Your Handwriting Quality?

[autophile]

And then there's illumination, which is like calligraphy (decorative lettering) to the nth power, with colors.

 

--Rob

[Paddler]

I just retired from a career in electronics where I was bench-tech / tech support / technical writer. Most of my writing has been done on one computer or another. The rest has been block printing because that is the way you label pictures and schematics with circles and arrows and call-outs. I was also into ham radio for years, and when you are copying Morse code, lower case block printing is the only writing that is fast enough.

 

Last year, when the pen bug bit me, I decided to resurrect the old school cursive hand I learned in the '50s. Egad! It was awful. I could hardly read what I had just written. It has been a struggle, but I think I have managed to pull it back to the brink of legibility. Making it pretty may take the rest of my life.

 

I own a house that was built by our town's doctor in 1886. With the house came some of the doctor's day books. In these books he listed the date, whom he treated, and how much he charged for the service. His hand is pretty. It would probably be called Spencerian. It is difficult to read at first because of the flourishes on the capitals and the shading of the vertical lines. The writing does not look studied and carefully drawn. I think he could write in the style quickly and it pleased him to do so.

 

This doctor had a partner, probably the guy who made house-calls. He made entries in the day books too. His hand is Spencerian, but very cramped and has a "drawn" look. It is very legible, though, and after reading it for a while, I would say that it too is pretty.

 

The doctor's daughter inherited the place and, starting around 1900, used the day books to keep her household accounts (about once a year she would pay about 13 cents for "writing fluid"). Her hand was the "business cursive" that I learned in school. Her entries were probably hastily made and written only for her own eyes, but they are very regular and legible and pretty, I think.

 

Maybe beauty is in the eye of the pen holder.

 

Paddler

[Paddler]

  Judybug said:

I do work at trying to make my ordinary handwriting [not calligraphy] look nice and uniform, but I have discovered something that is hard to explain ---- if I'm focused too much on the appearance of my writing while I'm actually writing a letter, my handwriting gets worse. If I focus on what I want to say, my handwriting seems to improve.

 

 

Judybug

Judybug,

 

You have struck the idea that took me half a lifetime to learn as a shade-tree musician: once you have become proficient with an instrument, you quit playing that instrument and concentrate on playing the music. The concept works with trap shooting, archery, fly fishing, driving a car, . . . and handwriting.

 

 

Paddler

[alvarez57]

  Quicksilver said:

I have bad doctor handwriting. My print varies between "illegible," and "possibly a foreign language, but at least they look like words." That being said, I have decided to switch to cursive handwriting in an effort to force myself to concetrate on my handwriting.

Well done, I'm proud of you. the nurses say I'm one of the very few whose handwritting is legible. My father, who was a Physician, always told me to write legible so people [nurses] can understand what I want to say/order.

[Judybug]

  Paddler said:

  Judybug said:

I do work at trying to make my ordinary handwriting [not calligraphy] look nice and uniform, but I have discovered something that is hard to explain ---- if I'm focused too much on the appearance of my writing while I'm actually writing a letter, my handwriting gets worse.  If I focus on what I want to say, my handwriting seems to improve. 

 

 

Judybug

Judybug,

 

You have struck the idea that took me half a lifetime to learn as a shade-tree musician: once you have become proficient with an instrument, you quit playing that instrument and concentrate on playing the music. The concept works with trap shooting, archery, fly fishing, driving a car, . . . and handwriting.

 

 

Paddler

Do you remember those "Inner Game . . ." books? I think it started with "The Inner Game of Tennis." I have "The Inner Game of Music." These books have some very useful concepts that helped me as a pianist and piano teacher. It's just recently that I noticed these concepts apply to handwriting as well.

 

Judybug

[Sonnet]

  alvarez57 said:

  Quicksilver said:

I have bad doctor handwriting.  My print varies between "illegible," and "possibly a foreign language, but at least they look like words."  That being said, I have decided to switch to cursive handwriting in an effort to force myself to concetrate on my handwriting.

Well done, I'm proud of you. the nurses say I'm one of the very few whose handwritting is legible. My father, who was a Physician, always told me to write legible so people [nurses] can understand what I want to say/order.

