Writing is a part of daily life. Building a good handwriting helps kids to improve their academic performance and increase focus. Good handwriting is not only necessary for children but is also required for adults.
Just like fluency in speaking, good handwriting is an equally important personality trait of a person. Now, the question is how can you identify that the handwriting is good or bad. Well, for that following are few points which mention the characteristics of a good handwriting:
- The Specific Shape : This determines the shape of your letter. The letters should be in proper shape and clearly readable.
- Letter Spacing : It is the amount of space left between the letters, either the letters should be all connected or should be all separated.
- The Slope Of The Letter : The slope of a letter is the angle to which the letter tends to bend or slant. Generally, the letter is slanted to the right side on an average.
- Size Of The Letter : The size of the letter should not be too big or too small to read, it should be average and clearly readable.
- Pressure On The Paper : This determines the pressure given by the writer while writing. Giving too much pressure leaves the impression of writing to 4-5 pages ahead, so the pressure given while writing should also be normal.
- Connecting Strokes : The strokes that connect a letter with another letter are known as connecting strokes, this shows whether the writer lifts the pen while going to another letter or connects the letters with each other. To develop good connecting strokes children are given pre writing practices on lines,shapes and strokes.
- Beginning and Ending strokes : This reflects whether the writer has an ending stroke or a beginning one, i.e. the writer has a flow towards the end or at the beginning.
- Dots and Cross- Strokes : In some small letters like "i", "j" dots are used and for letters like "t", "f" cross strokes are applied. For any handwriting to be said as good these dots and cross-strokes also should be accurate.
- Space Between the Words : Earlier we talked about spaces between the letters but a handwriting to be good and readable space kept between the words is very crucial. A good handwriting has a high legibility score mainly because of spacing between words.
fig. i
fig. ii
You can see there are 2 images showing 2 different types of handwriting [f.g. i , f.g. ii]. Handwriting of f.g(i) fulfills all the above characteristics. From the other one i.e f.g(ii) we can read, but with too much effort. If handwriting is practiced with a few things in mind it can convert into something really beautiful. For children it’s always better to start early and give complete guidance along with verbal clues for each letter. There are many ways to do this- you can follow the tutorials and e-books that are available online or you can also enroll your kid in some good handwriting improvement classes like Write Smart by Aloha Gujarat.
Also Read: How to Improve Handwriting for Kids
