Handwriting has always been a challenge for many people. No one writes perfectly from the start and even with practice, handwriting improves slowly over time. But why is handwriting so difficult? What are the main reasons your handwriting looks bad? Handwriting has been an integral part of our ancient human ancestors. The ability to write was indispensable for preserving knowledge, making lists of items, keeping track of possessions and livestock, as well as communicating ideas and concepts. Today, writing continues to be an important method of communication and not just for recording personal thoughts and ideas. Handwriting is a universal tool for learning how to read because it helps strengthen eye-body coordination, reading skills, letter recognition, word recognition, and more. Let’s explore why your handwriting needs improvement.
Why Is My Handwriting So Bad?
It is difficult to say for certain, but there are a few possible reasons why your handwriting might be bad. One possibility is that you may be slanting your letters, which can make them look more awkward and uneven. Another possibility is that you are not using enough pressure when you write, which can cause your letters to become shaky and illegible. If you find that your handwriting is consistently causing problems in your daily life, it may be worth consulting with a doctor or a qualified writing tutor to help you improve it.
What Causes Bad Handwriting?
You don’t practice writing
Most people who write a lot usually have great handwriting. However, if you don’t practice writing, then your handwriting is bound to look bad. If you want to improve your handwriting, then you need to practice writing. Practice writing letters from A to Z and different words on a daily basis. You can also practice writing words backward or in cursive.
You use the wrong tool for the job
Pencils are great for drawing and sketching but they are not good tools for taking notes in class or writing important documents such as letters and reports because pencils smudge easily and do not produce clean lines. Pens are better for taking notes because they produce bold lines that do not smudge easily and can be read even when written quickly on a page. Ballpoint pens are best for everyday use because they produce thick black lines that are easy to read even when written quickly on a page.
Your penmanship is terrible
If you want your handwriting to look better, then you need to practice it regularly until it looks good enough so that anyone who reads it won’t cringe at its sight! Try joining an after-school club or an extracurricular activity that requires you to write scripts, stories, or reports because this will help improve your penmanship skills in no time at all!
You have poor eye-body coordination
If your handwriting is hard to read because of the way you hold your pen or pencil, then you have poor eye-body coordination. You can improve your eye-body coordination by practicing writing on a regular basis. You can also practice writing letters and words in different ways by holding your pen or pencil in different ways. For instance, you can try writing with the tip of your pen and not the side of it.
You are suffering from a neurological problem
If you have poor handwriting because of a neurological problem such as dyslexia or cerebral palsy, then you can seek help from a therapist who will be able to teach you how to write properly so that others won’t be able to tell that you have dyslexia or cerebral palsy when they read what you have written!
Your handwriting is illegible
Many people suffer from illegible handwriting because they cannot write fast enough for the words and letters to be legible! If this is the case for you, then try practicing writing faster so that your words become more legible!
Your hand is weak or you have a weak wrist
If your handwriting is illegible because of a weak hand or a weak wrist, then you should try strengthening your hand and wrist by doing daily exercises such as press-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups!
Your writing utensil is too thick or too thin
If you have poor handwriting because the writing utensil that you use is either too thick or too thin, then try using pens and pencils of different thicknesses to see which one suits you better! It can also help if you use both a thick and thin pen or pencil so that your handwriting will become more balanced!
6 Ways To Improve Handwriting
Practice makes perfect
If you want to improve your hand coordination, then the best thing that you can do is practice writing on a regular basis! The more that you write, the better your hand coordination will become!
Don’t hold your pen or pencil too tightly
If you have poor handwriting because of how tightly you hold your pen or pencil when writing, then practice holding it less tightly and see if this improves your writing skills!
Use a thicker pen or pencil if your writing is too thin
If the letters in what you write are too thin, then try using a thicker pen or pencil so that they become more legible!
Use a thinner pen or pencil if your writing is too thick
If the letters in what you write are too thick, then try using a thinner pen or pencil so that they become more legible!
Practice writing with two hands at once
If one of your hands is having trouble keeping up with the other hand when you are trying to write something down quickly, then try practicing writing with both hands at once until both of them are able to keep up with each other!
Practice writing in the air with your non-dominant hand
If you have trouble writing with your non-dominant hand, then practice writing in the air with it by making letters and words out of shapes such as circles, squares, and triangles!
Why Do We Struggle with Handwriting?
Our hands are not coordinated
Because we use both of our hands in so many different ways on a day-to-day basis, like riding a bike and walking, we are not used to coordinating both of our hands together to accomplish a single task. And when we try to write something down quickly, it becomes very obvious why this is the case!
We don’t really need to write that much anymore
In this day and age where everything from grocery lists to social networking sites like Facebook are at our fingertips, the need for us to write things down by hand is less frequent than it was back in the day.
We don’t practice enough
To be good at anything, you have to practice that thing over and over again until you reach perfection. But since writing is no longer as important as it used to be back in the day, many people just don’t feel like practicing their handwriting by hand anymore because they believe that computers will do all their writing for them anyway.
Writing is slow! And we live in a fast-paced world!
In our fast-paced world, we like to do everything quickly. Today, people are more interested in how fast they can get things done than how well they get things done. And while it’s true that computers and the internet have made writing a lot easier and faster, we are still expected to write things down by hand every once in a while. Why put yourself through all the trouble of writing when you could just type it out on a computer instead?
We don’t teach our kids how to properly write anymore
You know what they say: if you don’t use something, you lose it! Well in this case, writing is no different. Because kids aren’t doing much writing anymore on a day-to-day basis, instead of them going to school and learning how to write in cursive (which is no problem at all), many schools have switched handwriting programs over to keyboarding programs instead!
Conclusion
Handwriting isn’t easy for everyone, but it can be learned with the right instruction, pen and practice. With some effort, you can improve your handwriting and feel more confident when writing. If you’d like help improving your handwriting, you can get it by finding a handwriting tutor. There are many ways to improve handwriting, and we’ve outlined a few of them here. Whether you’re a kid or an adult, you can improve your handwriting with practice. We hope that you now have a better idea of how to improve your handwriting and get the help you need.