And pharmacists and their technicians

[Paddler]

  Judybug said:

  Paddler said:

  Judybug said:

I do work at trying to make my ordinary handwriting [not calligraphy] look nice and uniform, but I have discovered something that is hard to explain ---- if I'm focused too much on the appearance of my writing while I'm actually writing a letter, my handwriting gets worse.  If I focus on what I want to say, my handwriting seems to improve. 

 

 

Judybug

Judybug,

 

You have struck the idea that took me half a lifetime to learn as a shade-tree musician: once you have become proficient with an instrument, you quit playing that instrument and concentrate on playing the music. The concept works with trap shooting, archery, fly fishing, driving a car, . . . and handwriting.

 

 

Paddler

Do you remember those "Inner Game . . ." books? I think it started with "The Inner Game of Tennis." I have "The Inner Game of Music." These books have some very useful concepts that helped me as a pianist and piano teacher. It's just recently that I noticed these concepts apply to handwriting as well.

 

Judybug

No, I have never heard of the "Inner Game . . ." Books. Are they about "visualizing" an activity when one is not actually practicing it?

 

I read of a study that had non-basketball people shooting foul shots. One group practiced in the gym one day a week and then visualized practicing for the same amount of time on the other days. The other group went to the gym every day. The people who visualized ended up at least as proficient as those who actually shot hoops the whole time.

 

Maybe this would work for penmanship. You could visualize making perfect letters during a lunch break. It would certainly be something that would keep your mind occupied while you watch football.

 

Paddler

[D.R.Mabuse]

I'm a printer, usualy because I have to work fast, and I can be extremely neat with lettering (former draftsman). However, my cursive hand is usually flat and a bit messy.

 

This is partly why I appreciate fp's, which allow me to go more vertical on my letters. You can actually read what I write, and it looks half-decent.

Edited January 20, 2007 by D.R.Mabuse

[KateGladstone]

A word about handwriting styles and speed — according to 1998 research in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION RESEARCH (citation below), the fastest and most legible handwriters do not adhere to cursive style. Highest-speed, highest-legibility handwriters join some, not all, of their letters (making only the easiest joins, and skipping the rest), and tend to combine print-like and cursive-like formations (particularly tending to use print-like forms for those letters whose printed and cursive formations seriously "disagree.")

 

CITATION:

Graham, S., Berninger, V., & Weintraub, N. (1998). The relationship

between handwriting style and speed and quality. Journal of

Educational Research, volume 91, issue number 5, (May/June 1998),

pages 290-297.

[alvarez57]

  KateGladstone said:

A word about handwriting styles and speed — according to 1998 research in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION RESEARCH (citation below), the fastest and most legible handwriters do not adhere to cursive style. Highest-speed, highest-legibility handwriters join some, not all, of their letters (making only the easiest joins, and skipping the rest), and tend to combine print-like and cursive-like formations (particularly tending to use print-like forms for those letters whose printed and cursive formations seriously "disagree.")

 

CITATION:

Graham, S., Berninger, V., & Weintraub, N. (1998).  The relationship

between handwriting style and speed and quality. Journal of

Educational Research, volume 91, issue number 5, (May/June 1998),

pages 290-297.

That's how I write, a combo of cursive and "separate"! I f I do pure cursive when I'm speed writing, not only it'll be slow as molasses but slopy.

Edited January 21, 2007 by alvarez57

[rbbrock]

I've been trying to work on my penmanship more when I have the time to write more slowly, but I always feel guilty doing it at work. Well, not always, but when I'm working on a case that's billed hourly I do. <_< Perhaps I should confine my self-improvement during working hours to contingency cases...

[KateGladstone]

Re:

 

> I've been trying to work on my penmanship more when I have the time to write >more slowly, but I always feel guilty doing it at work. Well, not always, but when >I'm working on a case that's billed hourly I do. Perhaps I should confine my self->improvement during working hours to contingency cases...

 

Better yet — during work-hours, pick just one thing at a time to work on: nominate a "Handwriting Target of the Day/Week/Fortnight."

 

For example — suppose that your most visible handwriting woes include:

 

/a/ forming "u" like an open-topped "o" (instead of properly, which requires going down-up-down and not merely down-up)

 

/b/ open (rather than closed) tops on "a/d/g/o/q"

 

/c/ inconsistent slant.

