How to Improve Your Handwriting

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to make me practice my cursive handwriting. Needless to say, when I was younger, I found handwriting practice to be incredibly tedious. My grandmother would sit me down, yank a book off the bookshelf, open it up to a random page, and make me transcribe the entire page in perfect cursive, word by word. Although I found this process tedious at the time, my handwriting did improve, and now I see the value in having neater handwriting as an adult. What follows is a list of the things I learned from my grandmother about proper handwriting, including a few tidbits of my own that I have picked up over the years. if you follow the rules below, you should be able to improve your handwriting with regular practice.

Rule #1: Slow Down!

The difference between a doctor's note and a well-written love letter is like night and day. A doctor's note is chicken scratch while the love letter is a model of beautiful handwriting. What accounts for this difference? The most basic explanation is one of timing. A doctor does not slow down when writing his prescriptions out because there are thousands of other priorities that deserve his attention and time than the quality of his handwriting. The result is a scribble that was hurriedly jotted on a notepad and is usually practically illegible. By contrast, a love letter is a thing of beauty, in which each word is chosen and written carefully to create the desired effect in its recipient. Each word, nay each letter, is written with the utmost attention to perfection as a sign of devotion to one's beloved. The simple process of slowing down and paying attention to what one is doing will go a long way toward causing your handwriting to improve.

Rule #2: Use Less Pressure