How to Change Your Handwriting in 10 Steps or Less ...
Forget boring handwriting practice that doesn't work anyway.
Change your handwriting instantly by changing your mind!
- Make letters neat and uniform, but still have a personal style
- Slant letters and lines consistently even on blank paper
- Get pleasing, professional handwriting even when writing quickly
Use the course I've created for you, and/or use the 10 steps below.
Don't spend another day with handwriting you don't like ...
This brand new 18 page PDF is the most effective way to change your handwriting.
Get the activities your brain and body need to break bad habits and build good ones.
- Trace letters with marked starting points to perfect letter shape and width
- Use specially formatted lines to perfect letter height
- Learn to write quickly and neatly by linking letters
Don't worry!
- You won't learn everything at once
- You'll focus on 1 skill during each of 4 - 15 minute sessions
And you'll get great results even if bad handwriting has bothered you for years!
INSTANT RESULTS GUARANTEED!
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you'll pay just $9.99
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Would you prefer to get started with the 10 steps?
(Not everyone has access to a printer, and I promised you could change your handwriting in 10 steps. So grab a pencil and some paper, and let's get started!)
We'll cover 7 parts of handwriting beginning with the most important ones!
There are 7 different things you'll want to consider, and 10 different aspects. Think of these 10 as a checklist. You probably won't need to make 10 different changes.
All 7 parts are important, but some are more important than others. The biggest pieces in the pie chart will make the biggest difference to your handwriting style.
NOTE: If you already know what you want to work on,
just click on the links below that interest you most.
SHAPE:
SIZE:
SLANT:
SPACE:
SILLY DETAILS:
SLOPE:
SPEED:
- Proper use of upper and lower case letters
- Tips, and tricks to avoid letter reversals
- The Analog Clock Trick to improve letter shape
- Recommended trick to improve letter height
- Tips to improve letter width
- A trick, and tips to improve letter slant
- Tips to improve the space between letters and words
- A simple trick to make using silly details a habit
- A trick, and 4 Tips to fix slope of words and sentences
- A simple trick, and 5 tips, to improve letter writing speed
If you're using all 10 steps, create a handwriting sample before you begin ...
- Use lined paper (or draw lines for your sentences)
- Write the following sentences on 2 lines, one directly under the other:
Be sure to use your ordinary, everyday handwriting ...
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The five boxing wizards jump quickly.
Refer to your handwriting sample as you answer each question ...
Your 10 answers will show what’s working, what isn't, and what needs to change.
- Answer the 10 questions that follow in the order given
- If you answer 'yes' to a question, go on to the next one
- If you answer 'no', stop and learn what and how to change before continuing
SPECIAL NOTE: If you really want to know how to change your handwriting ...
don't pick and choose! Be sure to answer all questions in the order given.
Changing letter SHAPE is the most useful thing you can do to change your handwriting!
Your letters will be the correct shape if they are similar to letters you see every day.
Like common fonts, they'll be both uniform and easy to read.
Note: With the 'shape' questions #1, #2 and #3, we'll look at individual letters, not at any lines you use to join letters. We'll look at joining letters in Question #10
QUESTION #1 - Are you using lower case and upper case (capital) letters correctly?
Capital letters are used at the beginning of sentences, and certain names. They can also be used for emphasis, for example in titles, but it's not a good idea to use them exclusively.
IF YOU WRITE LIKE THIS, instead of writing like this, your letters are not easy to recognize!
If you write using all capital letters, read the following before you continue with the questions …
QUICK FIX - Switch to using lower case letters most of the time
THE QUICK BROWN FOX
Capital letters act as useful signals, but when they are used exclusively, these very useful signals are lost!
3 More good reasons not to use capital letters exclusively:
- Upper case (capital) letters are not seen as often as lower case letters. As a result, they take more time to recognize and read
- Because they make words look quite different, words written in capital letters can't help reinforce your learning when you're trying to improve skills like spelling, and reading
- It takes longer to write using these letters. They are larger, you lift your pen more often when writing them, and they're difficult to link to other letters
Below you'll find the help you need to switch to using lower case letters ...
