Although it may look like handwriting is dying out, it’s a skill that still is fundamental in many areas of life. A handwritten letter communicates more importance than a typed letter; e.g. an apology, an invitation, or an application for a job.

You might suppose it’s a recent phenomena of the masses eschewing penmanship and using a computer instead, yet way back to the late 1800s, there were cries that hand writing was being ignored because of the invention of those times : the typwriter. Now in the 21st century, the rap is being connected to the usage of computers.

Yet, there still exists a strong requirement for penmanship skills in in every area of day to day life. Hand-written letters are seen as more reliable, they evince the author has carefully thought out his words, and they demonstrate more respect to the reader. During the age of templated responses, the hand-written letter has never been more noticeable.

I must confess to something. I have frequently been caught red-handed with my awful penmanship – made even worse due to decades of relying on the keyboard. In situations where I’ve had to hand-write something, my words have been a sloping scrawl. It doesn’t look good. How to work out such a problem? I wrote as often as I could, and my handwriting improved greatly. Therefore it’s best to improve your penmanship by practise.

One more piece of advice is to get a pen your hand is comfortable with, with refills. A good ink to refill with is the celebrated mont blanc refill. This allows you to better your handwriting with a single pen.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 12:19 am and is filed under Creative Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.