When I was a kid, my grandmother used to make me practice my cursive handwriting. Needless to say, when I was younger, I found handwriting practice to be incredibly tedious. My grandmother would sit me down, yank a book off the bookshelf, open it up to a random page, and make me transcribe the entire page in perfect cursive, word by word. Although I found this process tedious at the time, my handwriting did improve, and now I see the value in having neater handwriting as an adult. What follows is a list of the things I learned from my grandmother about proper handwriting, including a few tidbits of my own that I have picked up over the years. if you follow the rules below, you should be able to improve your handwriting with regular practice.
Rule #1: Slow Down!
The difference between a doctor’s note and a well-written love letter is like night and day. A doctor’s note is chicken scratch while the love letter is a model of beautiful handwriting. What accounts for this difference? The most basic explanation is one of timing. A doctor does not slow down when writing his prescriptions out because there are thousands of other priorities that deserve his attention and time than the quality of his handwriting. The result is a scribble that was hurriedly jotted on a notepad and is usually practically illegible. By contrast, a love letter is a thing of beauty, in which each word is chosen and written carefully to create the desired effect in its recipient. Each word, nay each letter, is written with the utmost attention to perfection as a sign of devotion to one’s beloved. The simple process of slowing down and paying attention to what one is doing will go a long way toward causing your handwriting to improve.
Rule #2: Use Less Pressure
Using a lot of pressure when writing causes one’s hand to cramp up. A cramped hand is the enemy of quality handwriting. If your hand is cramped, it will cause your lettering to be jerky and jagged rather than free flowing and smooth like cursive ought to be. Paying attention to what your body is telling you will cause you to improve in this respect. If your hand is cramping up while writing, consciously try to relax your hand, use less pressure, and let your writing instrument glide over the paper. The ability to let your hand and pen glide over the paper effortlessly must be developed if you ever hope to have quality handwriting. The need for this lack of pressure feeds directly into Rule #3.
Rule #3: Use a Quality Writing Instrument
The ballpoint pen is the worst thing ever to happen to handwriting. While they are convenient, anyone who has used a ballpoint pen (Who hasn’t?) knows that it takes a fair amount of downward pressure onto the paper in order for the ink to be transferred from the ball to the paper. This downward pressure will cause all the problems mentioned in Rule #2 above and will also cause you to try to rush through the writing you have to do before you hand cramps up from all the downward pressure. The downward pressure and the need to rush one’s writing together create a mighty obstacle for one to overcome when trying to write well with a ballpoint pen.
The answer then is to use a higher quality writing instrument instead of a basic ballpoint. My own preference in this matter is to use a traditional fountain pen when practicing quality writing. A fountain pen requires exponentially less downward pressure than a ballpoint pen due to the relative thinness of fountain pen ink as opposed to ballpoint ink. This increased thinness creates a fluidity in the transfer of ink from pen to paper that is beneficial to quality writing for the reasons mentioned above. This fluidity allows one’s hand to glide effortlessly over the paper and allows one to pay attention to the actual shape and style of his/her lettering. If fountain pens are not your cup of tea, then you may substitute a roller ball or a gel pen in place of a fountain pen here. But they are less ideal than a quality fountain pen. A fine instrument is more expensive than a ballpoint, but your writing will improve and your hand will get cramped much less often from writing. You may actually even learn to enjoy the writing process again after years of trudging through with a ballpoint.
Rule #4: Practice, Practice, Practice!
Just like any skill, proper handwriting takes time to develop. As one does not learn to play the piano overnight or to build a house, so too must you allow yourself the time and practice it takes to improve your skill. It is said that it takes seven days to learn a new habit but twenty one days to unlearn an old habit. This is part of the reason that children learn new skills so much faster than adults. Adults have lots of baggage full of bad habits that they must unlearn before they can train themselves into a new habits. Children, though, as John Locke saw, are blank slates, “tabula rasa.” Regular practice and self-discipline are the keys to overcoming old habits and forming new one’s though, so make sure to practice your handwriting even a little bit every day. You will find that you improve soon enough as long as you follow all the other rules above.
In conclusion, if you follow the above rules and guidelines, you will be on your way to having the beautiful and proper handwriting that you wish you had. Also, be sure to find a way to make writing practice fun. if you do not find a way to actually enjoy your writing, it will be very difficult for you to form the discipline it takes to practice regularly. Maybe consider forming a handwriting club to practice together. Or combine the discipline of handwriting with a writers club that you already belong to. Whatever it is, you will improve at a much faster rate if you enjoy what you are doing instead of just enduring the pain.
