Cross bars and i dots forgotten or misplaced.
Be attentive when you are crossing t’s and dotting i’s; refer back to the letter joins pages for these letters and review the joins and practice quotes at the bottom of the pages. Generally slowing down while writing will give you more accuracy.
Inaccurate letter joins.
Review letter joins pages and exercises; memorize difficult joins and target practice time to these areas. Slow down when connecting letters to create muscle memory. I find that writing words, quotes, or song lyrics is more helpful (and interesting!) than just making pages of the same letters or letter joins. Have someone else look at your writing and clue you in on what words are the most challenging to decipher.
Letters not hitting the base line and getting confused with other letters; for example, if the last stroke of a lowercase a doesn’t hit the base line, it will be confused with an o.
Follow the instructions for the remedy listed previously for inaccurate letter joins, and also use guidelines when writing. Analyze what letters typically give you trouble. When you spot them, take a few minutes to rewrite the sentences containing errors.
Ascenders and descenders are too short and resemble other letters, or they are too long and tend to get tangled up in other letters.
Use guidelines with both the base line and the ascender/descender lines represented. Refer back to exercises for loop letters in the lowercase letters section. Pay close attention to your ascenders and descenders when writing; whenever you notice that your ascenders or descenders need adjusting, rewrite those words for extra practice.
Hand cramping.
Check your pen hold—are you using too much pressure? Lighten your grasp and make sure you are using a writing implement that performs well with less pressure. Practice regularly but take breaks often. Explore writing techniques that involve your wrist, forearm, and whole arm, not just your fingers.
Handwriting starts neat and gets messier.
Take breaks, practice regularly to build endurance, continually look to the first line as a standard for the rest of the page. Do you tend to rush as you move down the page? Watch your pace to ensure it is slow enough to maintain neat writing.
Letters that could have a confused identity. Here’s a small sampling of some letters that are commonly mistaken: a and u, e and l, o and a, h and b, r and n, n and m, y and g, u and w. A double r can be misconstrued as a u. Putting a loop in the stem of the lowercase t can make it look like an l if the cross bar is forgotten or misplaced.
After you determine what letters affect the legibility of your writing, review the forms of these letters and any warm-up exercises associated with their strokes. Practice them alone, with letter joins, and in words and sentences. As you choose creative practice ideas throughout the book, tackle these problem areas day by day through reviewing and rewriting your work. This intentional ongoing process will break poor habits and build new ones.
A Case for Closing Counters
Counters are the enclosed spaces in letters like a and o. Not closing counters completely is a common problem in handwriting and makes a big difference in legibility, but it’s easy to fix. Take a look at a sample of your regular handwriting to see if this is something you might need to work on. Since letters with counters closely resemble some letters without counters, they create the most common identity issues if they aren’t written distinctly.
Check the following examples for some of these typical mistaken identities in lowercase letters. If the counter isn’t closed, an a can look like a u, a b can look like an h, the d can appear to be a cl, an e can look like a c, and a g can resemble a y. To correct, slow down when you get to the letter, and make note of where you are starting the first stroke. Experiment with tweaking the starting stroke to make it easier and more natural for you to close off the counter. For example, starting the a, d, and g a little farther to the right will make it easier to close the counter before starting the next stroke or exiting out of the letter. Rather than making a downstroke right away, you’ll make a left to right rainbow shape before moving down and around to create the counter.
On the closing counters page, you’ll see some of the common ways a letter is written, then a corrected version following. Complete the rainbow (left to right) and loops exercise before moving on to work on letters with counters. You can also add o, p, and q to your practice if you wish.
fun facts
Graphology, the study of handwriting, interprets the personality and aptitude of individuals by analyzing their handwriting. Graphotherapy is the practice of making changes in handwriting to achieve a more desirable life. For example, T-crossings that sag downward indicate a gullible and indecisive personality trait. By intentionally leveling the cross bars, proponents of graphotherapeutics believe that subconscious attitudes and behaviors will shift to become more discerning and self-assured.
CLOSING COUNTERS
TRY IT: Practice fully closing these letters on the gray versions.
A Final Note on Troubleshooting
Look at your writing and note anything you’d like to change. Maybe you think your letters are too scrunched, making them hard to distinguish, or that your letter joins look choppy or unsophisticated. Connecting letters for cursive can be awkward if you haven’t had a chance to adequately learn the strokes and angles of letter joins. You might notice that you tend to use a hodgepodge of cursive, printing, and lowercase and uppercase letters that make your writing appear disjointed or difficult to read.
After you uncover your specific challenges, write down the specific goals you have for your handwriting adventure. Besides what you want to accomplish, reflect on why these goals are important to you. Keep this “why” in the forefront of your mind as an antidote for any hurdles that may pop up along your journey. Most importantly, even though it’s work to leap hurdles and avoid pitfalls, revel in the charming landscape of handwriting, celebrate the process wherever you find yourself, and have fun! Enjoyment is the ingredient that will make everything you learn stick with you.
