Improving Terrible Handwriting?

green pizza asks: "My handwriting is horrible, an irregular mix of sloppy print and cursive. I know this, and my coworkers have learned to live with it, but I didn't realize just how bad my chickenscratch was until I tried using a tablet PC. Unlike a Palm which forced me to learn its input method, a tablet PC (and other humans) expect me to write a certain way. Aside from a handwriting class for professional adults on the other side of the country, I have only been able to find lessons and materials for the young, illiterate, or mentally challenged. Have any other geeks found a structured way to improve their handwriting?"

Comments

Take up drafting.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can still write in chicken scratches that are unitelligible. It's pretty bad when you can come back to your own handwriting and have trouble deciphering it. But when I want to, I can print neatly and quickly, it just takes more focus. Thanks to drafting.

It's funny too, because you can see the effect in other people's handwriting. Neat cursive. Well that I just don't do.

Use an old Newton OS 1.x Newton PDA

[RevAaron]

My first PDA was a Newton OS 1.3 Original MessagePad that my girlfriend got me. Determined to use and love it, I used it for taking notes in class and programming [1], as well as playing some games.

And of course, I had to use the handwriting recognition.

Back then, HWR wasn't great. This is the whole "eat up martha" era- and indeed, that Newt was named "Martha." The only way to get decent (though still slow) HWR was for me to start printing cleanly. It improved my penmanship quite a bit.

But then I lost it. Not a big deal, it only cost $50, picked up on eBay in '99. Then, I got a Newton MessagePad 2100- the real deal. A new HWR scheme, a much faster CPU and an overall much nicer unit. The HWR was a thousand times better, an still the best of anything I've ever used (and I've used it all). Alas, my better handwriting didn't last that long- after using the Newton 2100 for a couple years, my handwriting had devolved back to messy crap. But that wasn't a big deal, as the Newton had no problem interpreting it with 99%+ accuracy, allowing me to write a good 40-50 WPM in my crap-tastic handwriting.

What the hell is my point? Get an old, crappy Newton. You can get them cheap. Try to use its HWR. Or, get a new, expensive Palm OS 5 device and install Decuma. I am using that these days... Nowhere near as nice as Newton HWR or even CalliGrapher/Transcriver on pocketPC/WinCE. My handwriting is slowly improving, being stuck with this inferior, but still kind of nice, input method. Only printing, and very clean printing at that.

[1] That was one of the biggest reasons I decided on the Newton... It was completely programmable on the device itself, requiring no intervention, compilation or otherwise a toolchain on the desktop- unlike C++ on WinCE or C on PalmOS. You could write first-class NewtonScript apps on the Newton itself, even on one as gimpy as the OMP.

Re:Use a keyboard

[Zugok]

see, that's part of the problem. Before my excuse for poor handwriting wasm because of school braks. Six weeks up to three months rarely writing anything for an extended period of time. Nowadays it's the use of key boards and I've lost touch with how to write neatly. Of course this is me and not representative of everyone. I print, it's okay for a bit then it melds into cursive and a messy cursive at that. I start with cursive and then it just goes down hill from there. However I find soemthings do help me write better. Thick nibbed ball points or fountain pens do better for me than thin points. Rollerball pens are nice and smooth to write with no matter thickness. A slightly "softer than a pad paper" surface helps as well.

Re:It's not that hard...

[sydb]

I can't print block capitals for more than a sentence or so without getting a quite intense pain in my wrist.

I'm not alone! You know exactly how I feel!

My writing has, historically, been abysmal. I dropped out of a remedial handwriting class at high school! They put this rubber prism-shaped thing on a pencil... very uncomfortable!

However, over the years I have more and more relaxed while writing and I write joined-up (as we call 'cursive' in the UK) all the time - and other people can read it! Sometimes I couldn't decipher my handwriting in the past - but now I think it's really 'normal'!

I think it's a Zen thing - I just wanted my handwriting to improve, and it did.

Either that or I'm kidding myself and people struggle to make sense of my scrawl and just act like they can read it.

Anyway, I still have this thing with capital letters... suddenly I feel ANGRY and TENSE... It even happens when I'm typing! I felt angry and tense as I typed those words! Scary.

So when I'm using a pen or pencil my hand gets TENSE and I can't move the thing about with any grace.

r.e.l.a.x......r.e.l.a.x......

Re:I'd laugh at you...

[HughsOnFirst]

The reason doctors' handwritting is hard to read is because a lot of it is in latin.

I used to use a Dauphin DTR1
with windows for pen on windows 3.1 . Amazingly enough it could
read my handwriting better than I could. I haven't written in cursive
for about 30 years and my printing is pretty awfull.

