My writing when I could use my right hand was good, but when I had a stroke and I lost the use of my right arm. I had to learn how to write with my left hand and I got a fountain pen and now I want to improve my hand writing. So I must practice and improve by practicing with some practice sheets which I got from a website on my computer.
funny thing, here in Finland we have just recently given up on teaching cursive in schools and we are taught just plain texting or whatever it's called. So it's great to see people still writing in cursive and even improving themselves. Good one Bradley! My handwriting is encrypted, no one other than me can understand it.
I don't understand,without cursive how are you supposed to sign your name? Signatures are in cursive. So the kids are becoming more illiterate? Oh goodie!
When you began to write in cursive the first thing that I thought was, "huh, that looks like Spencerian..." Coincidentally I found your channel about a week after I began studying Spencerian script (your Midori review drew me in). It's nice to see someone else who has followed a very similar path, it helps all of us sloppy writers who are looking to reform to know that we are not alone.
The French ruled journals from Clairefontaine were tremendously helpful in improving my handwriting. High quality, simple design on durable paper, durably bound and inexpensive. I don’t know why we do not use them when teaching kids how to draw their letters.
I'm glad that my kids attend school in the Netherlands then: they learn script with a fountain pen at the age of 7. When they go to middle school (at the age of 12) they can write with anything they want, though my 14yr old daughter stuck with fountain pens.
Ju La In Dutch elementary school, I actually not only started out with a fountain pen, the first way of writing I was taught was, in fact, cursive, not script!
I wish they did that here in England, in year three (6-7) we learn how to write cursive but it’s not formal cursive really, and is only to get out writing neat. We are allowed to write however we want and I wish I were taught proper cursive.
Als uw kinderen nog steeds met vulpennen schrijven, zou ik u willen adviseren om een mooie vulpen voor ze aan te schaffen. Waarschijnlijk krijgen ze van die plastic vulpennen waar ik zelf ook een tijdje op scheel mee heb geschreven. Een kwalitatief goede en mooie vulpen zorgt ervoor dat ze het schrijven gaan waarderen en de pen zullen onderhouden. Dat geeft ze veel meer plezier. Het is echter maar een tip.
I wish i stuck to fountain pens after using them in school when in was 8/9 yo. After summer i went back to ballpoint and rediscovered FP only many years after.
It's so crazy that nowadays schools don't teach cursive at all. I'm not saying all schools are like this in the U.S., but I still think that's crazy to know. I'm glad I learned it at a very young age. They started teaching us by the end of 1st grade, and in 2nd, that's when we had to start writing in cursive. My school made us write in cursive in elementary, and when I got to junior high, that's when they didn't care if we wrote in print or cursive. Some teachers did want you to wrote like that though and they wouldn't accept anything else. Oh and homework had to be done in pen as well.
Congratulation on the great improvement. It's nice to see example of an "ordinary" person rather than vids of experts. It's very inspiring to see how it improved from chicken scratch to the catchy cursive writing. You make me wanna pick up a pen and start writing even though it's 3:05am now.
When I say I want to improve my handwriting people tell me 'it just takes practice'. What a load of crap! I've been 'practicing' for four decades! I like this video. Thank you for making it
Do you mean "practice" in the sense of writing every day, as we all need to? If so, it's not practice, and at best it's reinforcing old habits. Practice is deliberate and mindful and presumably with an intention to improve.
Fantastic! Amazing improvement. This last spring it took me about 14 week at 1+ hours per day going through the Spencerian work books. I too went back to printing my letters. I thought the cursive I was taught looked ugly. Then last November I got into the fountain pen hobby and like you I was embarrassed for my pen to have a lame "hand". I found your channel through your Midori review, refreshing compared to the gals with wildly painted fingernails. And thanks for your tobacco reviews. You've lead me to a few I really enjoy.
Kudos to you for self improvement. I’ve learned that people respect you if you have beautiful handwriting. Their perception of you changes to increased respect. I think with nice handwriting 1) people assume you are disciplined 2)assume you are orderly 3)assume you are focused Keep on improving. It can only improve your life
I've just started watching your videos and I'm quite pleased with everything so far. This is 'guide' for improving handwriting and doesn't try to be a 'tutorial'. My handwriting is atrocious and I will be putting these methods to use. It should be noted that a good writing instrument is essential. You can never go wrong with a sharp pencil but pens are a different matter. If you are not use to a fountain pen don't try to learn a new script or technique with one as if you pause in your writing with a fountain pen the ink continues to flow. You want a good pen that you feel comfortable with, and most office supply stores and stationary stores have sample pens out for you to try. Another thing is you do not wan to just sit and write letters, if you are like me that gets very boring. Writing pangrams, sentences that contain every letter in the english alphabet, are the best to start with. There are a vast number of them but I will include a few I like. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. A quick movement of the enemy will jeopardize six gunboats. These are of course just my opinions but I think they are sound. I've been trying to improve my handwriting for only a week, but this video so far has been the most informative. Thanks for the amazing videos.
Well done! Such a great video. I have been working on my writing and learning Spencerian for about a year now. For someone who left cursive writing behind, I would say you are doing very well. I have continued to use cursive all through high school and then in college, but it became very "loopy" in a sloppy way. Spencerian has really streamlined and refined my everyday writing. Keep up the good work!
As a new subscriber I must say, "Thanks for reading my mail....thanks for putting me on blast!" I do write like a slob! Although my handwriting is somewhat legible, I also write too quickly! Thanks for solving my penmanship problem in 56 seconds! It only took me a lifetime to find this video! I have recently found the fine art of fountain pens! Who knew? They seem to be a sleeper agent in the U.S. Thank you for this!
I haven’t wrote in cursive since the 3rd grade, and here I am a decade and a half later, wanting to improve my penmanship as a side hobby. Something must be going on with me.
I found this video to be a great deal of help because I do struggle with my handwriting. Acquiring a fountain pen was my first step in fixing my handwriting a transition from ballpoint pens.
