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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?"
I use a keyboard. :)
...but, I'm in the same boat. My handwriting is really bad -- I often end up replacing whole sections of words with unitelligible scrawls.
My Advice: Switch professions and become a doctor.
I had terrible handwriting (Everybody said I should have been a doctor). I figured on trying to better my handwriting and found that writing through the alphabet over and over for a few weeks. After that, I did repetitive practice writing. Writing pages from books or whatever until you notice any improvement. It sure worked for me, but ymmv.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
What's so unreadable about that? That trailing off is like tab-completion!
;)
Yeah, no one likes my scrawl either
Slow down. That's all. Just slow down and make your letters look extremely clear. Take great pride in your handwriting, and learn to appreciate it (once you develop it more).
That's how I improved mine.
Since you haven't elaborated more on your writing problem I'll assume that you don't know the correct way to write ANY character.
First I'd find one of those alphabet posters that they hang up in 1st grade class rooms that have the little arrows that point in the direction you're supposed to draw each stroke.
Then I'd have lock myself in a room with some pens a ream of paper.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
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.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Do you not know what the letters are supposed to look like?
Just write a lot more, and write stuff where you can pay more attention to the form of your letters than actual content. Don't mess around with cursive, just print and blend your letters as appropriate.
Spend half an hour a day (before you go to bed is good - it'll help you fall asleep, if you have trouble with that) transcribing the dictionary or something. I noticed an improvement in my writing after about two weeks.
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Go to your favorite new or used bookstore and buy one of those first-grade hand-writing primers and practice! :)
(I am so tempted to say "Duh!"
The book "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards has a chapter on handwriting, even though it is a book about drawing. BTW, I recommend the rest of the book to anyone as well. (especially if you think you "can't draw.")
My handwriting sucks too. I really do intend to improve it though...and I have been.
You can't do it by willing yourself to write better. You've transferred your letter-forming skills into your cerebellum already...you aren't even a conscious part of the letter-forming process anymore. You had to go back to the basics: back to penmanship. There is no way around this other than to practice and unlearn your poor penmanship.
Roll back the clock to first grade. Now, here's some good material:
D'Nealian Practice Pages
Remember to scroll down that page to the manuscript pages with guides. Print those out and go to town. Fill up a set of those pages every day, and your handwriting WILL improve.
...
I find this whole idea stupid: learn to write better, so the computer can understand my handwriting. In my book, when computer cannot understand my writing, it's something wrong with the computer (or the software in this case), not with me.
That's the main reason I use my Palm less and less these days. Keyboard works ok for me and if some computer doesn't let me use this input method it is inherently broken, period.
Robert
Bastard Operator From 193.219.28.162
Here's some ideas, no one thing is sure to help.
Try different pens. Too skinny, too thick, different tips, metal, plastic...
There are hundreds of different pens at OfficeMax/Staples. Some of them are pricey though. Raid the supply closet at work, it's cheaper. I like the gels and roller balls. Spring-loaded ball-points give me the worst results. Pilot G2, Sarasa, and Uniball are my choices.
SLOW DOWN. Write slowly. It helps a ton.
Write bigger. It's a little easier to make out writing if you don't need a magnifying glass to read it.
Practice makes perfect! Get some lined paper out, and write out your alphabets. Remember in school, you'd have to make a whole page of each letter, and you got graded on penmanship? Write slow, you can learn to speed up later, once your form is better.
WRITE IN ALL CAPS. Working for a construction/design firm, it's a given, but I've found my writing to be much better if I write in all caps.
Be consistant. Make each of your characters the same way, every time.
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.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
My handwriting is pretty horrible too. Since I finished university recently and started working, my handwriting has gone progressively worse. But I don't have to worry about it because the reasons my handwriting has got so bad, namely the use of technology, is also helping me to avoid writing! Why write? Apart from some rare instances, there is hardly ever a need to use a pen or a pencil. At least this is true for me.
The tablet has the writing interface for those paper dependent people who have a tough time dealing with a keyboard. It doesn't sound like something that is right for you. (I assume that your handwriting is bad because of the overuse of keyboards.)
Basically what I want to say is that maybe the reason us geeks have such bad handwriting is because the technology has shown us new and better methods of writing. It can be seen as evolution towards a better form of written communication (and this one has a backspace key!). So instead of worrying about something that you are automatically rejecting (the handwriting), embrace the typing and work on improving upon the new methods of written communication.
my cat's breath smells like cat food
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.
...and learn to slow your handwriting down.
