ELTWeekly Vol. 3 Issue#102 | October 17 | ISSN 0975-3036
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This book covers basic handwriting through to the cursive writing style. The first style (the authors refer to this as ‘edged italic’) is the most basic form of italic handwriting and is generally thought to children to help them improve their handwriting. Now before you stop reading this review, let me state that any adult can gain from this book. In particular, it is this reviewers opinion that if you use pens in any form of writing capacity, you should definitely read these books: there are pages on pen styles, writing positions and inter-page notes on writing/alphabet history. The book starts with an introduction to the formation of scriptive letters. Of importance is the use of typographic terms such as X height, descenders, ascenders etc. and how these are relevant to improving your handwriting.
As mentioned, this is a ‘how to’ book and you can follow along with the examples, whilst learning new techniques. Information for left-handers, italic nib users and anybody wishing to learn more about the styles of writing that are currently thought, can do no better than this book. On the downside you have to ‘wade’ through extraneous information (page notes) on a page to locate what it was you were interested in on the previous page. A pet peeve of mine- writing books should be an exercise in linear thought, most are not, but if this doesn’t bother you well and good, and, in truth, because its a read and learn book, its ‘liveable with’. Most people’s handwriting will improve after some self tutoring with this book. If you have already mastered the art of good cursive writing and are familiar with the theory behind it, you may be set to take a couple of lessons from book two, the more comprehensive; ‘Italic Letters’ by the same authors.
Write Now: A Complete Self-teaching Program for Better Handwriting