Handwriting and geeks

[nelsonal]

I know very few geeks with good handwriting, my own hypothesis is that the part of the brain that attracts people to math and science is very different from the part that controls small motor skills. I've found that printing is an easy, if a bit slow, way to improve the readability of your handwriting. The second suggestion would be to practice, handwriting is a skill like any other, slow way down and practice the motions required to make all the letters, you might take a Japanese (writing focused class) as a way to stimulate those muscle/nerve groups since you will have to concentrate on learning the entirely new script. My handwriting improved back in HS when I took Japanese, it might work for you. It's returned to its usual form now though, as I've been on a keyboard for the better part of the last decade.

Strange Hand Choices

[watashiwananashidesu]

I don't know if this works for people of other hand-usages, but I know what I did to improve my handwriting...

For the record, I'm a left-handed-to-ambidextrous individual, and ever since I was a child I've had trouble with handwriting--I'm infamous at my high school for it. I typically write left handed and do anything athletic right handed--the opposite of what you'd expect, as my left arm is much stronger. And I've discovered something fun...

Whenever I'm writing slowly, as long as I'm writing in big text, my right-handed handwriting is better than my left.

I can't write very fast right-handed--I'm more of a lefty than a righty, though I am technically ambidextrous. And if I try to write quickly with my right, it's more illegible than my left. But aside from some awkward numbers, my right is neater for slowly-written stuff.

And practice does make perfect. At first my right-handed handwriting looked like that of a very neat child (and I didn't start practicing with the right until about two years ago), but now, as long as I go slowly, it looks almost like my peers'.

So, you might want to try the old switcheroo. Just remember--most objects in our culture are right-handed, so you'll probably have better luck with this if you're a lefty than a righty.

Force Yourself To Slow Down

[miyako]

I used to have the same problem. I failed tests and even lost a job because my handwriting was completely unreadable. What I finally realized was that my handwriting improved drastically (to the point where people would actually compliment me on my penmenship) if I just slowed down and paid attention to the actual letters I was writing. I know that this sounds like obvious advice, but it is something that you really have to be mindful of because most people have a tendancy to just start writing.
Another thing that may help is to try different grips on the pencil. As children we have it drilled into our heads that you HAVE to hold the pencil gripped between your thumb and index finger only, I've found that for me at least my writing and drawing as well is orders of magnintude better when the pencil or pen is gripped between my thumb and my index and middle fingers.

Make a font for yourself

[flamingweasel]

A lot of the posts here say, "just pay more attention to your penmanship;" if it were that easy he probably would have done it already. What I did to improve my handwriting is decide, one day, that my handwriting sucked and that I should do something about it. What I did was develop a "font" for myself. I looked at the elements of my handwriting at the time that I liked, made them consistent throughout the lettering, and figured out what every letter should look like. As I would write I'd try to make every letter look like it would if I'd drawn a font and was typing in it. After a few months I had developed a very nice, (and unlike those who learn handwriting from a book) very unique style. People complemented me on it, and I could always tell which papers in a stack were mine. If you think of your writing as a presentation instead of the fastest way to get ideas onto paper, and take pride in the result, your handwriting will improve.

Unfortunately the last few years of being out of school have caused my handwriting to diverge from my font. I fear I'll have to once again start watching every letter to get it back to where it was when I was taking pages of notes every day.

Write big...

[bluGill]

Write big. And print. Get a good pen (not expensive, most expensive pens are worse than medium priced ones) Its the only thing I've found that helps. If at all possible use the computer.

Back in 6th grade my teachers got frustrated enough at my handwriting to comment to my parents on how lazy I was (New school, the old school didn't care), my parents defended me, I really did write that bad. A few months latter the school put me through a bunch of tests, and concluded that I really could not write neater. When I did my best I wrote like a second grader (this at the peak of my writing ability, in 7th grade reports were written on the computer so I didn't handwrite as much), barely achieving the neatness the others got when they didn't care. I guess my point is there might be physical issues that may be involved, if so you might not be able to do much.

Re:Write big...

[N3Bruce]

I too had to learn to type at an early age, my poor handwriting was a side effect of ADD. I remember I started to type reports in 7th or 8th grade on an old Underwood, 10 years before I got my first computer. One of my teachers made one last ditch attempt to get me to write a report longhand, but in the margins drew a face with watery eyes and said go back to typing. My typed lab writeups in High School and College (still pre-computer) would consistently score a letter grade higher than their handwritten counterparts, regardless of content.