Everyday Handwriting Samples
1. In the first word, and, the a could be confused with an o. The d has an open counter and looks like cl. In the second word, our, the u looks like an o or an a. Eliminating the loop will help.
2. In the word lazy, the problem is with the letter join between the a and the z: the second stroke of the a needs to come down to the base line.
3. The word here looks like lure. The h is unclear and the first e needs a more pronounced counter.
4. The word going needs a closed counter on the last g so that it doesn’t look like a y. The i and n letter shapes and joins need to be a little cleaner for increased legibility, as well as the placement of the dot for the i.
5. Little is a tricky word with three ascenders in a row. Consistent loops help legibility, as does making sure the counter letters, such as the e in this case, have a visible, closed counter. The first e in better also needs a counter, so that it isn’t confused with an i.
6. The words arrived and house need more pronounced counters for the letters e and d. The double r looks like a u, and the s needs to be closed before the letter join with the e.
7. In the word healthy the e would be more clear with a loop, and the counter on the a needs to be closed to avoid confusion. Also, in both h’s the ascender could be lengthened for increased clarity. The t to h join is missing an upward stroke, which makes the h appear to be an n.
What to Do with Double Letters
Double letters appear often in the English language—literary twins that show up in names, titles, businesses, and more. In handwriting, there’s a pronounced fork in the road when we encounter double letters. Let’s take a look at a couple different paths we can take.
One is the identical twins route. When we take this course, we decide to make those two letters look as uniform as a set of twins we can’t tell apart. In the context of some writing, especially if legibility and formality is of utmost considerat
ion, this choice might be the natural way to go. I often prefer to take the identical route when I come across double vowels or, depending on the setting, certain letters like c, r, or z.
The second route is the fraternal twins route. You can see a simple example of this in the word affirm.
This approach takes advantage of the vast array of options for “dressing twins in different outfits” by contrasting their heights, loops, hills, and flourishes so they share similarities but march to the beat of their own drummer.
In the following image, you can see several words written twice. In the first rendition of the word, the double letters are written as similarly as possible, while in the second, care is taken to give each twin its own unique look. Sometimes, different sizes accomplish this. Generally, it works best to make the first of the double letters larger, but you’ll also see examples that don’t follow this rule. Sometimes the twins are very similar but start at different heights. Flourishing one letter, while the other remains relatively uncomplicated, is another way to bring variety to double letters.
Examples of flourishing double letters.
Practicing Double Letters
Practice all the words in the previous example, trying both approaches. Do you have a preference for one method over the other?
Write both of the happiness quotes in the exercise on the following page. In the first quote, the double letters are identical, while the second quote shows slight variations in the twins by writing the second letter a bit smaller than the first.
For further practice, copy the page of double letter animals later in this section, or choose a category that interests you and brainstorm all the double letter words you can think of. You’ll find that certain letter pairs work better with one of the two approaches, so take your time to play around with what looks the best to you. Always keep legibility in mind, especially when adding flourishes or unique letter forms—you want your finished word to be easy to read.
Even though they require some extra attention, I love how double letters are one of the tell-tale indications that a word was written by hand. They offer great opportunities for creativity and exploration, so take advantage of them by trying new things when you see them coming.
For extra practice with flourishing options, following are more examples. These words use the common double letters of d, p, f, t, g, and l. All your practice will equip you with plenty of fun ideas to give your handwriting a little extra pizzazz. Now, there are some double z’s for you!
fun facts
Do animals write love letters? On a deep sea dive, Yoji Ookata spotted a mysterious O-shaped design on the ocean floor, and later discovered it was made by the pufferfish. This small fish diligently works day and night to carve an ornate circular pattern, using his flapping fin as a writing instrument. The finished design, embellished with sea shells, is about 6 feet in diameter. Scientists observed that the more elaborate the design, the greater success the pufferfish had in attracting a female.
DOUBLE LETTERS: QUOTES
TRY IT: Copy these quotes to practice using identical second letters and varied second letters.
DOUBLE LETTERS: ANIMALS
TRY IT: Copy this page of animal words with double letters on a piece of practice paper.
DOUBLE LETTERS: COMMON DOUBLE LETTERS
TRY IT: Copy this page for more double fun on a piece of practice paper.
The Ups and Downs of Flourishing
Flourishing is a very gratifying aspect of handwriting. It gives penmanship more radiance, more flair. Flourishes are like fashion accessories for letters. Like jewelry, scarves, and shoes, flourishing can tie a piece together and create the wow factor that brings basic to the next level.
Flourishing is a paradox of thought and planning with spontaneity and freedom. It’s one important facet that sets handwriting apart from type. Even with frilly fonts, a computer key simply can’t deliver what a human hand can when it comes to flourishing.
