Write Now: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting [Paperback]

Barbara Getty (Author), Inga Dubay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

THIS IS THE NEW, THIRD EDITION OF WRITE NOW, RELEASED AUGUST 10, 2011. Replaces WRITE NOW: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting (2nd edition).

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dubay and Getty deserve the thanks of every teacher and every parent. It's a breakthrough at last!" -- Betty Edwards, PhD, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

"Italic handwriting is legible and handsome. I recommend Write Now. Long live legibility!" -- Paul O. Jacobs, M.D.

"These two women are not your dad’s handwriting teacher. They are totally awesome!" -- Charles A. Kessler, M.D.

About the Author

Barbara Getty, B.A., M.A.T., was an adjunct professor at Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon, for 28 years, where she taught calligraphy and handwriting. She also taught at Lewis and Clark College. She attended Lewis and Clark College and Portland State University.

Inga Dubay, B.A., is an adjunct professor at the Oregon College of Art and Craft where she has taught calligraphy since 1975. She also taught at Portland State University. She studied at Mills College, the University of Oregon, and the Art Academy in Oslo, Norway.

The authors conduct seminars nationally and internationally. They are also co-authors of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series and Italic Letters: Calligraphy and Handwriting published by Portland State University Continuing Education Press. They have been featured in numerous publications including American Medical News, Time, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post as well as ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR and PBS.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Portland State Univ Continuing; Revised edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876781180
• ISBN-13: 978-0876781180
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Practical Guide to Improved Handwriting, May 26, 2007

By 

Randall D. Watson (O'Fallon, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Write Now: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting (Paperback)

After a two page preface, this book gets right down to business. There is a quick introduction to the terminology used in the book followed by 2 pages of advice on writing tools and how to sit, hold the pen, and position the page. That is followed by a half page on the six essential characteristics of handwriting: shape, stroke sequence, size, slope, spacing, and speed.

This is first and foremost a workbook. You see the letters, trace the letters, and then copy the letters. Then you progress to copying sentences and full paragraphs. There isn't much in the way of theory here. Getty and Dubay show you what to do and then you practice. Repeat the same process for cursive and finally for edged italic.

Interspersed throughout are interesting asides about the historical development of writing as well as tips for practicing your own.

The overall focus is on ease of writing and reading, not on your ability to copy exactly the letterforms they have written. They recognize and discuss differences in size, spacing, slope, and speed. It is, after all, _your_ handwriting.

The most useful pages for me have been the overview page and the blank practice pages. The overview page shows how to write every letter, both capital and lower case, both in printing and cursive, all on one page. It is the page I open to when practicing. The practice pages with dotted lines for height of capitals and length of descenders have helped me develop a consistent width and height. I photocopy 5 every week and then fill a maximum of one page per night. This spreads out my practice time so I don't get burned out or bored with it.

I've had the book for about a month now and the improvement has been dramatic despite dedicating only a few hours a week to it. Though my writing has always been legible, it was messy and inconsistent chicken scratch. No longer. It is now smooth and even; and the italic style really stands out in comparison to other people's handwriting. The better my writing gets, the more I want to write.

I am very satisfied with my purchase. Considering how much I will write over my lifetime, this book is a bargain. Thanks to Amazon for carrying it. Neither B&N nor Borders do.

83 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant Handwriting Now, August 5, 2005

By 

B. Roach (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Write Now: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting (Paperback)

Yes! It works!
Write Now is an excellent tool for developing an elegant handwriting style; but it's also great if you'd just like to be able to read your own handwriting! High school(or even junior high) students will enjoy the course because it is designed for busy adults to use. It really gets right to the point; results are satisfying. I really can recommend this book

84 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just enough substance, lots of overhead, July 10, 2007

By 

S. Bohm "SB" (US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Write Now: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting (Paperback)

This book claims to improve your handwriting by providing excercises. This is actually the case. After going through a number of excercises (tracing and reproducing basic shapes and letters), my writing seemed to improve. However, from the 96 pages in the book, only pages 14-50 contain the actual excersises, the bulk of the book is formed by how our script developed, too many pages highlighting improvements of other book users, how to address an envelope etc.

All in all I think the amount of actual info you need to improve handwriting is too small for the price of the book. For people interested in this subject, go to [...] and find lots of excercises to learn write in Italic. Definitely more than you will get via this book, and its free!