Excellent progress. Your hard work and discipline is definitely paying off. I just got back into fountain pens, also looking to improve my penmanship. When I took out my ballpoint I realized my pen would slip across the page compared to the more controlled action of a fountain pen. Thanks for the resource. I’ll definitely look into it.
I know how hard it is... I literally spent 1.5 years (not wasted though) trying to figure out the correct grip to hold pen and i got into stuffs like shoulder writing arm writing finger writing...etc etc ..and i failed my 11 th board exams!!!.....i got really really frustrated!!!.. and i hope to improve it ASAP
Approximately 47 words per minute writing speed in your old “messy” hand plummeted to only 20 words per minute in your improved hand. That’s a big sacrifice in speed and while practice might improve that somewhat, the biggest gain from practice will almost certainly not be speed but rather further enhancement in quality and precision (without further _loss_ of speed). For me, I’m willing to accept that kind of trade off, but my brain fights me on the matter all the time. It doesn’t like being slowed down by my writing speed, no matter how much I tell it to shut up and learn some patience! P.S. You might find you can get a little bit of a speed improvement by not playing that bloody music at the start! 🙂
Really enjoyed this!! Thanks for sharing. It's such a shame that schools don't put much emphasis on penmanship anymore. Thank you as well for sharing your resources 🌺
Thanks for an inspiring video, which is one of the best on handwriting that I've ever seen. You have made massive progress in a relatively short space of time, especially as you had to relearn your grip of the pen. Very impressive.
Your handwriting has greatly improved. You have come a long way from the ordinary handwriting of most of us Americans. In 7th grade our art teacher got sick of reading our chicken scratch and talked the school board into letting her include handwriting lessons. It improved my already decent handwriting and I have strived to write nice ever since. But I can see that I could do better. After years of wearing myself out over a ballpoint pen, I've ordered a fountain pen and hope it will bring more joy to my journaling. My grand daughter's school here in Ohio does not teach cursive anymore. Everyone prints, and the kids aren't even taught to print neatly. Apparently illegibility is acceptable in modern Ohio....ugh!
Great sharing! I am trying to improve my handwriting as well. Gonna download the Spencerian guidesheet to practice! Thanks! Your handwriting has definitely improved! Practice more!
I am now realizing this is how I learned cursive growing up in school! but I haven't practiced it to perfection in a long while, so I just may consult Ame's to improve upon my early cursive foundation.
I've been watching your pipe videos for a long time and just came across this gem after picking up a fountain pen habit knowing my handwriting is atrocious. Thx btw, this is already helping. My wife says you and I should be friends, lol. I'm like, "He's already my good friend Bradley. He says so every video."
Hello. I've commented many times on your videos-I truly enjoy and learn from them as we have many shared likes & dislikes. We favor the same tobaccos, pens, Midori Notebooks, etc... And, also handwriting using nice stationery products. Keep working on your handwriting. It's a daily struggle that you're truly never "happy" w/ your writing, But, it does improve... Keep the faith. Best, LeRoy
Way cool, looks awesome! If I practice enough, perhaps my handwriting will no longer be an uncrackable code! I may actually get my point across. Thanks for the tips and tricks of the mighty pen!
Great and clear explaination Brad. I stumbled on basically the same thing about a year ago when i started using FP''s. Seems such a shame to use a beautiful tool and have crappy writing. Practice practice practice! The guide sheets are invaluable and i never thought of printing the copy examples of the alphabet on card stock and carrying with me but i will be doing that first thing. Keep up the good work!
I learned to print a second rime in third grade, After learning to print propperly, we learned cursive as a faster way than printing. People comment on my handwriting, but it's really decades of getting sloppy. We also started writing with flexible nib dip pens. The desks had a circle for the ink bottles and a slot for the oen.
I would highly recommend the Palmer method. Does away with the flourishes of Spencerian while keeping it neat. It was developed for business correspondence so it has practicality and speed designed into it.
I'm presently learning the Palmer method but I will be getting the Spencerian work books soon. Palmer is based on Spencerian. I also didn't like the F & T so changed them and the little x I changed.
I have been doing calligraphy for 4 months now, it was ok for me as we did it in school just needed to remind my muscles that I have the skill. your video covers all of the things I have been doing but one heheh.... Practice practice practice
I can confirm for Germany since I went through the entire school system there. But my writing still looks bad...probably because I went with the crowd and adopted biros and fineliners and non-cursive script somewhere between grade 5 and 6 right until graduation. I just recently picked up again on fountain pens but it is nice to have some basics to start with.
Getting a 1.1 nib for my first pen ( a Lamy Safari ) changed my handwriting life. Partly because of the grip. But mainly it was the 1.1 nib. I have used 1.1 nibs since. My favourite pens with 1.1 Bock and Jowo nibs are Twsbi Eco and Jinhao X750 respectively. I swapped a Jowo 1.1 nib onto the Jinhao myself.
That cursive seems like the style we were taught in Finland when I was a kid. I'm thinking of picking up the habit again. My handwriting has been atrocious for as long as I can remember, and I have more or less forgotten how to write in cursive, but I want to go back to it, and with good handwriting. I want to actually write my notes, as opposed to typing them with a keyboard, as writing helps you remember them better. One change from norm would be that I would be writing on a tablet, as opposed to notebook.
Hi Bradley, love your video's on pipes and tobacco...best on the web. Like you I was taught cursive writing in school by Catholic brothers and nuns, but attending university lectures did not do my handwriting style any favors. As you know, the idea when taking lecture notes was content and speed, style was secondary. I've never recovered my writing style. My brother in law has a PhD and his writing style is at about the level of 5th grader. My hand writing is not quite that bad, but lots of room for improvement and your video has inspired me to work at it..
