Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 A Great Practical Guide to Improved Handwriting May 27, 2007
Randall D. Watson (O'Fallon, MO USA)
58 out of 58 found this review helpful
After a two page preface, this book gets right down to business. There is a quick introduction to the terminology used in the book followed by 2 pages of advice on writing tools and how to sit, hold the pen, and position the page. That is followed by a half page on the six essential characteristics of handwriting: shape, stroke sequence, size, slope, spacing, and speed.
This is first and foremost a workbook. You see the letters, trace the letters, and then copy the letters. Then you progress to copying sentences and full paragraphs. There isn't much in the way of theory here. Getty and Dubay show you what to do and then you practice. Repeat the same process for cursive and finally for edged italic.
Interspersed throughout are interesting asides about the historical development of writing as well as tips for practicing your own.
The overall focus is on ease of writing and reading, not on your ability to copy exactly the letterforms they have written. They recognize and discuss differences in size, spacing, slope, and speed. It is, after all, _your_ handwriting.
The most useful pages for me have been the overview page and the blank practice pages. The overview page shows how to write every letter, both capital and lower case, both in printing and cursive, all on one page. It is the page I open to when practicing. The practice pages with dotted lines for height of capitals and length of descenders have helped me develop a consistent width and height. I photocopy 5 every week and then fill a maximum of one page per night. This spreads out my practice time so I don't get burned out or bored with it.
I've had the book for about a month now and the improvement has been dramatic despite dedicating only a few hours a week to it. Though my writing has always been legible, it was messy and inconsistent chicken scratch. No longer. It is now smooth and even; and the italic style really stands out in comparison to other people's handwriting. The better my writing gets, the more I want to write.
I am very satisfied with my purchase. Considering how much I will write over my lifetime, this book is a bargain. Thanks to Amazon for carrying it. Neither B&N nor Borders do.
Elegant Handwriting Now August 5, 2005
B. Roach (Texas)
78 out of 82 found this review helpful
Yes! It works!
Write Now is an excellent tool for developing an elegant handwriting style; but it's also great if you'd just like to be able to read your own handwriting! High school(or even junior high) students will enjoy the course because it is designed for busy adults to use. It really gets right to the point; results are satisfying. I really can recommend this book
Excellent penmanship program for teens and adults November 9, 2007
Bookaholic (Los Angeles, California)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I bought this workbook among many others (including elementary grade penmanship workbooks) in search of something to help my 15 year old survive rejection with no credit on high school papers due to illegible handwriting. Every night he agreed to work for 20 mins as part of the teacher's agreement to receive typed work for credit in the meantime. The course appears to be written for adults, is interesting enough for that, and is do-able by a high schooler. It also contains lots of snippets of the history of handwriting through the ages and I find it is helping him tremendously focus on writing while providing interesting discussions. It is obviously prepared quite thoroughly and professionally. I'd give it an A+++.
Greatly helped this doctor with his bad penmanship February 11, 2008
W. ALLEN (Pasadena, CA USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I originally bought this to help my sons with their poor handwriting. I decided to try the lessons myself so I could better teach it to my boys. I have enjoyed it and greatly improved the legibility of the progress notes I write in the hospital charts everyday. The entire book is handwritten, which provides extensive examples.
The margins are also filled with notes on the history of the development of our alphabet going back five thousand years. The authors point out several good reasons why the loopy style of handwriting taught in today's schools is more awkward than the cursive italic style taught in the book. I have notice that many of the doctors who trained in India use this cursive italic style and their hospital notes are more readable and attractive.
I highly recommend the book to adults who want to improve their handwriting. I also recommend the books to parents who wish to teach their children better handwriting. I would not buy the book and just hand it to anyone under the age of 13 and say, "here, read this." It would be much better to do as we were told in medical school: see one, do one, teach one.
Great book for handwriting improvement! January 11, 2007
Aleksejs Tarasovs (Riga, Latvia)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
I really liked how this book is organized. You don't need to read it all to significantly improve your handwriting. For me one third of it was completely enough, I've managed to change my handwriting completely in one or two weeks with the aid of this book. In fact I write in Russian much more than in English, and "Write now" helped me a lot to develop cyrillic letters also. Great book, can be used by anybody, practical and interesting! If you are about to improve the way you write you have to get it!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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