STEP 1 - Review when to Use Capital Letters ...
You can probably remember the pronoun 'I' is always written with a capital letter, and that the first letter of the first word in every sentence is also capitalized. These are some of the first things we learn. Most people also know that proper nouns should be capitalized. However, not everyone knows, or can remember, what proper nouns are! Click on the link below if you'd like to do a quick review of proper nouns and other uses for capital letters.
Think of it this way, names of specific people, places and things are proper nouns. General or common nouns like school, province, country, mountain, and ocean, are not proper nouns and not capitalized. But specific names like Brown Elementary, British Columbia, Canada, Mount McKinley, and the Pacific Ocean, are proper nouns and must be capitalized. Even names of specific regions and specific buildings are capitalized such as the B.C. Interior, the Pacific Northwest, the Houses of Parliament.
There are many other instances where capital, or upper case, letters are required. There are so many in fact, you may have forgotten some. So I've listed 6 significant ones below:
- Words derived from common nouns are also capitalized. For example, Canadian comes from Canada, so it is capitalized
- The first word in quotations. For example, Shakespeare's famous words, 'To be or not to be'.
- A title for a person, if it is given with their name, or instead of their name, is always capitalized. For example, Prime Minister Trudeau. [But not, the prime minister of Canada is …]
- When you're writing a letter, the salutation and first word of a closing are capitalized. For example, you might right, Dear Mr. Smith … Sincerely, Janet
- Titles of books and movies, magazines, works of art etc. are capitalized. However, less significant words in names and titles are not capitalized. Prepositions like 'of', conjunctions like 'and', and articles like 'the' will not begin with upper case letters, as in for example, 'The Agony and the Ecstasy'.
- Letters in abbreviations and acronyms, or at least the first letters, are often capitalized. For example, B.C. for British Columbia, P.S. for post script, and Tbsp. for tablespoon. However, teaspoon is abbreviated as tsp. and road becomes Rd.
Upper case letters are very useful at indicating things like the beginning of sentences, and proper nouns. So it's important they are reserved for those special uses. Of course they can still be used to make titles and certain words stand out. But they mustn't be overused. Otherwise, the very useful jobs they perform will get lost in the clutter.
STEP 2 - Take the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course©. You'll use a simple saying to help you use the correct letter form, and you'll find it easy to switch from using upper case to lower case letters
QUESTION #2 - Are you careful not to reverse letters?
When you substitute a mirror image letter for your intended letter, words become very challenging to read.
The most commonly reversed letters are b and d. A couple of less common side-by-side reversals are p and q, and z and s. An upside-down reversal is m for w, or vice versa.
If you want to stop reversing letters, read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - Avoid reversed letters by using your arm and a special phrase (said out loud).
The best way to avoid letter reversals is to apply a memory aid as you write.
When you take the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course©, you use a special saying to guide your hand and cement your new habits.
Take the course. Or, practice writing lower case letters and while you write each one a few times, describe what you're doing out loud. For example, if you were writing the letter 'a', you could say, "Go around, up and down." For the letter 'l' you could say, 'Go straight down'.
NOTE: Our brains have got used to seeing the letters we read most often, the ones in books and magazines,
and on signs and screens.
When your handwriting is different from common fonts you see every day, it's far more difficult to read.
Think of it this way …
Handwriting fonts like the ones on the three lines below look as if their letters are wearing a disguise! When you view these less common fonts, reading skills you've developed aren't as useful. This slows your reading speed, and makes it hard for you to take in and remember what you've been reading.
If letters are confusing, you have to put more energy into the process of reading and writing. So you have less brain power left over to think about what you're reading and writing. Your ability to learn and remember words and ideas is reduced!
NOTE: The trick you're about to learn
will probably make the most important
change to your handwriting!
(It can make you a better speller and reader as well.)
QUESTION #3 - Does your handwriting look like the print you read every day?
If your letters don't resemble common print (typeface), and aren't uniform, your words can be unnecessarily difficult for you and others to read.
The letters of common fonts have a consistent, recognizable shape.
But there is more to it than that ...
