August 16, 2010
Do you like your own handwriting? Can others read what you wrote? Can you? Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay (WRITE NOW) describe bad handwriting as “mumbling on the page.”
Too often, I hear people express gratitude for the computer because they are embarrassed by their own handwriting. “My handwriting is horrible.” OK, let’s talk about this….It is not going to be productive to ask you to write a letter if you have poor illegible handwriting.
The good news is help is available! Barbara and Inga have a marvelous program for cursive italic. Let me share with you a few of their suggestions. Get rid of the loops and flourishes. Aim for clean lines. Always close up the tops of all the letters. An open lower case “a” could be misread as a “u” or an “e” and an “i”. Remember we are aiming for legibility. Loosen your grip. Relax the “death grip”. And finally, “slow down”. You will have more control over the pen and how you write with it if you simply write slower.
I will be offering more encouragement and remedies to eliminate the handwriting roadblocks. So keep checking back.