My Journey To A Legible Hand

[Inkyfingerz]

As I'm sure you've guessed from the thread name this is another, "I can barely read my own handwriting, help me make it better" thread. I'm creating this thread as a place where I can post my progress, seek help, and possibly motivate others (if I follow through and end up with something nice at the end).

 

Like many others I learned a cursive font in 3rd grade with the understanding that in 4th grade my teachers wouldn't accept my assignments if they were printed. Well, nobody really cared how I wrote and it shows now. Although I'm only a senior in high school my handwriting has become a terrible eye sore. I have taken several AP (college level) classes and the scribbling of notes has become a norm for me. I'm trying to salvage my handwriting before it becomes beyond rescue.

 

First, a few more details. My intended college major is Biochemistry with the hope of going to medical school to be a surgeon. Given this, I'll be writing not only common English, but various kinds of other squiggly notations commonly found in calculus, chemistry and the sciences. In the long run perhaps I'll learn a very ornate fancy schmancy form for other purposes but right now, my goal is to learn a clean, legible, yet still appealing, form that is fast enough for taking notes.

 

tl;dr: I want to learn a new style of handwriting that is fast enough for taking notes, yet beautiful enough to stand out and catch the eye.

 

 

I am an absolute noob in the world of fountain pens and handwriting. If not absolute, I'm still extremely noobish. I have inferred there are 2 types of writing. One is monoline, which has no line variation. The other is italic, which does contain line variation. I would like to learn an italic script because I find the line variation to be beautiful and shading provided by the pen adds a lot to it. Italic would also give me the line variation commonly seen in mathematical and scientific notations such as deltas and sigmas.

Tl;dr: I want to learn italic, unless there's a better alternative.

So here's where you all come in. Can anyone recommend a new style, and if needed for italic, a new pen as well? As a high school student my budget is tight but I plan on buying a new pen with Christmas money anyways.

 

Kudos to anyone who read through this whole post and thanks in advance for your help.

[pmhudepo]

I understand Italic scales well with with speed and is easy to read for many people. For more information, find FPN member caliken and take a look at his postings and his books.

 

I like Business Writing because it is a very fluid, or flowing, style. There appears to be a strong "drive forward" when using this style and it's well suited to fine nibs. For more information, go to www.iampeth.com, section Rare Books and take a look at Modern Business Penmanship by EC Mills. Alternatively, explore the Palmer method.

 

Business and Palmer can get choppy when written at speed. For instance, the nice ascenders and loops in the letters l, h, b and k disappear when I speed up my writing. I like the way you flow from one letter to the next, e.g. in the word "all."

 

Most importantly, I think, is to develop a relaxed hand. Search for words like "death grip" and "tripod grip." Try to use your whole arm and not just your fingers when writing. Practise, sketch, doodle.

 

edit: want to add that I'm also learning and improving as I go along. I only recently discovered a rhythm of sorts that I can apply when writing. I'm switching back and forth between bigger and smaller pens, scribbly vintage nibs and sturdy modern pens.

Edited December 14, 2012 by pmhudepo

[Paddler]

I have degrees in biology and electronics and took all those courses in math, chemistry, physics, etc, in addition to all the "inert filler" courses the powers that be foisted off on me. For speed, I suggest a round-pointed nib and printing. It should be lower case characters that can be made with a single stroke whenever possible. I would save the italic, cursive italic, or even stub pens for times when I could slow down and make things pretty. Writing at speed, a cursive hand turns into a hair ball and italic pens will catch a corner.

[bassmannate]

Subscribed. I'm going through the same thing. Waiting for my first pens to arrive in a few days. Been working on my writing lately and wanted to take the next step to improvement. It's starting to look like a 2nd or 3rd grader's writing which is an improvement from what it was since you can actually start to read it.

[Inkyfingerz]

How many words per minute can be done with italic versus Business/Palmer? I'm not sure if that statistic is even known but I know that Palmer was meant to be able to keep up with early type writers. Don't italic pens have rounded corners too keep them from catching paper?

[JefferyS]

Cursive italic nibs and stub nibs have rounded corners. I think the best handwriting book out there is Fred Eager's book, though it is out if print. I got mine through Amazon.com (used).

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N278190CL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

[Inkyfingerz]

I own the Getty and Dubay "Write Now" guide but haven't really been using it because I haven't made time for it. Is there really any large difference between the two? Although I'm sure there is I feel like to start, one guide compared to another isn't a monumental shift. Do any pens come with cursive italic/stub nibs? I know they can be purchased on Binder's website but the prices can be steep.

