Paper Positioning!

[SkylarKnight]

Hello all!

Been a while since I posted.. I've been lurking around more than writing! haha.

Anyways, I have a question to you all - how do you position your paper?

I usually turn my paper so the side side is almost parallel to my desk (does that make sense?)... Pretty much wide side down. I have seen some people use writing slopes, and I cannot imagine how one could write with their paper positioned like that... I suppose I don't make much sense, not knowing how to explain, so I'll add a few pictures and let you guys and gals answer the question.

 

http://www.randyasplund.com/imgs/ecclesiastes/writing.jpg

That's what I meant by the writing slope positioning..

 

 

http://www.4freephotos.com/images/batch/On-the-desk1835.jpg

And that's how I position my paper. (I write from top to bottom, but my paper is always this slanted...)

[NotRosie]

I usually tilt mine about this much. And I agree with you on the slope. It looks tough, but I guess it works for some people!

 

http://i.imgur.com/GNPBqQC.jpg

[Ted F]

For the first 20 years of my working life I worked at a drawing board which was tilted. I did all my writing and everything else on it. A tilted board works very well and of course I don't understand why it would be difficult.

[cactusneedle]

When I was in school, just learning cursive, I turned my paper almost upside down, just so I could get a forward slant on my writing. I remember my teacher constantly changing the angle of my paper to the proper slant, and I would turn it back. It was just too uncomfortable to write front slanted otherwise. I was "born" left-handed, but my mother trained me right-handed. There are a few things I do left-handed because it's more comfortable. Now I write back-slanted with my paper at the "normal" angle we were taught in school. I was probably in junior high when I started writing back-slanted. Just easier for me.

[proton007]

This page explains it well: http://www.iampeth.com/books/palmer_method_1935/palmerMethod_1935_page18.html

[SkylarKnight]

This page explains it well: http://www.iampeth.com/books/palmer_method_1935/palmerMethod_1935_page18.html

Thanks a lot!

[CraigR]

Makes sense to me now that I see the diagram from Iampeth.

[BBU]

Glad this was brought up because I have a question about it. Since December, I've experimented with a maximum rotation like that which Palmer and E. Mills recommend, to no rotation, and various angles in beween those. I often feel that my writing looks better and more consistent if I reduce the rotation (ie. bottom edge of page is parallel to edge of desk) and compensate for that by using increased left-to-right hand movement to maintain the same slant. The problem is that I've never seen an expert endorse this and I'm worried about developing bad habits. Is there any scientific basis for rotating the page and forcing more vertical hand movement to create letter forms? Any thoughts in general?

[pmhudepo]

I often rotate my page almost 45 degrees counter-clockwise so that I can pull downstrokes straight towards my body and yet have these strokes slanted on the paper. Especially if you are using a flexible nib this seems helpful.

 

As far as a writing slope goes, I really like the one my father created for me. I feel like I'm leaning less into my writing and can instead sit more upright, or even lean a little in my chair. Its angle is adjustable, although it can go nowhere near a high as the one shown in the first post.

 

 

 

Both the writing slope and the rotation of the paper make my writing easier, less constrained.