Half a Dozen Ways to Improve Your Handwriting
The art of handwriting is one that many people wish they could tackle. We'd like to help you start with some quick and easy things to try. One or all of these will immediately help your handwriting look neater and more legible. This is specific to cursive, however much of it applies to printing as well. Have fun, putting pen to paper is one of the most mindful and deliberate acts we can enjoy:
1. Sit Up Straight - plant your feet evenly on the ground, have plenty of room to move your pen or pencil and use the large muscles of your hand and arm.
2. Hold Your Instrument Correctly - try the tripod grip for smooth and flowing penmanship. Hold the pen or pencil with your thumb and index finger while resting the instrument near the nail bed of the middle finger. Angle the pen or pencil on the index finger instead of falling closer to the thumb, which will make your hand crunch up and be cramped. Your grip will be too tight and not loose.
3. Slant Your Paper - Your hand and paper should be at a slight slant for optimal writing comfort and legibility.
4. Start Slowly - If you write slower you will be less likely to have open letter tops and thus readability will be better.
5. Banish Loops - The tops and bottoms of loops, if large can be hard to read, try just using lower loops to reduce a distracting page of extra flourishes.
6. Be Consistent - Practice uniform size of letters and consistent baselines. Try to avoid ascender and descenders that are all over the place.
In addition, the best thing to do is practice, practice, practice. There are lots of way to do this rather than drill sheets and exercises. You can write a letter, a thank you card, a grocery list, even a quick note for a co-worker. These can all be mindfully written and best of all, you've done some practice to improve your handwriting.
