KATHMANDU:

I think that everyone ought to write neatly and legibly just out of demonstrating respect for others and thus, showing good character in life. When you look at it that way, your sloppy writing could be insulting to others.

There are four factors in handwriting that add up to legibility: shape, slant, spacing and size. Stop being unconscious and ‘on automatic’ when you write. From now on notice what you are scrawling on the page and think, ‘orderly, legibly,’ when you form the letters and words. Think of the person who must read whatever you are writing.

Don’t write with your fingers and ‘draw’ the letters, a finger writer plunks his wrist on the paper then picks it up and moves it repeatedly as he moves down the line. Your fingers should serve as guides, driven by much larger muscles than just your wrist.

Notice what muscles you use when you write, go ahead, try it now, and then come back here. You should be using your forearms and shoulders in a great, coordinated flowing motion.

Be sure to hold the pen between the thumb and index finger. The barrel should rest on the middle finger. Do not hold the pen almost evenly between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, because that gives you wobbly control and stresses out the underside muscles of your wrist.

Don’t strangle your pen by squeezing it to death. Grip the pen loosely.

Writing at an angle leads the eye across the paper, so whether you are writing in print or cursive, your note will be a fast read.

Practice making ‘air letters’. Yes, just form the letters in the air in front of you. By making them big this way, you start getting the feel of using the bigger muscles in your arm and shoulder that you should use when writing.

Never again lapse back into rotten writing! Follow the exercises above and you, too, can become a legible, maybe even a neat and tidy, writer. If you do, the world will surely give you a nice hand!