[JefferyS]

Getty and Dubay is the best "in print" book, and it will definitely help your writing. Don't buy the DVD. It assumes that you have never written in English (so it is basically around the 1st grade level).

In using both books, I find myself thinking "left, down, up diagonally, down", etc. Some of the letters are just not consistent with the "Civil Service" longhand I learned in the 1950s.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Jeffery Smith

[caliken]

In my opinion, the best books on the subject of Italic Handwriting are -

 

A Handwriting Manual - Alfred Fairbank

Italic Handwriting & Handwriting for Today - Tom Gourdie

Write Now - Getty and Dubay

 

caliken

Edited December 15, 2012 by caliken

[JefferyS]

I was able to find this edition of Fairbank. It is so old, I am considering scanning the entire book and printing it on fresh paper. It may be available on the 'net as a PDF file, but some of those scans are really poor.

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NLc3Qz26L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

[bizmiard]

I'm in a similar situation to you, and I think I've improved a lot both in speed and legibility since around a month ago. When I first started I found it extremely difficult to keep pace with notes, especially in history, which writing in a cursive hand. As a result, I often switched to print towards the end of slides, to make sure I got everything down. Over time, I used my print less and less, and now I don't use it at all. The key is to slow down while learning, which admittedly can be difficult while attempting to take notes at the same time. I'm still a fair bit slower with cursive than I am with print, so I wouldn't write in cursive for any kind of paper or essay done in class.

 

I started by writing all my home assignments in cursive, and taking the time to do it correctly. In addition, every few days (I lack the conviction to do it every day) I would go through all the lowercase letter forms in cursive, slowly and then progressively faster. One letter, over and over again, across one line of the page. Same for a-->z. This also seemed to help a lot.

[GClef]

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/photobucket-49739-1355636032343.jpg

[bizmiard]

That is. Very good point to make, especially if you will be taking notes with it. Even now I find myself tearing through notebooks at an alarming pace (100+ pages of just history byes in the last three and a half months). Add in the fact that with most fountain pens you'll need some good paper - I recommend clairefontaine - and you could be looking at a hefty bill here. This isn't to discourage you or anything, but just be aware that a years worth of notebooks could run you upwards of 75 dollars.

If you wish not to deal with clairefontaine paper, I would make sure you have an xf nib- but for me I love the shading provided by my medium-broad range nibs far too much to switch. Plus then I'd only be able to use those pens and that's just a little ew for me.

[GClef]

 

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/photobucket-18884-1355637251760.jpg

[bizmiard]

I hope this is legible...

[Inkyfingerz]

I think keeping more words per line is more important than words per minute. My only class that I take a lot of notes in daily is anatomy and my teacher gives us handouts that never have enough room. I think I'll time myself just writing a page at an average, comfortable speed, and post a pic with the time. If I can keep the same speed I have now that will be enough. It doesn't really need to be any faster

[bizmiard]

.

[Inkyfingerz]

This page took me approximately eight minutes to write. I think it's mostly legible if you exclude the ink smudging. It certainly isn't anything attractive or worth bragging about. It basically just "gets by" and is acceptable enough for my teachers.

 

 

Edit: Sorry the picture is sideways and gigantic. It's just a cell phone pic and I wasn't too sure how to edit it for the site.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Inkyfingerz

[GClef]

 

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/photobucket-66691-1355643344596.jpg

[bizmiard]

Hmm after seeing that I would actually imagine cursive to reduce the amount of space you use as opposed to increasing it. Your words are spaced quite far apart, which will compensate for the increase in individual word length.

 

Also, it is unfortunate but you MUST slow down for progress to occur. The speed will naturally pick up afterwards- this is true for both cursive and print by the way.

 

At first, work on just spacing and letter proportions. This will naturally improve your form, to a degree, but will more importantly give you a basis for working from afterwards. If you can get your hands on it, French ruled paper (again clairefontaine) will be an excellent tool. I saw it for around 10 dollars for the A4 size online, you may get it cheaper..

 

Other than that, the speed seems fine- I write about 3 pages for a single spaced essay in 40 minutes, but again I'm thinking a bit more about what I'm saying, as well as planning. Plus I think my handwriting is a tad smaller and more compact..

 

 

GClef- nice, I laughed