Does your handwriting look like it belongs in a doctor’s office? Then it might be time to consider changing and improve your writing. After all, messy handwriting can hurt your work or school performance.
There are different ways to change your handwriting for the better, which you will see below. But first, we show you why improving your writing is not only an essential factor for your professional or academic career, it can also be a significant boost for your self-confidence!
Why You Should Improve Your Handwriting
Your first goal should not be a beautiful handwriting style; your first goal should be making your handwriting legible. Your handwriting style was likely much more readable when you were a child than it is now. With the use of computers, tablets, and smartphones, this is entirely normal.
Writing things down with handwriting that is legible will increase your chances professionally and academically. In an article for the Florida International University School of Education, Dr. Laura Dinehart laid out research done on 1,000 second-graders (UK equivalent is Third Year) and compared it with the information they collected in Infant School.
Surprisingly it was the fine motor skill, the ability to form letters, numbers, and shapes, that was a strong indicator for academic achievement later on.
Developing and maintaining a fine motor skill through good handwriting could therefore help you to train your brain. So how do we get from illegible handwriting to a legible one?
How To Improve Handwriting
Here are some tips how you can improve your handwriting:
- Check your handwriting
Write the following sentences on a sheet of paper:
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
“Amazingly, few discotheques provide jukeboxes.”
Both of these sentences contain all the letters of the alphabet. This way, you can test which letters you are already good at and which you still need to work on.
- Recognize your weaknesses
Now take a close look at your written sentences and pay attention to the following things:
- Are there letters that look particularly spidery or messy?
- Are the spaces between words or between letters evenly spaced?
- Is the size of each letter the same?
- Do your letters always lean in the same direction, i.e., are they always upright, leaning diagonally to the right, or leaning diagonally to the left?
- Do you always write on the lines of your paper or sometimes beyond?
- Are there letters where you have to interrupt your writing flow?
- Do you write in both cursive and print within the same word?
Underline or mark these irregularities in your writing in colour. Then write down the letters that you are not yet able to write well under the text. Start your writing training with them. On this site you’ll find more resources for adults.
- Find the right pen
Finding the right pen to write with is important. Not all pens are the same, which is why you need the right pen for you. To test which one is best for you, try out a few options and see which one you like best. The pen should fit comfortably in your hand, not cause pressure points on your fingers, and not smear. Spend some time and effort to make sure that your employees or team members have the right pen, especially if you’ll be working with each other’s notes. Have your employees use a pen with your logo from National Pen so you can improve your visibility and improve handwriting in the entire company at the same time.
Practice your handwriting for a short period each day, and you will see that not only will your writing improves, but your confidence will also get a serious boost!
