Improving My 'everyday' Handwriting

[migo984]

Hi

 

I'm a newbie on FPN and I'm after some advice. Hope this is the right forum and the attached pic is legible - it was taken on my smartphone.

 

thanks

 

Marie

 

 

[Nanny]

Your handwriting has a nice distinctive look!

 

This video seems to have helped many:

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/9112-how-to-improve-handwriting

[migo984]

Your handwriting has a nice distinctive look!

 

This video seems to have helped many:

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/9112-how-to-improve-handwriting

 

Thank you Nanny. I'll take a look

 

Marie

[smk]

Your letter forms are not bad and will improve greatly if you slowed down a little bit. I think most of the 'scruffiness' is from the speed you are trying to achieve.

 

Do you want to change the look of your handwriting? If so, have you picked a style (Palmer, Italic)?

 

How about writing 'Good morning all' in your own handwriting for starters - just pay attention to the following:

 

- All small letters should be exactly the same size i.e. they should touch the line they are sitting on (baseline) and all should reach the same height (called x-height). You can draw an x-height line in pencil if you want.

 

- Verticals should be straight up and down. You don't seem to have much problem here.

 

- The shapes should be clear i.e. an 'n' cannot be mistaken for a 'u'.

 

That's it - post your attempt and see if it is any better. Don't worry about speed at this point - it will come with time.

 

Salman

[migo984]

Your letter forms are not bad and will improve greatly if you slowed down a little bit. I think most of the 'scruffiness' is from the speed you are trying to achieve.

 

Do you want to change the look of your handwriting? If so, have you picked a style (Palmer, Italic)?

 

How about writing 'Good morning all' in your own handwriting for starters - just pay attention to the following:

 

- All small letters should be exactly the same size i.e. they should touch the line they are sitting on (baseline) and all should reach the same height (called x-height). You can draw an x-height line in pencil if you want.

 

- Verticals should be straight up and down. You don't seem to have much problem here.

 

- The shapes should be clear i.e. an 'n' cannot be mistaken for a 'u'.

 

That's it - post your attempt and see if it is any better. Don't worry about speed at this point - it will come with time.

 

Salman

 

Thanks Salman.

 

Actually I didn't write that note with speed at all. But I'll try what you've suggested and see what happens. I don't want to change my individual style, just correct the obvious flaws, which I think you spotted immediately!

 

thanks again - off to have a go.

 

Marie

[Vendome]

Marie

 

Check this link out...

 

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/handwriting-pages/cursive-handwriting/

 

 

Jason

[akustyk]

First of all, your handwriting is already very nice .

If you want to improve it, I'd recommend going to your local public library and checking out a couple of books on italic handwriting, and a couple of books on cursive (or Spencerian) handwriting. This will help you decide which style/hand you prefer. Once you decide on the hand, you can start working your way through the books, and practice, every day for about 30 minutes. Give yourself a lot of time, at least six months, a year, even, and you will start seeing improvement.

 

The hardest part about handwriting improvement is developing your muscular movement such that it will become automatic and your writing will look natural, even at a fairly rapid speed. That's not easy, unfortunately, but a lot of people here on FPN have succeeded in improving their handwriting through drills and consistent work

[KateGladstone]

The word "scruffy" is outstandingly good in appearance. The rest would look as good, or very nearly so, of thee ascenders and descenders of letters could be consistently kept from bumping into the adjacent line of writing. (In "scruffy" you got away with it because of the purest chance —no letters able to bump in from above or below.)

 

The simplest and surest fix — make every ascender-stem/descender-stem (in letter that have rhem) only, say,2/3 or 3/4 of its current size:leaving the rest of the letter normally sized.. This maintains distinctiveness without crushing other letters in the next line.

[migo984]

Marie

 

Check this link out...

 

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/handwriting-pages/cursive-handwriting/

 

 

Jason

 

Thanks Jason. I'll take a look.

 

Marie

[WaskiSquirrel]

Last spring I started working on my own handwriting. To me, the biggest things that helped were:

 

• I started writing more slowly to concentrate on the shape
• I used my arm rather than my hand (though a shoulder injury put the kibosh on that for a while)
• I made each loop extra wide and visible

Since then I've been able to speed up, and I've developed some style of my own along the way.

[migo984]

First of all, your handwriting is already very nice .

If you want to improve it, I'd recommend going to your local public library and checking out a couple of books on italic handwriting, and a couple of books on cursive (or Spencerian) handwriting. This will help you decide which style/hand you prefer. Once you decide on the hand, you can start working your way through the books, and practice, every day for about 30 minutes. Give yourself a lot of time, at least six months, a year, even, and you will start seeing improvement.

 

The hardest part about handwriting improvement is developing your muscular movement such that it will become automatic and your writing will look natural, even at a fairly rapid speed. That's not easy, unfortunately, but a lot of people here on FPN have succeeded in improving their handwriting through drills and consistent work

 

Gulp! That sounds a bit daunting but I know you're right. If it's worth doing etc etc. I'll have to get myself organised. Trouble is, I do so much fast note-taking at work, it's badly affecting my handwriting. I'll have to work out how one can be offset against the other.

 

Marie

[migo984]

Last spring I started working on my own handwriting. To me, the biggest things that helped were:

 

• I started writing more slowly to concentrate on the shape
• I used my arm rather than my hand (though a shoulder injury put the kibosh on that for a while)
• I made each loop extra wide and visible

Since then I've been able to speed up, and I've developed some style of my own along the way.

 

Yes I think it's the fast writing I have to do at work that's my problem. And posture must be a factor for sure so I can see how your strategy would help. I'm going to have to give this some serious thought. Thanks for giving me the benefit of your experience - at least I know it can be done :-)

 

Marie

[migo984]

The word "scruffy" is outstandingly good in appearance. The rest would look as good, or very nearly so, of thee ascenders and descenders of letters could be consistently kept from bumping into the adjacent line of writing. (In "scruffy" you got away with it because of the purest chance —no letters able to bump in from above or below.)

 

The simplest and surest fix — make every ascender-stem/descender-stem (in letter that have rhem) only, say,2/3 or 3/4 of its current size:leaving the rest of the letter normally sized.. This maintains distinctiveness without crushing other letters in the next line.

 

Thanks Kate.

 

I think not having the knowledge to work out WHY my handwriting looks as it does is why I'm having problems knowing where to start to improve it. Your analysis was so helpful & I realise now that my "uppy bits" and "downy bits" cause problems by squashing the other words/letters. I'm going to give your suggestion a go

 

thanks again, Marie

[cellmatrix]

Marie, your handwriting is not so bad at all. But the way you form your letters, it seems that it would be a very easy transition to cursive italic as taught by authors Getty and Dubay in their book "Write now". The book helped my handwriting in a huge way and I bet it could help yours too - here is a link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0876781180

[ac12]

Marie

Taking FAST notes in college messed up my handwriting, and it has taken YEARS to recover from it.

 

I suggest keeping note taking separate from improving your handwriting.

 

Maybe do 30 min a day in a journal to work on your handwriting.

As was mentioned, when I write fast, I start to loose control and the letters become mis-shaped. So slow down.

When I do not pay attention, I tend to speed up, and the letters get messy. I also start to drift up off the line.

Because you have to take notes fast, when you practice, you have to pay attention more, so you don't drift away to your old habbits.

You are training your hand muscles to work differently, so until they develop muscle memory, you have to keep an eye on your hand.

 

I am "trying" to do that myself.

 

I find that using WIDE ruled paper makes it easier to work on my handwriting and I can see my mistakes clearer than with the narrower college ruled paper. Although you could use 2 lines of college ruled paper which would be even larger.