The letters of common fonts are more rounded than the letters we're used to writing. In fact, because of the ways we were taught to write, we can find it impossible to make our letters consistently rounded.
Not any more ...
If your letters aren't like the print you read every day, and you want handwriting that's always neat ...
Learn the Wordskillz™ Analog Clock Trick and discover how to change your handwriting
before you continue …
QUICK FIX - Use the Analog Clock Trick to start letters in the right place and in the right way.
The 'Analog Clock Trick' will magically give your letters a consistent, rounded shape that is most like the fonts you read every day. When you use it, your handwriting will be much easier to read.
In fact, you can use it to learn how to change your handwriting into a font!
CLICK on the button below, and easily learn to write more neatly!
QUESTION #4 - Are your letters the correct height?
Changing Letter SIZE is the 2nd most useful thing you can do to change your handwriting
Your letters are the correct size if:
- The ratio between 'long' and 'short' letters, and 'narrow' and 'wide' letters, is correct
- Letters rest on the base line and don't reach all the way to (or past) the lines above or below that base line
NOTE: Both questions #4, #5 have to do with letter size. Question #4 deals with height, and Question #5 deals with width.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, add some lines to your writing sample:
- Did you use unlined paper for your sample? Use a ruler to make it look as if you'd written on lined paper.
- Make two new lines that run along the top of your short letters so you can make a comparison.
Your tall letters should be approximately twice the size of your short letters, and none of your letters should take up all the space between lines.
Are the following 14 short letters taking up about 1/3 of the space between the lines?
a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x and z
Do the following 7 tall letters appear twice as long as the short letters above, and take up about 2/3 of the space between the lines?
b, d, f, h, k, l, t
Do the following 5 tall letters appear twice as long as the short letters above and take up about 1/3 of the space above the baseline and 1/3 of the space below?
g, j, p, q, y
When the tops and tails of letters are too short (in relation to the letter body) those letters can be mistaken for other letters.
See the illustration to the right >>>
The tops and tails of letters should not stretch to lines above and below. If they do, they can overlap letters written on other lines. This will make both lines of words more difficult to read.
See the illustration to the right >>>
Remember the lines we were given to practice handwriting?
They looked like the ones in the image above. Note how the letters in the red circle overlap.
I've you've had trouble making your letters the right size, maybe it's the way you were taught!
If you want to improve your letter height, read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - Divide the space between lines into thirds, not halves.
Use about 1/3 or 2/3rds of the space available for each letter.
NOTE: The quick fixes are relevant even if you never use lined paper. Just imagine the lines and spaces you need, and this will improve your writing by creating symmetry and more blank space.
If you'd like to improve the height of your letters, use the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course© with its special lined paper to magically solve any problems!
You won't need to do any extra practice, just use extra sheets of this specially lined paper for a week or so and you'll easily form a habit of making your letters the correct height.
Note: If your letters don't all sit on the baseline, your letter height may appear out of whack when the letters are actually the correct height just jumping out of place! You'll learn how to keep letters and words lined up when we consider letter slope.
QUESTION #5 - Are your letters the correct width?
Your letters will be easier to recognize and read if they have 3 distinct widths:
# 1 - Is a straight line
# 2 - A square, and also a tall narrow rectangle
# 3 - A short wide rectangle
In order to determine correct letter width, it's helpful to think of letters as occupying 4 different shapes. They can either fit into:
a. A line: i, l
b. Boxes: a, c, e, n, o, r, s, u, v, x, z
c. Tall narrow rectangles: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, p, q, t, y
d. Low wide rectangles: m, w
Letters that are as wide as the fonts we are used to reading every day, are far more readable than letters that are more squished! The rounder your letters, the better.
In addition, when letters like 'm', and 'w' are squished, they can be confused with the letters 'n' and 'v' that are only half as wide. Make sure the letter 'm' is almost twice as wide as the letter 'n', and the letter 'w' is almost twice as wide as the letter 'v'.
To improve your letter width, read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - To create the best letter width, consider the shape the letter fits inside
Letters fit into 3 shapes: lines, squares, and rectangles.
Rectangles can be either tall or wide, and sit on the baseline or fall below it.
