Minnesota Musing: Handwriting Improvement

According to those who write clearly, handwriting is something that comes naturally. People insist that it is a personal flaw to write letters that do not conform to usual shape.

My handwriting leaves a lot to be desired. It's sloppy. It's hard to read, and it has always earned me a lot of flack from people who write well.

I have learned to live with it.

Reading about handwriting skills has not fixed the problem.

As I read the book I found, I was compelled to note what was happening as I was trying to improve.

I started by analyzing my total problem.

I wrote a letter. I started with a. I wrote it. I was careful, you know, because I was watching myself and needed to be impressive. I started at the top right, made a circular shape that was perfectly curved, and ended immediately below it. I then went to the original spot and drew a perfectly straight line from the top of the letter to the bottom of the letter.

It looked wonderful! I could read it.

Feeling a little like Hellen Keller, I excitedly started my next letter.

I did a b. I made the long straight line down, and then, made a curved line half way down the right side and ended at the bottom.

Easy enough. Looks good. Then, I did a quick, careful c and a d.

Then, encouraged by my creativity, I did an upper case A.

The first paragraph of the book assured me that even a person such as myself, with no apparent brain damage, could potentially have troubles with writing. Apparently, the author decided that there were things that would cause troubles, that weren't always recognized by the teacher.

Things like physical disability, bad eyesight, left or right handedness, emotional problems, perceptual difficulties, or retardation.

Things that the teacher didn't credit to the writer, but peers may suggest what failings that you may possess, and let the tauntings begin.

I even analyzed what I was doing. I drew little arrows to show the direction of my pen scrolling.

Even if my handwriting is deficient, my drawing skills are impeccable. Smile.

Then, I decided to write like I normally do. I thought that a person could look at it humorously: Voice into tape recorder: "experiment, handwriting, day one" I wrote my name, printed. It looked normal, but my r was in the shape of a v.

Okay. So then, I wrote it clearly, taking my time with each letter. Then, I did it as quickly as I could. Yep. Looks like normal. Sloppy.

So, again, I took the time to write it again neatly. Looks okay.

Then, I took their suggestion and wrote a series of the letter e, across the page, taking the time to do the same angle and loop on each one.

I found out the reason why my handwriting has always been bad at this point.

Writing makes my forearm muscle ache. Pain. The muscle gets a cramp and then, my fingers no long work correctly.

Like a bad case of carpal tunnel. So. Perhaps this is the reason why other kids have problems with writing, also.

So much easier to type!