Have you ever been told that your handwriting looks like a doctor's? Do elementary school children write more legibly than you do? Bad handwriting is quite embarrassing and could have an impact on your school and professional career. Instead of letting the situation get worse, take action to remedy and improve your writing. Soon you will have elegant handwriting like the best scribes!
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Analyzing the Handwriting
Step 1. Write a paragraph
Pick a topic, nothing important, and write five sentences. If you're not feeling very creative, copy a passage from a book or newspaper. The goal is to understand how your handwriting looks compared to the average. The longer the piece you write, the more accurate the analysis will be.
Step 2. Identify the primary shapes
Is your handwriting full of curves and rings? Or is it full of straight, stiff lines? Do the letters blend together or do they have sharp corners?
Step 3. Check the slope
The angle at which you write letters can affect or break your handwriting. Are the letters perpendicular to the lines of the paper? Are they tilted exaggeratedly to the right or left? A slight inclination is usually not a problem, but if it is exaggerated it could make the words unreadable.
Step 4. Check the alignment
Do words tend to slide up or down? Do they overlap the lines of the sheet? Do you tend to skew every single word, or is all the text deviating from the horizontal lines of the page?
Step 5. Look at the spacing
The distance you leave between words helps you understand the quality of your handwriting. There should be enough space between one word and another to fit an "O". If you leave more or less space, then you may have a cachograph. Also check the distance between the letters of a single word. If they overlap or are too far apart, they will be difficult to read.
Step 6. Pay attention to the size
In this case, measurements matter, at least for writing. Are the letters large enough to fill the space between two lines on the paper? Do you write so small that it takes up less than half the height of a line? Both are behaviors to be avoided.
Step 7. Analyze the quality of the lines
Check all the ones that are included in your writing. Are they drawn with a lot of pressure or are they so light that they can hardly be read? Are they straight strokes or are they messy and winding?
Step 8. Determine what your flaws are
Consider everything that was mentioned above. What are the aspects of your handwriting that need improvement? Changes can involve letter shape, spacing, alignment, size, stroke quality, and slant of words. Making one or more changes can make a difference in the legibility of your handwriting.
Step 9. Look at other beautifully handwritten passages for inspiration
Now that you know your letters are too big or rounded, what can you do to improve? Go online and look for sites that specialize in graphic fonts, and look for examples to inspire you and to imitate. Don't worry if the templates are very different from your handwriting, because you can only use some features and aspects.
Part 2 of 2: Editing the Handwriting
Step 1. Write in the air
Most of the time, people with a cachography simply have not been properly educated on how to move the muscle groups in the hand, arms, and shoulder. Avoid "tracing" the letters with your hand, but try to write with a full arm and shoulder motion. To train in this sense, write words in the air with your fingers. This movement forces you to use your whole arm, so your handwriting will improve, as well as avoiding the writer's cramp.
Step 2. Change your hand position
The pen and pencil must be gripped between the thumb and forefinger (also the middle finger, but this finger is optional). The tip of the pen should rest on the knuckle of the index finger or in the notch between the thumb and forefinger. If you hold the pen too hard or too loose (in this or other positions), the result will be bad writing. Grab the pen about 1/3 of its length.
Step 3. Practice with the basic shapes
A typical defect of bad spelling is the irregularity and inconsistency between the letters and their shape. All letters are made from circles, curved lines, or straight lines, so practice tracing them. Fill a whole sheet of vertical lines parallel to each other, and then of diagonal lines always parallel to each other. Repeat the exercise with an 'o' sheet. When you can reproduce all the shapes identically, you are ready to complete the letters.
Step 4. Study a table of letters
While everyone has their own style, there is still a guideline to follow when writing each letter of the alphabet. Following the right direction of the lines that form each letter will help you a lot in your intent. For example, instead of starting lowercase 'a' at the tail, start at the top of the circle. Practice writing each letter in the correct direction, just like you were taught in kindergarten.
Step 5. Try out different writing tools
While it may seem like an insignificant detail, some people are able to write better (or worse) depending on the instrument they use. Try ballpoint pens, gel ink pens, markers or traditional fountain pens. Using a tool you like will make writing easier.
Step 6. Train with the alphabet
Just like you do in first grade, fill your paper with upper and lower case letters. Use a font you found online and focus on the flaws you need to improve. If slanting is your problem, focus on tracing the letters vertically. If you are looking to change its shape, focus on copying the letters of the handwriting template you have chosen as inspiration.
Step 7. Strive for perfection
When you are satisfied with the result of the single letters, practice with the words and phrases. Choose phrases that contain many letters of the alphabet, such as "Lunch of water makes skewed faces". Even if it seems like a monotonous exercise, remember that 'practice makes perfect'.
Step 8. Always write by hand
Choose not to write the essay you are going to submit to the computer, and not to send an e-mail to your friends; make an effort and write everything by hand. Take every opportunity to write with pen and paper whenever possible, and you will see your handwriting improve. It will take a little longer, but you will develop the musculature needed for smoother writing.
Advice
- The letters should be the same size. This will help make your handwriting cleaner and tidier.
- Write on lined paper to help you maintain alignment.
- Do not rush! Your handwriting will always be clearer and more orderly if you take your time and pay attention.
- Find phrases or words that contain the most letters of the alphabet and write them several times, in lowercase, uppercase, in block capitals, etc. It will certainly be more fun than typing the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase all the time.
- Have a page or two written in good handwriting in front of you to inspire yourself. That should be your role model.
- Use the type of pencil you prefer.
- Try to write at least one paragraph every day; will help you improve your handwriting.
- Use a quality pencil or pen to make your writing better.
- Choose good quality materials, in this way you will be more comfortable in writing.
Warnings
- Don't throw away the worksheets and templates, you may need them as guidelines and to gauge your progress and the mistakes you don't want to repeat.
- Don't press the tip of the pen too hard on the paper as you write, or you'll get "writer's cramp".
- Don't waste the paper for your exercises, try to use it several times on both sides of each sheet.