If you'd like to improve the width of your letters, use the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvment Course© with its special lined paper and letter shapes to trace. These will magically solve any problems!
QUESTION #6 - Do your letters have no slant? Just a slight slant? Do they all slant the same way?
Changing letter SLANT is the 3rd most important thing you can do to change your handwriting!
When your letters are slanted uniformly, and slanted only slightly or not at all, words are easy to recognize and sentences are much easier to read. Your letters have the correct slant if they are all straight up and down, or slightly slanted, and all slanted the same way.
The slant of your letters has a big impact on their readability.
To improve the slant of letters and words, read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - The easiest way to make your letter slope consistent is not to slope your letters at all!
When you take the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course© you learn to use a style of lettering just like the fonts you read ever day. And just like the fonts you read every day, this style of lettering has no slant!
QUESTION #7 - Is your letter spacing the right width, and uniform?
Is your word spacing the right width, and uniform?
Changing Letter SPACE is the 4th most important thing you can do to change your handwriting!
Some people believe that improving the amount of space between letters and words is just as important as improving shape! If your letters overlap, or words appear too cramped, your writing will be difficult to read. Well spaced letters and words are readable at a glance.
Your letter spacing is correct if no letters overlap within words, and letters are spaced the same width apart. The space between letters should be about the same width as half of the letter 'o'.
Your word spacing is correct if no words overlap, and words are spaced the same width apart. The space between words should be about the same width as the letter 'o'.
NOTE: You'll find that handwriting requires a larger space between letters and words than published fonts.
To improve the spacing between letters and words, read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - make the space between letters and words a consistent, correct width
Make the spaces between letters about as wide as half of the letter 'o'
Make the spaces between words about as wide as the width of the letter 'o'.
When you take the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course© you practice letters, words and sentences, using guides that help you maintain and learn proper letter spacing.
QUESTION #8 - Are your letters easy to recognize because you remember silly details?
Changing SILLY DETAILS is the 5th most important thing you can do to change your handwriting!
Letter details are something you'll want to consider alongside letter shape. That's because silly details are also very important when it comes to making letters easy to recognize and easy to tell apart from one another.
In fact, silly details aren't silly at all!
I used that name to help you remember all 7 S's for better handwriting: Shape, Size, Space, Slant, Silly Details, Slope and Speed
So what are these silly details?
- Unique features like dots on the letters i and j, and crosses on t's and f's
- Mistakes to avoid like loops that are left open on letters like: a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q
- Things to avoid like lines that don't connect on letters like: k, v, w, y, and x
- Mistakes to avoid like curves that don't connect on letters like: m, n and r
- Special features like tips and tails on letters like: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, q, and y
- Defining features like lines on letters like: l, a, b, d and curves on letters like: c
Do the following to get 'silly details' right:
- Close loops on letters that have circles
- Join up lines that need to be joined
- Make curved lines curvy and straight lines straight
- Put dots over your i's and j's
- Put crosses on your t's and f's
If 'silly details' are missing, the coloured letters
in the diagram to the left can easily be confused
with the black letters they cover >>>
To improve your use of 'silly details', read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - Include 'silly details' as you write each letter. Don't wait until you've written a word.
As you write, pay attention to the details that make letters stand out
For example, close loops to make letters easy to recognize. Check the image to the right to see how a's and o's can look like c's and u's unless you're careful. >>>
Dot your i's and j's, cross your t's and f's as soon as you write the letter in question.[If you wait until you've finished writing the word, you might forget!]
Yes, you'll write a little slower if you're paying attention to all these details. But you won't have to do this forever. Just spend a few days paying close attention to your letters every chance you get. This is the way to build a habit of taking the necessary steps.
Once you've built the habits you need, you can go back to writing in the usual way. At that point, you'll be happy with your new and improved results!
If you need to work on 'silly details', take a day to use your new tip before you go on.
Or use the Wordskillz™ Handwriting Improvement Course© to quickly make a habit of forming letters without missing details. Special sayings with trigger the correct actions until those actions become habits.
QUESTION #9 - Do your letters and words always sit on the baseline, and does that baseline line
up with the margin of your page?