Thank you so much for making this video!! I get frustrated with the process because I have been writing fast for years. I too get hand cramps when speed writing with a bad grip. I think I developed these habits when in school because I had to take notes quickly. Recently I have slowed down but catch myself speeding up. I am glad you showed us this because it can be discouraging when you only see perfect handwriting everywhere!!
Because of this video, I learned that my elementary school might have used Ames' guide to Spencerian script. Huh. (But, yeah, my handwriting became horrible when our penmanship lessons stopped in 5th grade.) Thank you for this! Expert videos are good, of course, but it's very nice to see a video by someone who doesn't profess to be an expert, but has evidently improved. That means that your resources have been helpful! Question: how long have you been trying to improve your handwriting, exactly?
+Sarah Cada - I think you're lucky that your school used such a classic style of script! I've been attempting to improve for the last year or so. It hasn't been an everyday thing, but I practice enough to see an incremental change.
I actually have pretty good handwriting, but this video really helped me to improve because I wasn’t floating my hand the way you describe. I hadn’t have it explained well to me before. Thank you!
I sent out Christmas cards (2014) and one of my good friends emailed me to inform me of the card that she received and stated that she recognized my handwriting right of way.....Not in a good way...sigh. I think that I am the only female with awful handwriting. Will definitely look into your methods and attempt to change my lazy handwriting. Thank you for your post.
I'm female and always had bad handwriting. About 15 years ago I decided to start from scratch and purchased a bunch of children's beginner writing workbooks. That, combined with slowing down made all the difference!
Definitely not the only female with bad handwriting. And I am old enough to have had handwriting as a graded class for the first 6 years if school. School ruined me. I started cursive in 3rd grade. I don't know the method but not Palmer. My handwriting was... legible. When I started 6th grade, the school board had declared Palmer method would be taught. Suddenly it was write from the elbow, paper must be at a certain slant, everything was slightly different and my teacher was strict about us doing it correctly. My handwriting got worse to the point I can't read it sometimes. My mom noticed how badly my handwriting deteriorated that year, and complained to the school about switching the older students who already knew a cursive method was a bad idea, but it was too late for me. I hate the Palmer method.
I have extra fine Pilot nibs which are really fine and they work well with my Clairfontaine pads with any ink. My preference for inks is Pilot Blue-black in the the special round 70ml bottle with the ink miser system.
I'm so glad that in elementary, for 6 years, we learned how to write in cursive. It was graded. But we can write anyway we want at 7th grade but note taking was still graded until 11th grade. :D Now, after 10 years, my script looks ugly. I need to write in script again.
I've been teaching myself calligraphy, and seeing the overlap of that and your penmanship is cool. I'm working on improving my personal handwriting as well. Liked hearing Ames is your guy for guidance; mine would be between Lupfer and Madarasz.
Six months ago I had an accident and cut my middle finger ( to the bone).. Half dozen stitches...lost some feeling in that finger.. ( lesson learned). Anyway...had to hold my pen differently and more intently. Overnight my penmanship improved greatly. That was something I never would have expected. ( I don't recommend this method..haha). Point of the story: we get lazy about our writing. Slow down & focus on it....
I loved your transition vignette. I am trying to copy the Aquiline font, but it is difficult to find specific exercises to it. Anyway, thanks for sharing your studying methods.
I had that nun with a ruler. She didn’t help. I got D’s in penmanship all through grammar school. My writing is still a disaster, but fountain pens have helped. I’m looking forward to trying your suggestions. Thank you for this video.
Does this happen to anyone else? You go on summer vacation and when you first get back to school for some reason your hand writing is improved dramatically.. but only for day one.
Great video! Because of your videos I plan on purchasing at least 2 non-expensive fountain pens with converters or pistons to put in some nice ink colors, than I plan on teaching myself how to write in cursive. I did learn it in school (Ontario, Canada) but I was taken out of school at such a young age that I ended up with my own horrid hand writing! I have terrible penmanship and it is embarrassing. I was actually taught by my mom to hold my pen almost the same way you showed you did before choosing to change that. You give hope that I can change this, thank you for that! Please keep up the great work, I really enjoy your channel and your simple perspective. It's refreshing!
Your story sounds very much like mine--fast but nigh-illegible printing, fountain pens, have to write better to be worthy of the pen, even to the point of my interest in Spencerian. I don't have a 823, though, at least not yet. A complication for me is being left-handed. I hope yours has continued to improve in the nine years since this was posted; I'm just getting started.
Interesting video. Your thought process is quite clear. D'Nealian is closer to a slanted kind of printing, intended to be easier than Palmer (which preceded it) which in turn was based on a simplified Spenserian. I have always found that pangrams help in practicing handwriting and making practice fun and entertaining, so I use Millard Port's Wise and Funny: 101 Pangrams which is easily found, but Spenserian is too complicated for me. I use the Palmer method.
I don't even remember how to write in cursive; the last time I did it was the last day I still thought that any other human could *make* me do anything. I was 9. Given my abject hatred for all things paper in general, I do not write anything except in situations of extremis, or when I think someone actually deserves that much of my time, such as when I document various things for my son in my Midori. Otherwise, it is typing all the way. :) I will give your tips a shot though, because it is frankly impossible for my handwriting to get any worse without causing the vacuum to decay/collapse or plainly ruining the Higgs field in some other nasty way.
I've been trying to improve my writing as well. Though I'm using the Palmer method as I though Spencerian might be to much for daily writing. I have pages upon pages upon pages of just random doodles and jibberish phrases like you do in your notebook lol. I've started to throw them away tho as I was getting quite the collection. Your writing is looking much better from your early examples so your method is working. Funny to find someone that does the same thing while practicing your notebook looked like main of random stuff so I thought it was pretty neat
+clarkbilgrav If you go to a website called iampeth they have some good resources there, they also have a section called "Rare books" which actually has scanned versions of many of the original books for various handwriting styles. Also if you go to archive.org/details/PalmerMethod1935 there is a scanned version of one of the palmer books. That same site also has other versions of the old Palmer books. All of this stuff is free
i know this is hella late and you've probably since tried it, but Clairefontaine paper is ruled in such a way that is conducive to practicing Spencerian.