Another problem I have is that I tend to think faster than I write, and often have to use a ^ to insert words into previously written text, which makes my handwritten copy even worse. No problem on a computer, but hell when filling out a poorly designed form to begin with.

About the only thing I have found that can prevent my handwriting from degenerating into completely illegible scrawl is to print, and to try to manage the space I have available to write in, as I frequently have the bad habit of writing larger at the beginning of the line and try to squeeze it all in at the end.

My suggestions:

[sakusha]

Most important, find a good writing instrument. For general writing, I particularly suggest a good mechanical pencil, I like Japanese mechanical pencils like the Sanford LOGO II 0.5mm or the Y&C GRIP500. Also fountain pens are particularly nice, and bring back some of the pleasure of handwriting. I use the Lamy Joy, it has a flat nib for calligraphic handwriting, but the Lamy Safari is also good, it's better for quick writing because it has a round point (I recommend the medium, not the fine point). Also particularly useful for ink pen writing are those whiteout pens, they're sort of like highlighters but they lay down whiteout.

Secondly, study a bit of calligraphy. You don't need to become a fine calligrapher, you just need to know a few methods to make your pen or pencil work for you, not against you. I recall seeing a news story about how a hospital set up a special handwriting class for doctors as a method to reduce errors on handwritten prescriptions. They were taught one simple italic script, it was easy to learn and is the simplest handwritten script. Grab a Speedball Book (available at any library or art store), it has all the basics of calligraphy. I don't know the exact title of the book, but every art store knows what a Speedball Book is.

Humanistic Cursive

[jpkunst]

I had the same problem with my handwriting being illegible, a couple of years ago. I felt that just trying to write slower wasn't the solution. I did something more radical: I switched handwriting styles. I found a great little book called Naar beter handschrift ("To better handwriting") from 1956. This book teaches you to write in a script that is closely based on 14th-century Italian writing, the so-called "Humanistic cursive". (See here for an example of original humanistic cursive.)

Unlike our modern cursive handwriting, where you are supposed to write all the letter connected to each other (there is some kind of law "thou shalt not take the pen off the paper while writing", which is good for speed but not for legibility), you only connect letters when it makes sense in the humanistic cursive, and you are allowed to take the pen off the paper to draw better shapes for your letters. Example: the lower case r in modern cursive (at least the way that I learned it, in The Netherlands) is rather ugly, it's essentially an r written backwards (so that you won't have to take the pen off the paper while writing it). In the humanistic cursive, the lower case r looks much like a lower case printing letter r because you don't have to forcibly connect it to other letters. And it's much more readable that way.

JP

Re:Humanistic Cursive

[fm6]

Perhaps these old humanists were on to something...

The story of this writing style is actually rather interesting. It seems that during the Italian Renaissance (fifteenth century), people discovered a lot of old manuscripts covered with really beautiful handwriting. They jumped to the conclusion that these documents had somehow survived from "Classical" civilization, which had died out a thousand years previously. The Renaissance was all about rejecting "Medieval" (that is, contemporary) culture in favor of Clasical. So people quickly abandoned other scripts in favor of this "Classical" script.

Here's the punchline: the classical era never developed any really good scripts. Most books were generated by publishing houses staffed by slaves, who wrote everything in simple capital letters. Other documents were done in a variety of scripts, none of them very attractive or easy to read. Then during the middle ages, with the European economy in deep decline, people invented lower-case letters and cursive writing in order to reduce publishing costs. This culminated in a beautiful script called Caroline Miniscule. This "classical" script which the Renaissance humanists admired and and revived, had died out only a couple of centuries before!

That's the Renaissance in a nutshell. They thought they were reviving an old culture, when they were really inventing a completely new one.

Use a pencil

[aduzik]

I used to have horribly crap-tastic handwriting until I started using mechanical pencils for everything. I had lots of fancy pens that forced me to either push really hard to make nice letters or caused scratchy angular characters. Using a fairly cheap mechanical pencil -- and what geek doesn't love mechanical pencils? -- I was forced to slow it down a bit, and it wrote very smoothly and cleanly.

Also, concentrate on one thing at a time. For example, say, "today, I'm going to try to make all the letters with circles in them more uniform." Once you get the hang of that, move on to something else, like evening out the height of the taller characters.

Finally, while it's a holy pain in the ass, try it in cursive. My handwriting in general used to be basically unreadable, but by forcing myself to write in cursive, I've improved all of my characters. My print and numbers have both dramatically improved as a result, and I can now write in cursive just as fast -- if not faster -- than I can in print, and it's all legible. People who didn't know me when I had horrible handwriting tell me that it's very elegant, distinctive, and unique.