Calligraphy can be tremendously rewarding. Usually simple letters of the alphabet aren't considered works of art, but write them in calligraphy and suddenly everyone wants to hang the quips and quotes you scribble, all over their homes!
This will teach you the practice and patience and dexterity you need to improve your normal handwriting also.
It's not hard, it just takes endless practice.
And, even though some of those books are for children, they do have the outlined strokes you need to cleanly (and slowly) learn the forms.
Seriously,
I had this same problem and thses two things helped me more than anything else.
First try writing with a couple of differant pen types. Most people will find that they print much better with a certain type of pen; felt tip, ball point, microball etc. Find one you like. Also like swords, weight and balance are important. The same goes for stylii.
Then go get yourself a calligraphy book and a proper caligraphy pen. (the type with the metal tip) To use such a pen you have to always pull the tip across the paper down, or sidewise, but not up. This will teach you to slow down, and plan each pen stroke (or you will ruin a bunch of tips).
It is more or less impossible to write properly in cursive using a proper caligraphy pen because of the fact that you cant draw strokes "upwards." But i've noticed that most handwriting rec software seems to take print better anyway.
Also if the software is halfway decent and learns, the fact that you draw each letter the same way each time should help the rec quite alot.
NOZ
There are two types of people: those that can fill in the blanks,
Forgot to add you don't feel like such a goober practicing "Calligraphy" and women love a nicely handwritten letter more than diamonds i think.
There are two types of people: those that can fill in the blanks,
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.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
I'd like to echo many of the things said before with a couple tweaks of my own:
Pens: I find that I usually write more messy with a pen than a pencil for some silly reason, so maybe you could see how your mileage varies there. Other than that, be sure to find a pen(cil) that fits your style, be it thick or thin. A comfortable utensil will help you write more legibly as well.
I would recommend getting a journal to write in. That way you are able to spend at least a few minutes every night sorting out your thoughts, and there is obviously little pressure to hurry through it. Take time to write carefully and make your letters as consistent as possible and I think you will be surprised at the results.
Really the only way to improve is like most tasks: You are just going to have to practice. Maybe a journal won't work for you and you need to find something else, but consistent practice is what is going to make the difference at the end of the day.
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.
Cthulhu loves you.
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.
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.
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
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!
If it's not one thing it's your mother.
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.
I found Rosemary Sassoon's Teach yourself better handwriting very useful. It is specifically targeted at ppl who are trying to fix up their handwriting and not at child first time learners. Rosemary states in the book that very different approaches are required for these two different pedagogical needs.
An interesting part of the book is where Rosemary addresses pen-grips and suggests a rather radical option of holding the pen between index and middle finger. I've switched over to this and enjoy it as I never felt comfortable with the oppositionary tension between index and thumb of the standard grip.
Here is an addall link to the book (2nd edition) so you can compare prices.
Here is a link to the book (1st edition - the one I used) on Amazon so you can check the reader reviewsHere is a link to the publisher's page on the book (2nd edition)
Here is a link to some information about the author Rosemary Sasson
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.
Stupidity is mis-underestimated.
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.)
/. 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).
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
the young, illiterate, or mentally challenged
Someone actually created handwriting lessons for script kiddies?!? GR347!
I had to teach my children how to write.
I know God is laughing at that one.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Gunnlaugur SE Briem, the person who developed the typeface for the London Times has a lesson on writing italic. Actually his whole webpage is very worth reading.
Here it is
# ssh -l neo the_matrix; killall -9 agent_smith
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!
one more thing....RTFM. MS transcriber (pocket pc) for example lets you set how you draw each letter (to a point) and increases the accuracy quite a lot. I had the silly thing for about 3 months before i bothered to set it up properly...
There are two types of people: those that can fill in the blanks,
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.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.....my life is my own.
Well, you could take the advice of everyone who is telling you how to improve your penmanship, but that takes time and effort. My advice is this...let your writing devolve even more, to the point that it is COMPLETELY unreadable, then tell people that you are writing in something like Sanskrit, or ancient Phoenician, or Sumerian. They'll all think "WOW, this guy knows (insert ancient dead language here), what a genius!!" You'll instantly become the most popular guy around. Women will be throwing themselves at you, you'll be invited to all the important social events, and celebrities will want to hang out with you. Do me a favor, please remember that it was my advice that skyrocketed you to stardom, and maybe throw a few hot chicks my way. Thanks and good luck!!!
Liberalism...the next best thing to thinking.
Your right hand is obviously working against you at this point. Fuck it, switch hands and start over with your left.
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.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Find a nun. Look for one with a ruler. Profit.