Printing and Cursive Handwriting

1. Use a pen or sharp pencil.

2. Press hard enough so that your work can easily be read.

3. Form your letters carefully.  (Do not leave an open space at the top of ‘a’ or ‘o’; cross a ‘t’ horizontally rather than diagonally.)

4. Make your letters the correct size in relation to each other. (An ‘a’ and an ‘e’ are the same height; ‘h’ and ‘t’ are taller; ‘p’ and ‘y’ go below the line.)

5. Make your letters stand up on their own without leaning on others.

6. Make your words stand on their own without running into each other.

7. Keep a consistent slant. (It does not matter if you slant forwards, backwards or upright. Just be consistent, so that the central axis of each letter is parallel to the adjacent letters and words.)

8. Touch the lines. (Do not let the letters float above the lines or sink below. Of course, part of some letters go below the lines; do not make those sit on top of the lines.)

9  Write with elegance and style. (You can use joined printing or your own style of letters as long as they are easy for others to read.)

Practise by copying some inspiring quotations:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.” William Butler Yeats

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.” Marcus Aurelius

“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind.” Buddha

Teaching Tips:
1. Do not try to teach all nine guidelines at once. Focus on one per week. Evaluate students’ work on that one criteria alone at the end of five days of practice. Congratulate them on their progress.
2. Once students have learned all nine guidelines, ask them to analyze their own work and decide what requires more practice. 
3. Do not rush students when they do work that is to be handed in for you. Let them rush while doing work on scrap paper, if you like. But to create beautiful handwriting, students need silence and time to focus.

[This page may be copied for use with students if the following credit is provided: ©2013 Sophie Rosen.]