Just a few little hints from me to you. Good luck!

Almost Like Artwork

[crem_d_genes]

My handwriting didn't improve at all until I started to *draw* my writing; like it was some type of calligraphy.
Now I teach, and I am in the position that I must make reasonably clear graphics and text daily on a *whiteboard*.

I'm certain I have some variant of dyslexia, but by taking the time to see the words in a more *artistic* way, they appear more legible and I seem to either make fewer typos - or catch them as I write.

Get yourself a good (!) fountain pen

[Phouk]

What I did was getting myself a nice classic-sized fountain pen. These are much thicker than a standard office pen, which will have a subtle effect on how you hold it your hand.

Even more important is a high-quality, relatively flexible nib. Not all fountain pen brands have a flexible nib, so you may need to shop around on that. One company known for these is Pelikan (no relation), so I bought a used M800 (see here, for example) from ebay, and I love it. For one, it's just beautiful. Then, it gives a totally different feeling whent writing. After a few days getting used to it, writing with a normal ballpoint pen felt like writing with a nail.

When I was in school, teachers told us not to use ballpoint pens because they destroy your handwriting. I thought it was bogus back then, but, in retrospect, there seems to be some truth about it.

Visual Perception Therapy...

[paploo]

Bad hand writing is often linked to a visual perception problem. (Indeed, many different learning disabilities (like dyslexia), coordination problems, reading speed problems, depth perception problems, and the like, are being regrouped as visual perception problems.)

There are good visual perception therapists out there who can help with these problems. My brother had *really* bad handwriting, and poor coordination. He went to vision therapy for a year and *really* improved. I had the same thing happen with my reading speed problems (I went from a 4th grade reading speed to better than a 12th grade speed in a year thanks to Dr. Melvin B. Fox).

Unfortunately, the therapy is around US$5000. There are some software programs (that if you see the informercials for look like a hoax) that do some of the stuff that you do in vision therapy. Much of the rest of it could be done by acquiring some relatively cheap equipment, however, you need someone who knows what "exercises" to do in order to do it.

Anyway, it probably isn't a viable option for you (the original poster), but it is worth noting on /. as I'm sure there are a lot of geeks out there who have dyslexia or coordination issues. The therapy *really* does work, and is worth your time, especially if you are young (teen).

Maths classes

[d99-sbr]

Before I started university and had to take about two and a half million credits worth of maths and physics, my handwriting was pretty poor.

Now, drawing illegible symbols just doesn't cut it when doing maths. If you can't tell an x from a y, or h from h-bar, you're bound to make horrible and very unneccessary mistakes. Not to mention all those Greek letters, that I had never seen before.

So having to type all the letters in an orderly manner really taught me how to draw them quick yet legible. After a year or two I noticed my maths writing manners had leaked over to my ordinary writing.

I would say that I now possess a pretty decent handwriting style. So there's your magic bullet: Get a degree in maths or physics!

Change your pen

[NeonSpirit]

In order to slow down my writing, and therfore improve it's legibility I have changed to a Fountain Pen. Obviously this will not make a diference with the stylus input on a PDA but one mediam often translates to another.

Coming from another bad writer --

[oneiros27]

Let me start by saying that I did well in all classes in grade school -- except for 'penmanship' and 'behavior'.

I learned to write by a left handed person, but I'm right handed. So I wrap my whole hand around writing implements. They tried those little triangular things to force me to hold my pencil correctly when I was a kid, and I'd just wrap my whole hand around them.

I'm 28, and I still can't hold a pencil correctly. After time, you can learn to write things legibly if you want to. I've given up on cursive. I print everything these days, and I use almost exclusively upper case [the exception is when I'm writing down passwords or file names that are mixed-case.]

I've had three years of drafting, and having to learn to write ANSI compliant lettering, so I know letters should look, but I also have a grandfather who does handwriting analysis on the side, and so I know just how hard it is to change your handwriting. [I preface christmas cards to him with 'stop analyzing my writing']

The only thing that I've found that makes me want to write neater is to force it on someone. I could read my class notes well enough -- but if the teacher couldn't read an essay question on a test in college... you're screwed.

As it is now, I trade off between speed and neatness. If I know someone else is going to read something, I slow it down, and take my time. For most of my notes, I can get those words I can't read by context. Learning to write neatly for other tasks hasn't improved my normal everyday writing significantly, that I've noticed.

Oh... and on the handwriting analysis side, there's a subjective line between 'hastily written' and 'smeary', which are indicators that might suggest 'quick mind that gets down to essentials' vs. 'deceptive'... one of these days, I'll digitize those notes.