Handwriting

Everyone writes everything on a computer now, right? Wrong.

In high school, perhaps you got along without having any handwriting skills (and, sadly, nobody teaches people how to handle a pen any more), but in college, you should expect to do a lot of handwriting.

• Classroom notes. You came to college to learn from teachers, and some of the things they say show up on tests. Computers are awkward for taking class notes, and phones are totally useless. Several studies show that people who hand-write class notes learn more about the content than people who take notes on computers.
• Notes on reading. You should be marking your textbooks and keeping a reading journal of your assignments. This just won’t work with a computer.
• In-class tests and quizzes. There is often no way to print out a typed copy of a quiz, so you will be writing it. If your writing is slow and difficult, you are at a disadvantage. If your writing is incomprehensible, the teacher might not have the patience to decipher you.
• Rough drafts of essays. Yes, I know that some people draft very well on a computer, but many people do not. They get tangled up in Facebook. They have trouble finding the letter “q.” They have trouble making a bullet list. And when the draft is done, they almost never print the whole thing out and lay it on a table to look at it. Handwritten rough drafts are just more natural. (C.S. Lewis, the Christian writer, said that the typewriter’s noise interrupted his chain of thought. He really liked the scratching noise of the pen on the paper.)

Some videos to watch

This set of instructional videos really gets to the heart of the matter in a series of 3-minute chunks (but she does assume you will do some practicing too). I like where she begins: If you have poor handwriting, it is probably because you were poorly taught. (There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is probably that your teachers did not know how to write well either!)

1. Introduction to the series
2. Setting Up Your Handwriting Practice Area
3. Handwriting Practices
4. Essential Elements of Handwriting
5. Fine Motor Movement of Handwriting
6. How to Make Your Handwriting Personal

A summer assignment

Go out and buy a somewhat decent pen (doesn’t have to be expensive, but it needs to write easily—a Pilot rollerball costs less than three bucks), some writing paper, some envelopes, and a personal journal or diary.

Several times a week, write in that journal about how your summer is going. Nobody else will read this unless you give it to them; it’s just an exercise in getting your thoughts on paper and training those hand muscles. Use the writing paper and envelopes to send a few letters to distant relatives (grandmother? uncle?) about how your preparation for college is going.

A last little story

I got to sit in on a job interview a while back. The prospective employee sat down and the boss looked at his application form. The first question from the boss was “Did you write this with your left foot?” The writing was sloppy, uneven, and impossible to read. That’s a bad beginning for an interview. You want to do better.