Changing Letter SLOPE is the 6th most important thing you can do to change your handwriting!
There are 3 different ways handwriting slope can cause problems:
- Letters, words, and/or sentences miss the baseline
- The baseline of words and sentences slopes up or down
- Your rows don't line up with the margin of the page
For the purposes of Question #9 ... Consider how things slope when you're writing on blank, and lined paper. NOTE: The sample you created before you began answering the 10 questions may not be useful when you answer this question. You may need to consider other writing you've done!
If you write your letters, words, and sentences, on a slope, instead
of a level lined-up baseline, that slope can become distracting
and overwhelm what you're trying to read or write.
When using blank paper,
do your letters, words, and sentences:
- Have minds of their own?
- Do they dance all over like notes on a sheet of music?
- Do they go up and down as if they were written on the surface of a ball?
- Are they resisting lining up with the page margins?
To improve the slope of letters, words, sentences, and pages,
read below before you continue …
QUICK FIX - Four quick and simple changes will make all the difference.
Follow all 4 steps below. The first 2 will help break old habits, the last 2 will help establish new ones:
1) Avoid the use of blank paper for at least a week. Rely on lined paper and paper margins to guide you.
2) Adjust the slant of your paper, and keep your hand position steady.
3) Follow the leader:
- When you're writing a letter within a word, use the previous letter as a guide
- If you are writing a word within a sentence, use the previous word as your guide
- Whenever you're writing a new sentence, use the previous sentence as your guide
4) Slow down. Give yourself time to integrate the tips in #3.
Whether you're lining up your letters, words, and sentences to the baseline, or your lines to the page margin, think differently about your writing:
- Before you begin writing, think about what you're going to write
- As you begin writing, focus on how to write not what to write
- While you're writing, use the letter, word, sentence, and/or line you've just written to guide you
QUESTION #10 - Do you write as quickly as you'd like?
I've saved the best for last!
Before you do Question #10, your last question, please read the following ...
The skill of handwriting is as important now as it has ever been!
But probably not for the reason you're thinking ...
We've known for decades multi-sensory learning is the best, and for some the only way to learn. But multi-sensory learning is noisy and demanding. It is certainly not tell, then test, like some classroom, and most screen learning! It's a type of learning that requires full mental and physical participation.
Let's look at that process in action ...
Let's say you see a new word in a book you're reading, and you decide to learn it.
You don't know the meaning or how to pronounce the word, so you Google it.
On-line you can hear someone say the word, and discover its meaning.
But you know you're not going to remember what you've learned, unless you get busy.
So you read the word, and its meaning, out loud.
Then you do one more thing to boost your learning and memory.
You write down both the word and its meaning while saying out loud the words you're writing.
This is a very effective way to learn - I like to think of this See Hear Read wRite approach
as the sure (SHRwR) way to learn!
Do you see where I'm going with this line of thinking?
As it turns out, writing things down is a critical part of the learning process!
YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS HANDWRITING OUT OF THE LEARNING EQUATION!!!
As you write, you engage your eyes, fingers, hand, arm, shoulder, and ears!
However, a certain style of handwriting is best!
What's more, it's probably not the type of handwriting you learned in school. In Question #3 you learned to start letters in a different place from the place you were taught. In Question #4 you learned to change letter height and not to fill the space between lines as you were taught. Improving letters in these ways, and others, will give you the type of handwriting that boosts your ability to learn and remember.
Now it's time to make a small addition!
If you want handwriting that is practical for any situation, you'll want to change some letters slightly, and your words quite a bit. As it turns out, the most practical handwriting of all isn't anything like the handwriting you were taught.
It's a hybrid. The best style of writing is a combination of print, otherwise known as manuscript writing, and joined-up writing, also known as cursive writing.
Most people who write a lot every day, have already switched to using this hybrid style of writing because it is so practical. If you haven't yet made the switch, and you'd like to, you're going to love what you learn in Question #10!
ARE YOU READY? Let's get started ...
Changing Letter SPEED is the 7th and final thing you can do to change your handwriting!
