Teach Yourself Better Handwriting

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.

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?)?

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.

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!