still
have some checks outstanding somewhere.
(If you need me to quote the above-referenced legal definitions
of "signature" and "writing," just let me know. I have the wording on
file somewhere.)
Yours for better letters,
Kate Gladstone
Handwriting Repair and the World Handwriting Contest
handwritingrepair@xxxxxxxxx
http://learn.to/handwrite, http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair
325 South Manning Boulevard
Albany, New York 12208-1731 USA
telephone 518/482-6763
AND REMEMBER ...
you can order books through my site!
(Amazon.com link -
I get a 5% - 15% commission on each book sold)
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