+TzGuRL247 - I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It definitely isn't easy to improve your handwriting. I still need a lot of work to get to the speed and consistency that I would like.
LOL this is a funny video! I spent half my childhood kind of angry because my teachers made me practice handwriting a billion times and by the time I got to high school, where they don't force you to write in that certain way, it was so inserted in my brain I couldn't avoid it... Nowadays I actually look at it grateful hahaha! People are always complimenting me for my handwriting, and then when I got into architecture school I had to learn a new way of writing yet this time I was aware of the amount of practice it would take. So now I have two very different yet equally cool ways of writing. It is awesome that you taught yourself this, it´s a lost art in my opinion. (I´m not from the USA so I don't know how they teach this things in primary school there, but I think they should at least consider teaching a class about it, I´ve read that the discipline it takes actually helps develop the brain...)
+fabroc8 - Yes, I wish my teachers had focused on it more in school. It would have made it a lot easier for me now. As far as I know, most schools in the US don't teach cursive at all anymore. I think it's a shame.
As an English teacher for the past thirty years, I have noticed a steady decline in student handwriting. Now, with almost everything done on computers, many students have difficulty even reading cursive script let alone composing in cursive. There is also a very strong social pressure for boys to not have good handwriting. One young man in my tenth-grade honors class who has good penmanship is often told he "writes like a girl".
I find it interesting that we both like pipes and tobaccos and we both like fountain pens. If you like nice pocket knives, then we would share the trifecta of fine and fiddly pocket things for the thoughtful man.
Cursive is still being taught in some schools in America, although I think public schools don't really teach it, but private Catholic schools do (at least in my experience, it probably varies by region). I was required to write in cursive throughout elementary school, but once I got to middle school though, we stopped being required to write in cursive, and since most of my peers were writing in print, I switched over as well. My handwriting deteriorated and got progressively worse as I got to high school. Similar to you though, once I got into fountain pens(which I bought more for drawing purposes than writing ones), I felt motivated to improve my handwriting, since it seemed like such a waste to have nice pens and nice ink but atrocious illegible handwriting. Still not quite there yet, but improving.
Thanks for this encouraging video. It's never to late on improving on anything. I began improving my cursive at the age of 59! To many years at the keyboard and not nearly enough w pen and paper. Sad. Someone advised me to pick up a few fountain pens and ink and try that for improving cursive(2yrs later). You know it has worked. I no longer write but I draw the letters with much less pressure. It just flows. Continue your practice and it will work for you as well. Cooking is next, oh Lord!
"Bought a fountain pen and felt my handwriting was an embarrassment to the pen." I felt exactly the same way!
Agreed, I felt in a similar way.
I like it🙏👍👍
Me too.
Need to hit this like a few more times 😂
Same. Bought one recently. Practicing every day.
My writing when I could use my right hand was good, but when I had a stroke and I lost the use of my right arm. I had to learn how to write with my left hand and I got a fountain pen and now I want to improve my hand writing. So I must practice and improve by practicing with some practice sheets which I got from a website on my computer.
Brave lad
funny thing, here in Finland we have just recently given up on teaching cursive in schools and we are taught just plain texting or whatever it's called. So it's great to see people still writing in cursive and even improving themselves. Good one Bradley! My handwriting is encrypted, no one other than me can understand it.
+Timo E - It's unfortunate that cursive script is almost never taught in the US anymore either. We need to try to keep it alive! Thanks for watching.
@@stuffandthingsyoutube Every elementary school I've worked in taught cursive. I live in the US...
Same in Switzerland:(
@Samson Nope, up until about 2019, when I took a different career path. My niece is 7 and she said they teach them cursive at her school too.
I don't understand,without cursive how are you supposed to sign your name? Signatures are in cursive. So the kids are becoming more illiterate? Oh goodie!
When you began to write in cursive the first thing that I thought was, "huh, that looks like Spencerian..." Coincidentally I found your channel about a week after I began studying Spencerian script (your Midori review drew me in). It's nice to see someone else who has followed a very similar path, it helps all of us sloppy writers who are looking to reform to know that we are not alone.
+Nick Collins - I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm glad that you could tell that I was trying to write in a Spencerian inspired style!
The French ruled journals from Clairefontaine were tremendously helpful in improving my handwriting. High quality, simple design on durable paper, durably bound and inexpensive. I don’t know why we do not use them when teaching kids how to draw their letters.
I'm glad that my kids attend school in the Netherlands then: they learn script with a fountain pen at the age of 7. When they go to middle school (at the age of 12) they can write with anything they want, though my 14yr old daughter stuck with fountain pens.
Ju La In Dutch elementary school, I actually not only started out with a fountain pen, the first way of writing I was taught was, in fact, cursive, not script!
I wish they did that here in England, in year three (6-7) we learn how to write cursive but it’s not formal cursive really, and is only to get out writing neat. We are allowed to write however we want and I wish I were taught proper cursive.
Als uw kinderen nog steeds met vulpennen schrijven, zou ik u willen adviseren om een mooie vulpen voor ze aan te schaffen. Waarschijnlijk krijgen ze van die plastic vulpennen waar ik zelf ook een tijdje op scheel mee heb geschreven. Een kwalitatief goede en mooie vulpen zorgt ervoor dat ze het schrijven gaan waarderen en de pen zullen onderhouden. Dat geeft ze veel meer plezier. Het is echter maar een tip.
I wish i stuck to fountain pens after using them in school when in was 8/9 yo. After summer i went back to ballpoint and rediscovered FP only many years after.
It's so crazy that nowadays schools don't teach cursive at all. I'm not saying all schools are like this in the U.S., but I still think that's crazy to know. I'm glad I learned it at a very young age. They started teaching us by the end of 1st grade, and in 2nd, that's when we had to start writing in cursive. My school made us write in cursive in elementary, and when I got to junior high, that's when they didn't care if we wrote in print or cursive. Some teachers did want you to wrote like that though and they wouldn't accept anything else. Oh and homework had to be done in pen as well.
