Teach Yourself Better Handwriting

I have purchased books from four different authors to improve my handwriting as well as my childrens' handwriting. This is one of the best. Aimed at the adult, it leaves no stone unturned in diagnosing and treating bad handwriting (I'm physician, so I could not resist that analogy). It covers selecting the right writing instrument, the impact of different hand and wrist positions and implements to help holding the pen or pencil. It covers issues for lefties. It even covers briefly problems for people with tremors; it is that thorough. There are numerous exercises to improve your strokes. It covers the strokes to clearly create each letter in great detail. Joining of letters has its own problems and this is well covered. Capital letters get a chapter. Finally for the ambitous (not me for sure), a more formal scripted hand is briefly introduced. I highly recommend this book for other handwriting impaired adults. I have been able to greatly improve my handwriting, which I use daily in hospital charts. I do wish to state that the book is written at the high school or adult level. I should not be purchased and handed to a preteen. As a parent, I read it and had the children do exercises. I also recommend an iPhone app called Better Letters and a book called Write Now by Getty & Dubay. I highly recommend this book. These two books and the iphone app have really helped me and kids. P.S. It has even made writing by hand kinda fun.

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.

I really felt that this book improved my handwriting. I am more confident in my handwriting, and I am also more willing to write things down in cursive. I really apperciate this book and recommend it to others.

I ordered this book to improve my penmanship. The results were no less than wonderful. In less than 3 days my writing had improve tremendously. What I like most about this book, along with the price of course, is the options that it gives you in writing techniques. I also liked that the author gives an understanding of why one may have difficulty in with their writing in the first place. I generally felt that good penmanship reflected a person who was deliberate and careful. This book shows that there is more than attitude involved here, there are basic mechanics to good penmanship that we were not shown in grade school. Great book to refer to anyone who is penmanly- challenged.

Those who buy this book are, obviously, looking to develop a more readable handwriting style. And this will help you do it. The thing is -- you have to be prepared to do handwriting exercises. Fact is, handwriting is a series of learned hand motions which result in readable script; so when changing your handwriting, you have to develop some new habits and work with them until they stick. And this is not something you can do in a few minutes. On the other hand, it doesn't take years either, and I'm seeing clear results after a couple of days. How long it takes depends on how much work one has to do to get where one wants to go. The book has a lot of material on diagnosing one's current handwriting, and what to do about faults and flaws that one finds troublesome. The book delivers on its promise -- it has the basic information, by people who know what they are doing, about how to fix a handwriting style that one does not care for. One of the charming aspects of this book is that it is NOT what you were taught in school, is NOT dogmatic, and doesn't try to boss you around -- it tries to help you get where YOU want to go. Sassoon and her co-author fully expect that you will individualize your penmanship, that it should be individualized, and that it ought to suit you and your style. What this book will do for you is give you an intellectual framework to guide yourself. That's what I got it for, and I feel I got every pennysworth. One extra hint. I've not found it as hard to reform my penmanship, using this book, as I would have with a new musical instrument. It's really a matter of adding to what you were taught in school, and what you already do. It's not as easy as falling off a log, but if you really want to do it, it can be quite rewarding.