If you've ever wanted to learn how to write both quickly and neatly, then Question #10 will be your favorite. You'll learn that when it comes to improving the speed of your handwriting, there is much that you can do.
You can learn to write both quickly and neatly. However:
- If your goal is speed, some compromise in neatness and readability is required
- If your goal is neatness and readability, some compromise in speed is required
The most radical thing you can do to change your writing speed is to link your letters instead of print writing. There are also 5 less radical things you can do that will still make a big difference.
When letters are joined words can be written far more quickly.
You don't even need to join all your letters, just the ones that can be easily joined.
Joining letters will give you the biggest gain in speed, but of course there is more you can do ...
To improve your writing speed, read below before you finish the 10 questions …
QUICK FIX - To speed up your writing, don't lift your pen from the paper as often
And there is more you can do to speed up your writing ...
Everything you need to know about speeding up writing by joining letters can be found at Wordskillz.com! (as you'll discover when you click on the button below)
Here's a quick list of more things you can do to change your handwriting and speed it up:
- Smaller is faster! Shrink the size of your letters to speed up your writing (If you've been using the Wordskillz™ special lined paper, you've already shrunk your letters!)
- Get your paper surface just right! Use a pad of paper, or a stack of paper, to write on so your pen glides more smoothly.
- Choose the right pen! You need a pen with a comfortable grip that's the right width for you. You also need to be sure the ink flows smoothly but doesn't smear.
- Adjust your body! Your hand, arm and shoulder should be relaxed, and your grip should allow the words to flow as smoothly as the ink from your pen.
- Adjust your space! Your writing surface should be stable, large enough, and neither too high nor too low (both your feet should be flat on the floor).
Click below, and learn to write both quickly and neatly ...
Wordskillz™ learning is a new, exciting, active way to learn
that is completely customized and personalized!
Whether the goal is new skills or knowledge, learners learn best by doing!
Most classroom, and all computer based learning, is not multi-sensory, and yet that's all most learners are offered. This creates gaps in the most basic skills which undermine all learning going forward.
That's where Wordskillz™ free help comes in! Wordskillz™ takes your practice off the worksheet and screen, and into your body. You can quickly build new habits by gaining skills and knowledge the right way.
But handwriting is just the beginning!
It's time to check all the skills that lead to better reading and writing!
If you'd like to share the Wordskillz™ 10 Handwriting Questions, please click on the buttons below...
You can review your KEY TAKE-AWAYS by clicking on the links below ...
- SHAPE 1 - Make sure letters are easy to recognize, and easy to tell apart
- SHAPE 2 - Be careful not to reverse letters
- FINAL SHAPE 3 - Make your handwriting like the print you read every day
- SIZE 1 - Make your letters the correct height
- SIZE 2 - Make your letters the correct width
- SLANT - Make letters, and words the correct slant
- SPACE - Make spacing between letters and words wide enough and uniform
- SILLY DETAILS - Make sure these important details aren't missed
- SLOPE - Correct the slope of words, sentences and lines
- SPEED - Link letters and use 5 tips to improve writing speed
Want better handwriting more quickly and easily? Take the Course ...
This course was designed just for you!
... if you've been writing for years but don't like your handwriting
You'll put a permanent patch on any problems,
and build lifetime habits in no time at all.
Here is what Lindsay B. had to say about her success with the course ...
I just wanted to say how much your course on learning to change my handwriting has really helped me. I have tried books on handwriting, I have watched videos etc. The tips and tricks you have provided have been the only thing that has helped me to improve my chicken scratch! My handwriting has bothered me for years. I didn’t think at 35 I would ever be able to change my handwriting. Thank you so much. - Lindsay B
Take the WORDSKILLZ™ HANDWRITING IMPROVEMENT COURSE© if you want to form habits that will last.
Why is this course so effective? You will use unique steps to train your brain and create muscle memory. Because of course, when you're writing, you want to focus your attention on the content of your writing, not the form it takes. And it's very difficult, if not impossible, to focus on both at once. The course will make handwriting changes automatic. You'll see the changes you want to see in less time with less effort, and you'll find you couldn't slip back into your old ways even if you wanted to! Get the handwriting course!