I appreciate your self awareness to improve something you didn't like, and making a change. Bravo.
Congratulation on the great improvement. It's nice to see example of an "ordinary" person rather than vids of experts. It's very inspiring to see how it improved from chicken scratch to the catchy cursive writing. You make me wanna pick up a pen and start writing even though it's 3:05am now.
+Ming Lee - Thanks for watching! It's never too late to start trying to improve your handwriting.
When I say I want to improve my handwriting people tell me 'it just takes practice'. What a load of crap! I've been 'practicing' for four decades! I like this video. Thank you for making it
It does just take practice. But you weren't practicing, you were just writing.
Do you mean "practice" in the sense of writing every day, as we all need to? If so, it's not practice, and at best it's reinforcing old habits.
Practice is deliberate and mindful and presumably with an intention to improve.
This is probably the best writing video I've seen on all of RUclips. I appreciate your candor.
Glad you liked it!
After watching countless videos, yours is the most detailed when it comes to detailed recordings of the hands and fingers! THANK YOU!
You're very welcome!
I’ve watched a tremendous number of videos on how to improve penmanship & this has been by far the most helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic! Amazing improvement. This last spring it took me about 14 week at 1+ hours per day going through the Spencerian work books. I too went back to printing my letters. I thought the cursive I was taught looked ugly. Then last November I got into the fountain pen hobby and like you I was embarrassed for my pen to have a lame "hand". I found your channel through your Midori review, refreshing compared to the gals with wildly painted fingernails. And thanks for your tobacco reviews. You've lead me to a few I really enjoy.
Kudos to you for self improvement. I’ve learned that people respect you if you have beautiful handwriting. Their perception of you changes to increased respect. I think with nice handwriting
1) people assume you are disciplined
2)assume you are orderly
3)assume you are focused
Keep on improving. It can only improve your life
Well said!
I've just started watching your videos and I'm quite pleased with everything so far. This is 'guide' for improving handwriting and doesn't try to be a 'tutorial'. My handwriting is atrocious and I will be putting these methods to use.
It should be noted that a good writing instrument is essential. You can never go wrong with a sharp pencil but pens are a different matter. If you are not use to a fountain pen don't try to learn a new script or technique with one as if you pause in your writing with a fountain pen the ink continues to flow. You want a good pen that you feel comfortable with, and most office supply stores and stationary stores have sample pens out for you to try.
Another thing is you do not wan to just sit and write letters, if you are like me that gets very boring. Writing pangrams, sentences that contain every letter in the english alphabet, are the best to start with. There are a vast number of them but I will include a few I like.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
A quick movement of the enemy will jeopardize six gunboats.
These are of course just my opinions but I think they are sound. I've been trying to improve my handwriting for only a week, but this video so far has been the most informative. Thanks for the amazing videos.
+bmmcwhirt - Thanks for watching and for leaving such an insightful comment. I'm sure other viewers will find it helpful as well.
Good on YOU for making this video. Thank you, this has been inspirational.
Well done! Such a great video. I have been working on my writing and learning Spencerian for about a year now. For someone who left cursive writing behind, I would say you are doing very well. I have continued to use cursive all through high school and then in college, but it became very "loopy" in a sloppy way. Spencerian has really streamlined and refined my everyday writing. Keep up the good work!
+Matthew Condon - Spencerian has such a clean elegance in my opinion. Thanks for watching!
How's your hand writing? Has it improved more since your video?
Still improving, slowly but surely.
As a new subscriber I must say, "Thanks for reading my mail....thanks for putting me on blast!" I do write like a slob! Although my handwriting is somewhat legible, I also write too quickly! Thanks for solving my penmanship problem in 56 seconds! It only took me a lifetime to find this video! I have recently found the fine art of fountain pens! Who knew? They seem to be a sleeper agent in the U.S. Thank you for this!
I haven’t wrote in cursive since the 3rd grade, and here I am a decade and a half later, wanting to improve my penmanship as a side hobby. Something must be going on with me.
Beautifull signature for you plz comment here.... ruclips.net/video/Y6XCfJ7hfqc/видео.html
this is most informative handwriting introduction & ready-to-go video. Thanks!
Your timing in uploading this video couldn't have been more perfect, as just this week I set out to try to improve my handwriting. Thanks!
DocMacGuffin - I'm glad it worked out well for you!
I found this video to be a great deal of help because I do struggle with my handwriting. Acquiring a fountain pen was my first step in fixing my handwriting a transition from ballpoint pens.
Excellent progress. Your hard work and discipline is definitely paying off. I just got back into fountain pens, also looking to improve my penmanship. When I took out my ballpoint I realized my pen would slip across the page compared to the more controlled action of a fountain pen. Thanks for the resource. I’ll definitely look into it.
What a gem of a video. Thank you so much!!
I know how hard it is...
I literally spent 1.5 years (not wasted though) trying to figure out the correct grip to hold pen and i got into stuffs like shoulder writing arm writing finger writing...etc etc ..and i failed my 11 th board exams!!!.....i got really really frustrated!!!.. and i hope to improve it ASAP
Thanks for sharing your methods with us. There are some great resources there which I will definitely check out.
Susan White - My pleasure! I hope you find it useful.
Approximately 47 words per minute writing speed in your old “messy” hand plummeted to only 20 words per minute in your improved hand. That’s a big sacrifice in speed and while practice might improve that somewhat, the biggest gain from practice will almost certainly not be speed but rather further enhancement in quality and precision (without further _loss_ of speed). For me, I’m willing to accept that kind of trade off, but my brain fights me on the matter all the time. It doesn’t like being slowed down by my writing speed, no matter how much I tell it to shut up and learn some patience!