 

Today and for the next few days, during work-hours, you can commit to forming every "u" correctly (and not worry during work-hours about any other scribal lapses.

 

Once you have the "u" under control, add proper formation of "a/d/g/o/q" to work workplace scribal responsibilities.

 

When you have both "u" and the "a/d/g/o/q" group under control, start focusing on slant too — so now you have three things to deal with, but you've never had more than one new thing at a time to deal with.

 

Even if you progressed very slowly (e.g., even if you decided to re-model all the lower-case letters at a rate of just one letter focused on per fortnight), within a year you would have made vast progress (e.g., if re-modeling no more than one letter every two weeks, at the end of a year you would have re-modeled the entire lower-case, "a" through "z.")

[Paddler]

Kate,

 

YAY !!!!!!!!!

 

Paddler

[KateGladstone]

Well, Paddler, if my information helps you, I hope you'll eventually post some handwriting samples (before working on handwriting - then after some work - then after more work - etc., etc.)

 

;-)

[Paddler]

  KateGladstone said:

Well, Paddler, if my information helps you, I hope you'll eventually post some handwriting samples (before working on handwriting - then after some work - then after more work - etc., etc.)

 

;-)

I'd be happy to do that, Kate, but I don't have a scanner; don't know anybody who does. The crux of the matter is, I can make my writing (the "Business Cursive" that I learned in the '50s) look like an exemplar if I really take my time with it. The problem is, I can't get anything done that way. When I try to speed it up to a reasonable pace, the whole thing gets ugly. It is like playing a musical instrument: practice a lot, and speed will come eventually. Know any etudes for penmanship? (Hey, I just stumped the spell-checker on this thing.)

 

Paddler

[KateGladstone]

"_Études_ for Penmanship"

 

PERFORMANCE NOTE: Practice each of the following _études_ four times in a practice-session:

 

1st time — as slowly as you need in order to get it exactly right at a comfortable rate

 

2nd time — slightly faster than the 1st time; aim to produce 5 more LLPMs (Legible Letters Per Minute) than the first time

 

3rd time — as fast as you can go WITHOUT losing legibility or control: when you sense a loss of control, slow down VERY slightly from this top speed in order to regain control

 

4th time — return to a slow and comfortable pace permitting maximum accuracy; if you time your performances, you will frequently find that you have written accurately at a faster rate during this 4th performance than during the session's 1st performance at the "same" slow-and-comfortable-feeling speed.

 

 

ÉTUDE 1

(perform no more than 5 - 6 lines of this in a given practice-session)

 

aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az

ba bb bc ... -> ... bx by bz

ca cb cc ... -> ... cx cy cz

... [over several days or a week, work through all possible combinations, up through]

za zb zc ... -> ... zx zy zz

 

 

ÉTUDE 2

(perform any ONE of these sentences in a given practice session)

 

The 12,345 quick brown foxes jump over the 67,890 lazy dogs.

The 9,876,543,210 jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

We waltz and rumba with five nymphs, but quick jigs do vex them.

I'll pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

 

 

ÉTUDE 3

(perform this very short paragraph in a given practice-session.)

 

Adjusting his quiver and bow, Robin Hood cunningly zipped many arrows into some black foxes. The grumpy, objectionable sheriff will have this zany Saxon quickly arrested for violating the law.

 

 

ÉTUDE 4

(to perform Étude 4, simply repeat IN ALL CAPITALS any of the sentences from Étude 2 or from Étude 3 — for example:)

 

THE 12,345 QUICK BROWN FOXES JUMP OVER THE 67,890 LAZY DOGS.

 

(choose different sentences on different performance dates)

[Paddler]

Thanks, Kate,

 

I have the etudes copied and will begin practice forthwith. Perhaps my copperplate will begin to look a bit less like boilerplate *grin*.

 

Paddler

[KateGladstone]

Very funny! I look forward to seeing your results!

[jimk]

I love pangrams!

 

Why prize quick judgement above a lasting fix?

[rbbrock]

Thanks for the advice, it's a great idea. I guess now I'll have to write something, figure out what my worst legibility problems are, and get started.