While its end result is gorgeous, flourishing is a skill that requires practice, patience, and flexibility. Eventually you will adopt a style of flourishing with your own brand of creativity and individuality at play, but to start with, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
1. Legibility is of utmost importance. The goal of flourishing is to enhance the words and their meanings. Words play the starring roles on the “stage” of your page, so check to ensure that flourishes don’t distract from them. Also, flourishes can sometimes look like letters if they are at the beginning or end of words. Because it’s often hard to accurately assess your own work, it helps to run your flourished words by a pair of fresh eyes and let someone else clue you in on its readability.
2. Flourishes should be oval or rounded in shape, and smoothly executed. Try to avoid irregular shapes and other ungainly lines and crossings that interrupt the flow of the words. A good rule of thumb is to aim for lines to cross at 90-degree angles, or as close to that as possible.
3. Practice flourishes in pencil. Good flourishing requires strategic planning—it rarely just happens naturally. At the same time, allow yourself to try some wild, new things when you flourish. Those flourishes might surprise you with how well they work.
4. Think big. When creating larger, sweeping flourishes, utilize your whole arm, not just finger movement, for a more natural-looking effect.
5. Strive to achieve balance when you are flourishing. Words like Friday, which contain both an ascender and descender nicely spaced, are ideal for flourishing practice since balance is more easily attained. When handwriting several lines, it usually works best to keep the flourishing on the outside edges of the words, rather than in between lines where it can be hard to read if it gets too crowded. Start small. A little flourishing is better than too much.
Where do flourishes fit best in handwriting? Ascenders and descenders offer perfect opportunities to add some embellishment. Capitals are conducive to flourishing, as well as letters with cross bars. The beginnings and ends of words also work well, and these flourishes are especially helpful when you are working to create the balance mentioned earlier.
ASCENDER AND DESCENDER FLOURISHES
TRY IT: Try mirroring these flourishes on a piece of practice paper.
H AND F FLOURISHES IN A QUOTE
TRY IT: Try to copy this simple quote about friendship. In this example, the ascender and descender flourishes are reserved for the outside of the piece, rather than the middle lines, for visual clarity.
Next, copy a couple more sets of quotes. Again, you’ll notice how the flourishing is only used on the top, bottom, and sides of the page, so legibility is not jeopardized.
W, Y, A, F, AND Y FLOURISHES IN QUOTES
TRY IT: Try writing these quotes on a piece of practice paper.
F, P, AND A FLOURISHES IN QUOTES
TRY IT: Try writing these quotes on a piece of practice paper.
The following exercise with the words chocolate and beautiful shows a progression of flourishing, from simple to more elaborate. Trace these, then pick some words to make your own advancing levels of flourishing. This is an exercise I use consistently to explore flourishing options and push my imagination. You never know what you’ll like until you try!
As the exercise on the following page shows, writing names is a strategy I use consistently to explore flourishing options and push my imagination. Experiment to discover your favorite flourishes. Flourishing comes in handy when you’re writing names on envelopes, gifts, and place cards. Feel free to make your own personalized list of names to flourish as well.
Flourishing is also useful for emphasizing words and expressing the emotion of a piece, as seen in the quote about romance later in this section.
Be patient, and don’t expect your flourishes to come together right away. Sometimes I’ll go through several sheets of notebook paper before something clicks and I’m happy with the end result. Enjoying the trial-and-error process and keeping a sense of humor about the mess-ups will replace frustration with
fun and fulfillment.
handwriting heroes
Want to combine handwriting with recycling? Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) did just that when she meticulously saved envelopes that came in the mail and jotted poems on them. The envelope poems are reproduced in the book The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems. On one triangular back flap of an envelope, she wrote these lines:
“In this short Life /that only lasts an hour / merely / How much—how /little—is / within our /power.”
PROGRESSION OF FLOURISHES
TRY IT: Trace these words, then pick some words to make your own advancing levels of flourishing.
EXPLORING FLOURISHING WITH NAMES
TRY IT: Trace these names, then pick some names to make your own advancing levels of flourishing.
EXPRESSING EMOTION WITH FLOURISHING
TRY IT: Trace this quote, then pick some quotes to make your own advancing levels of flourishing.
Signatures: What’s in a Name?
Why continue teaching penmanship in schools? One common argument is so that kids can learn to sign their names and read the signatures of others. A signature is simply the distinct way in which you script your name. Because of the intrinsically personal element of handwriting, a signature is a means of identification. Modern technology has replaced the need for signatures in some transactions, but signatures are still used for signing checks, legal documents, works of art, and correspondence.
Signatures are the kind of storytellers that do just what our English teachers incessantly reminded us to do: show, don’t tell. When we see the signatures of people we are close to, those simple scripted names have power to conjure up so much more about them than the names involved. Things like emotion and personality and memories are mysteriously linked to the technicalities of letter formation. Following are signatures I wrote as examples, not actual autographs.
The Lost Art of Handwriting Page 5