P.S. You might find you can get a little bit of a speed improvement by not playing that bloody music at the start! 🙂
Thank you for being such an inspiration. With time and practice, I hope my handwriting will improve. You have shown that it can.
+garytanaka - Yes, if you put in the effort, you will definitely see results. Thanks for watching!
Very informative and helpful video. Thank you.
This is an excellent video. Our stories are very similar with handwriting and I appreciate seeing your take on handwriting and things. Thank you
Thank you so much!
Really enjoyed this!! Thanks for sharing. It's such a shame that schools don't put much emphasis on penmanship anymore. Thank you as well for sharing your resources 🌺
Never Hopeless - Thanks for watching! It IS a shame. I guess it's considered a superfluous skill now that so much correspondence is typed.
Thanks for sharing! Since I got my first fountain pen it's been my goal to improve my handwriting also. This video really helped kick me into gear.
sugarwaters - I'm glad it helped!
Thanks for an inspiring video, which is one of the best on handwriting that I've ever seen. You have made massive progress in a relatively short space of time, especially as you had to relearn your grip of the pen. Very impressive.
Thank you! I know I still have a long way to go, but it's a pretty fun process.
Your handwriting has greatly improved. You have come a long way from the ordinary handwriting of most of us Americans. In 7th grade our art teacher got sick of reading our chicken scratch and talked the school board into letting her include handwriting lessons. It improved my already decent handwriting and I have strived to write nice ever since. But I can see that I could do better. After years of wearing myself out over a ballpoint pen, I've ordered a fountain pen and hope it will bring more joy to my journaling. My grand daughter's school here in Ohio does not teach cursive anymore. Everyone prints, and the kids aren't even taught to print neatly. Apparently illegibility is acceptable in modern Ohio....ugh!
Great sharing! I am trying to improve my handwriting as well. Gonna download the Spencerian guidesheet to practice! Thanks! Your handwriting has definitely improved! Practice more!
I will! I'm glad you found the video helpful.
Thank you. You’ve inspired me
You are so welcome!
You've inspired me to learn cursive.
I am now realizing this is how I learned cursive growing up in school! but I haven't practiced it to perfection in a long while, so I just may consult Ame's to improve upon my early cursive foundation.
Definitely need work on capitals!
Thanks for the video. I find it a very informative video. Gave me hope in improving my writing. Thanks
+Keon Tom - I'm glad you found it helpful!
I've been watching your pipe videos for a long time and just came across this gem after picking up a fountain pen habit knowing my handwriting is atrocious. Thx btw, this is already helping. My wife says you and I should be friends, lol. I'm like, "He's already my good friend Bradley. He says so every video."
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Hello. I've commented many times on your videos-I truly enjoy and learn from them as we have many shared likes & dislikes. We favor the same tobaccos, pens, Midori Notebooks, etc... And, also handwriting using nice stationery products. Keep working on your handwriting. It's a daily struggle that you're truly never "happy" w/ your writing, But, it does improve... Keep the faith. Best, LeRoy
Way cool, looks awesome! If I practice enough, perhaps my handwriting will no longer be an uncrackable code! I may actually get my point across. Thanks for the tips and tricks of the mighty pen!
My pleasure! I hope the video is helpful for you.
INSTANT RESPECT FOR THE REVOLVER POSTER
Great and clear explaination Brad. I stumbled on basically the same thing about a year ago when i started using FP''s. Seems such a shame to use a beautiful tool and have crappy writing. Practice practice practice! The guide sheets are invaluable and i never thought of printing the copy examples of the alphabet on card stock and carrying with me but i will be doing that first thing. Keep up the good work!
+gordon english - Thanks for watching, and good luck with improving your writing!
I learned to print a second rime in third grade, After learning to print propperly, we learned cursive as a faster way than printing. People comment on my handwriting, but it's really decades of getting sloppy. We also started writing with flexible nib dip pens. The desks had a circle for the ink bottles and a slot for the oen.
I did the same thing... but instead of a standard lined notebook a “French Ruled” notebook helped me a ton.
Nice video
I would highly recommend the Palmer method. Does away with the flourishes of Spencerian while keeping it neat. It was developed for business correspondence so it has practicality and speed designed into it.
I'm presently learning the Palmer method but I will be getting the Spencerian work books soon. Palmer is based on Spencerian. I also didn't like the F & T so changed them and the little x I changed.
I have been doing calligraphy for 4 months now, it was ok for me as we did it in school just needed to remind my muscles that I have the skill. your video covers all of the things I have been doing but one heheh.... Practice practice practice
+Ju La - From what I've heard, France and Germany are the same way. Thanks for watching!
I can confirm for Germany since I went through the entire school system there. But my writing still looks bad...probably because I went with the crowd and adopted biros and fineliners and non-cursive script somewhere between grade 5 and 6 right until graduation. I just recently picked up again on fountain pens but it is nice to have some basics to start with.
I really want to thank you for this great work, it was very helpful and encouraging !!!
+Finn caster - I'm glad you found it useful!
Getting a 1.1 nib for my first pen ( a Lamy Safari ) changed my handwriting life. Partly because of the grip. But mainly it was the 1.1 nib.
I have used 1.1 nibs since. My favourite pens with 1.1 Bock and Jowo nibs are Twsbi Eco and Jinhao X750 respectively.
I swapped a Jowo 1.1 nib onto the Jinhao myself.
Ace video mate, starting to watch loads more of this channel
+Sam Fuzz - Great! I hope you enjoy watching.
That cursive seems like the style we were taught in Finland when I was a kid. I'm thinking of picking up the habit again. My handwriting has been atrocious for as long as I can remember, and I have more or less forgotten how to write in cursive, but I want to go back to it, and with good handwriting. I want to actually write my notes, as opposed to typing them with a keyboard, as writing helps you remember them better. One change from norm would be that I would be writing on a tablet, as opposed to notebook.
Your handwriting looks great!
