Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Better Handwriting

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I'm 51 years old and have struggled with very poor handwriting since grade school. I've always been frustrated by pain in the back of my hand when writing. The hints in this book, including a new way to hold the pen - and some different ways to think about composing cursive, have totally changed my handwriting. I'm no longer ashamed to write cursive notes.

Hi All
I bought this book about 3 weeks ago and have seen a marked improvement in my handwriting. Its a little ponderous in its approach but it ticks all the boxes if you want to identify what makes your handwriting illegible and how to improve with practice. The exercises are pretty boring and repettitive but do them and you will find results in a few weeks can be achieved. The writing style put forward is rather like cursive italic (Getty and Dubay).

In my teens I trained as a draftsman and each morning I was obliged to spend 30 minutes (for a few months) retraining my cursive hand into printed lettering for architectural drawings. As a result I lost the ability to write cursive and my hand writing 20 years later was very scruffy and printed. My daughter started learning cursive at school so I wanted to re-learn and this has been a journey of discovery!

I like my emerging new handwriting and recommend this book to you!

I really felt that this book improved my handwriting. I am more confident in my handwriting, and I am also more willing to write things down in cursive. I really apperciate this book and recommend it to others.

Like most purchasers here, I bought this book because my handwriting was swiftly becoming illegible--even to me! And I've already (in a week) seen marked improvement.

What this book does well:
It covers every possible issue that might affect your penmanship. They give an alternate penhold (which *works!*) which is, of course, optional. They discuss the type of pen you're using, the type of writing surface, everything that can go into making your handwriting good (or bad).

They demonstrate a 'training alphabet' based on Italic that will help retrain most grievous issues--I had a hard time closing my a's, for example, but their training alphabet has cured me of it. This alphabet, they tell you right off, isn't very sexy, but it IS useful. They also don't expect you to become a mere copyist of this alphabet.

They then discuss 'joining up,' not your standard Palmer method cursive script. Instead of teaching you how they think you should join letters, they give you common combinations. By writing and rewriting, you will find your OWN way of joining. Most freeing, they in fact tell you you don't HAVE to join up every letter in a word!

Then they push you to make your own modifications to the training alphabet, and this is where your own favorite letter forms can come marching back in, so you end up with handwriting that is neat, readable, but still looks like *you*.

What I wish it did more:
The authors will suggest exercises--the warmup exercises alone are wonderful--but they don't give much guidance as to how much, how long, or how often you should do them. I did a page a day of whatever letter family I was working with for a while, and that brought me great results.

All in all, a good resource for training your handwriting for increased legibility and speed. While it presents an Italic alphabet the best part (to me) is that it doesn't insist that good penmanship is merely mechanical reproduction of the alphabet. What more could you want (other than more set exercises?)?

I have purchased books from four different authors to improve my handwriting as well as my childrens' handwriting. This is one of the best. Aimed at the adult, it leaves no stone unturned in diagnosing and treating bad handwriting (I'm physician, so I could not resist that analogy). It covers selecting the right writing instrument, the impact of different hand and wrist positions and implements to help holding the pen or pencil. It covers issues for lefties. It even covers briefly problems for people with tremors; it is that thorough. There are numerous exercises to improve your strokes. It covers the strokes to clearly create each letter in great detail. Joining of letters has its own problems and this is well covered. Capital letters get a chapter. Finally for the ambitous (not me for sure), a more formal scripted hand is briefly introduced. I highly recommend this book for other handwriting impaired adults. I have been able to greatly improve my handwriting, which I use daily in hospital charts.

I do wish to state that the book is written at the high school or adult level. I should not be purchased and handed to a preteen. As a parent, I read it and had the children do exercises. I also recommend an iPhone app called Better Letters and a book called Write Now by Getty & Dubay.

I highly recommend this book. These two books and the iphone app have really helped me and kids.

P.S. It has even made writing by hand kinda fun.

This book explains how to correct handwritng difficulties. There are many examples which makes understanding much easier. It's not entertaining and needs some commitment but I'm seeing improvement.

This book goes step by step. I've started working on it and am trying to devote some time every day to it though that is proving difficult. I liked the discussion on changing the pen grip from the pincer grip I was taught in school because modern pens and our handwriting requirements don't allow for some of the problems with the pincer grip. The section on troubles left-handers run in to and how to fix them was very interesting.

As others have noted, this book is a good reference for those wishing to improve their penmanship. I also suggest giving a good fountain pen a try to aid your efforts.