Hi Bradley, love your video's on pipes and tobacco...best on the web. Like you I was taught cursive writing in school by Catholic brothers and nuns, but attending university lectures did not do my handwriting style any favors. As you know, the idea when taking lecture notes was content and speed, style was secondary. I've never recovered my writing style. My brother in law has a PhD and his writing style is at about the level of 5th grader. My hand writing is not quite that bad, but lots of room for improvement and your video has inspired me to work at it..
Am planing to get my handwriting improved too. And i'm pretty interested in cursive and using a fountain too. Hope it goes well for me !
Good luck!
+Rita Kuhl - Thanks for watching! I'll have to work my way through the books as well. I still have lots of room for improvement.
Great video! Thanks for the resources!
Thank you so much for making this video!! I get frustrated with the process because I have been writing fast for years. I too get hand cramps when speed writing with a bad grip. I think I developed these habits when in school because I had to take notes quickly. Recently I have slowed down but catch myself speeding up. I am glad you showed us this because it can be discouraging when you only see perfect handwriting everywhere!!
I'm so glad you found it helpful!
Great Video !!! Very helpful and inspirational. Thanks Much !
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks very much Bradley
Because of this video, I learned that my elementary school might have used Ames' guide to Spencerian script. Huh. (But, yeah, my handwriting became horrible when our penmanship lessons stopped in 5th grade.)
Thank you for this! Expert videos are good, of course, but it's very nice to see a video by someone who doesn't profess to be an expert, but has evidently improved. That means that your resources have been helpful!
Question: how long have you been trying to improve your handwriting, exactly?
+Sarah Cada - I think you're lucky that your school used such a classic style of script! I've been attempting to improve for the last year or so. It hasn't been an everyday thing, but I practice enough to see an incremental change.
Have you kept up with your practice? I’d love to see an update on your writing. Thanks for this video! Great tips for improvement.
I actually have pretty good handwriting, but this video really helped me to improve because I wasn’t floating my hand the way you describe. I hadn’t have it explained well to me before. Thank you!
I'm so glad it helped!
Forward slanting writing makes it look better.
Also use good paper like Rhodia or Clairefontaine.
How does one go about selecting a journal or notebook which has good paper, even though my pen nib is extra fine
I sent out Christmas cards (2014) and one of my good friends emailed me to inform me of the card that she received and stated that she recognized my handwriting right of way.....Not in a good way...sigh. I think that I am the only female with awful handwriting. Will definitely look into your methods and attempt to change my lazy handwriting. Thank you for your post.
BlushnBlue - Ha! I guess that can provide some good motivation.
a few years late, but nope, im also a female with terrible writing.
I'm female and always had bad handwriting. About 15 years ago I decided to start from scratch and purchased a bunch of children's beginner writing workbooks. That, combined with slowing down made all the difference!
Linda Sue Thank you 💗
Definitely not the only female with bad handwriting. And I am old enough to have had handwriting as a graded class for the first 6 years if school.
School ruined me. I started cursive in 3rd grade. I don't know the method but not Palmer. My handwriting was... legible. When I started 6th grade, the school board had declared Palmer method would be taught. Suddenly it was write from the elbow, paper must be at a certain slant, everything was slightly different and my teacher was strict about us doing it correctly. My handwriting got worse to the point I can't read it sometimes. My mom noticed how badly my handwriting deteriorated that year, and complained to the school about switching the older students who already knew a cursive method was a bad idea, but it was too late for me.
I hate the Palmer method.
Great video and very helpful, thank you.
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This is the most realistic tutorial i've ever came across to.
I have extra fine Pilot nibs which are really fine and they work well with my Clairfontaine pads with any ink.
My preference for inks is Pilot Blue-black in the the special round 70ml bottle with the ink miser system.
I'm so glad that in elementary, for 6 years, we learned how to write in cursive. It was graded. But we can write anyway we want at 7th grade but note taking was still graded until 11th grade. :D Now, after 10 years, my script looks ugly. I need to write in script again.
+Julia Javier - My cursive lapsed horribly after grade school as well. Never too late to improve though!
Thank you very much for this!
+Holly Pell - You're welcome! I hope you found it useful.
I've been teaching myself calligraphy, and seeing the overlap of that and your penmanship is cool. I'm working on improving my personal handwriting as well. Liked hearing Ames is your guy for guidance; mine would be between Lupfer and Madarasz.
Nice. Good luck!
Awesome video, thanks.
Beautiful hand writing👍👍👍
Thank you very much for the awesome video!
Glad you liked it!
I practice gothic calligraphy:) I find it fun and can write it reasonably quickly because its straight lines. and its still really pretty.
Thank you for your effort on making this video..i find it really helpful
My pleasure.
Six months ago I had an accident and cut my middle finger ( to the bone).. Half dozen stitches...lost some feeling in that finger.. ( lesson learned). Anyway...had to hold my pen differently and more intently. Overnight my penmanship improved greatly. That was something I never would have expected. ( I don't recommend this method..haha). Point of the story: we get lazy about our writing. Slow down & focus on it....
I loved your transition vignette. I am trying to copy the Aquiline font, but it is difficult to find specific exercises to it. Anyway, thanks for sharing your studying methods.
+gin tonic - My pleasure! Thank you so much for watching.
I had that nun with a ruler. She didn’t help. I got D’s in penmanship all through grammar school. My writing is still a disaster, but fountain pens have helped. I’m looking forward to trying your suggestions. Thank you for this video.
Does this happen to anyone else? You go on summer vacation and when you first get back to school for some reason your hand writing is improved dramatically.. but only for day one.
Ha! I'm not sure that I ever noticed that.
Great video! Because of your videos I plan on purchasing at least 2 non-expensive fountain pens with converters or pistons to put in some nice ink colors, than I plan on teaching myself how to write in cursive. I did learn it in school (Ontario, Canada) but I was taken out of school at such a young age that I ended up with my own horrid hand writing! I have terrible penmanship and it is embarrassing. I was actually taught by my mom to hold my pen almost the same way you showed you did before choosing to change that. You give hope that I can change this, thank you for that! Please keep up the great work, I really enjoy your channel and your simple perspective. It's refreshing!
+Hermione Jarvis - Thank you for watching! Good luck with your writing. Honestly, if I could make a change, I'm sure you'll be able to as well.
Huge help.
Your story sounds very much like mine--fast but nigh-illegible printing, fountain pens, have to write better to be worthy of the pen, even to the point of my interest in Spencerian. I don't have a 823, though, at least not yet. A complication for me is being left-handed. I hope yours has continued to improve in the nine years since this was posted; I'm just getting started.
Any tips specifically for left handers? Ink choice? Paper choice? Learn to love the smudges?
Interesting video. Your thought process is quite clear. D'Nealian is closer to a slanted kind of printing, intended to be easier than Palmer (which preceded it) which in turn was based on a simplified Spenserian. I have always found that pangrams help in practicing handwriting and making practice fun and entertaining, so I use Millard Port's Wise and Funny: 101 Pangrams which is easily found, but Spenserian is too complicated for me. I use the Palmer method.
Excellent video!! By the way, what you think it's D'nealian is Zaner Bloser.
+Edwin Powell Hubble - Thanks! That one actually has a title: "Difference."
All the songs on my vids were written and recorded by me, so they're pretty exclusive to the channel.
Nah. Just a hobby, but thanks!
I don't even remember how to write in cursive; the last time I did it was the last day I still thought that any other human could *make* me do anything. I was 9. Given my abject hatred for all things paper in general, I do not write anything except in situations of extremis, or when I think someone actually deserves that much of my time, such as when I document various things for my son in my Midori. Otherwise, it is typing all the way. :) I will give your tips a shot though, because it is frankly impossible for my handwriting to get any worse without causing the vacuum to decay/collapse or plainly ruining the Higgs field in some other nasty way.
Haha. You saw how horrible mine was...
Thanks man for the nice motivational video. I will buy those books tomorrow and start right away :)
Good luck!
I've been trying to improve my writing as well. Though I'm using the Palmer method as I though Spencerian might be to much for daily writing. I have pages upon pages upon pages of just random doodles and jibberish phrases like you do in your notebook lol. I've started to throw them away tho as I was getting quite the collection. Your writing is looking much better from your early examples so your method is working. Funny to find someone that does the same thing while practicing your notebook looked like main of random stuff so I thought it was pretty neat
+Gamingoodz - I tried not to show any pages filled with curse words! Thanks for watching.
I learned the Palmer method in Catholic school. I would love to practice it again, but I can't find anything online. Any ideas?
+clarkbilgrav If you go to a website called iampeth they have some good resources there, they also have a section called "Rare books" which actually has scanned versions of many of the original books for various handwriting styles. Also if you go to archive.org/details/PalmerMethod1935 there is a scanned version of one of the palmer books. That same site also has other versions of the old Palmer books. All of this stuff is free
Good info from Gamingoodz . I have the iampeth site linked in the description box above.
+Gamingoodz thanks!
i know this is hella late and you've probably since tried it, but Clairefontaine paper is ruled in such a way that is conducive to practicing Spencerian.
You write very nicely ,..I wish I could write as nice with fountain pens...
+TzGuRL247 - I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It definitely isn't easy to improve your handwriting. I still need a lot of work to get to the speed and consistency that I would like.
LOL this is a funny video! I spent half my childhood kind of angry because my teachers made me practice handwriting a billion times and by the time I got to high school, where they don't force you to write in that certain way, it was so inserted in my brain I couldn't avoid it... Nowadays I actually look at it grateful hahaha! People are always complimenting me for my handwriting, and then when I got into architecture school I had to learn a new way of writing yet this time I was aware of the amount of practice it would take. So now I have two very different yet equally cool ways of writing.
It is awesome that you taught yourself this, it´s a lost art in my opinion.
(I´m not from the USA so I don't know how they teach this things in primary school there, but I think they should at least consider teaching a class about it, I´ve read that the discipline it takes actually helps develop the brain...)
+fabroc8 - Yes, I wish my teachers had focused on it more in school. It would have made it a lot easier for me now. As far as I know, most schools in the US don't teach cursive at all anymore. I think it's a shame.
As an English teacher for the past thirty years, I have noticed a steady decline in student handwriting. Now, with almost everything done on computers, many students have difficulty even reading cursive script let alone composing in cursive. There is also a very strong social pressure for boys to not have good handwriting. One young man in my tenth-grade honors class who has good penmanship is often told he "writes like a girl".
I find it interesting that we both like pipes and tobaccos and we both like fountain pens. If you like nice pocket knives, then we would share the trifecta of fine and fiddly pocket things for the thoughtful man.
I printed for about a year and my notes just looked horrible so I reverted back to cursive and don't regret it
Cursive is still being taught in some schools in America, although I think public schools don't really teach it, but private Catholic schools do (at least in my experience, it probably varies by region). I was required to write in cursive throughout elementary school, but once I got to middle school though, we stopped being required to write in cursive, and since most of my peers were writing in print, I switched over as well. My handwriting deteriorated and got progressively worse as I got to high school. Similar to you though, once I got into fountain pens(which I bought more for drawing purposes than writing ones), I felt motivated to improve my handwriting, since it seemed like such a waste to have nice pens and nice ink but atrocious illegible handwriting. Still not quite there yet, but improving.
It's a shame that it isn't being taught to most students now.
Thanks for this encouraging video. It's never to late on improving on anything. I began improving my cursive at the age of 59! To many years at the keyboard and not nearly enough w pen and paper. Sad. Someone advised me to pick up a few fountain pens and ink and try that for improving cursive(2yrs later). You know it has worked. I no longer write but I draw the letters with much less pressure. It just flows. Continue your practice and it will work for you as well. Cooking is next, oh Lord!