Handwriting Methods

[The Royal Pen]

Hello!!!

 

Out of curiosity, I want to see cursive methods which were taught in schools, or by oneself, such as Zaner-Bloser, D'Nelian, and Spencerian, Palmer, etc, you know what I mean? Especially any lesser known ones.

[New_Falcon]

When I went to school, from the ages of 8-12 we were required to use a fountain pen and the writing style was Marion Richardson.

 

We had a plastic fountain pen that looked like a dip pen, tall and skinny but it would accept cartridges. You would buy the pen from the school and also the cartridges.

 

The Marion Richardson style as I remember it had open b's and p's, the descenders of f, g, j, q, y and z were not connected to the next letter, the letter t was half way in height between the small letters and the tall letters and it was crossed at the height of the small letter. The r was not like a cursive r, but almost as it's typed here r. The descenders and ascenders were to be exactly the same height again as the small letters.

 

I also remember there was absolutely no slope or flourishes.

 

To this day when I'm trying to improve my handwriting, I always feel it's wrong to connect the descenders of the letters to the next letter, but it does look much better.

 

I hope that's what you're after and havent just wandered down memory lane.

Edited June 22, 2011 by New_Falcon

[Ink Sandwich]

The one I've been taught at school is called 'Lateinische Ausgangsschrift':

 

http://www.uni-graz.at/karlpeter.elis/1941%20Lateinische%20Ausgangsschrift.jpg

[RLTodd]

We were taught Zaner - Bloser which I understand to be a simplification of Palmer. No pens, initially thick pencils were issued which became thinner as we advanced from grade to grade.

 

I always thought Palmer was prettier but I never wanted to put in the time to master it.

 

Exemplars abound on the net, suggest google image view.

[The Royal Pen]

When I went to school, from the ages of 8-12 we were required to use a fountain pen and the writing style was Marion Richardson.

 

We had a plastic fountain pen that looked like a dip pen, tall and skinny but it would accept cartridges. You would buy the pen from the school and also the cartridges.

 

The Marion Richardson style as I remember it had open b's and p's, the descenders of f, g, j, q, y and z were not connected to the next letter, the letter t was half way in height between the small letters and the tall letters and it was crossed at the height of the small letter. The r was not like a cursive r, but almost as it's typed here r. The descenders and ascenders were to be exactly the same height again as the small letters.

 

I also remember there was absolutely no slope or flourishes.

 

To this day when I'm trying to improve my handwriting, I always feel it's wrong to connect the descenders of the letters to the next letter, but it does look much better.

 

I hope that's what you're after and havent just wandered down memory lane.

 

Those pens, were they blue? They had an odd cap, right? The cap was flat. Yes, this is what I am looking for. Do you know where I can find the official alphabet of Marion Richardson style though? Google is just not working

[kirtar]

I had what I believe to be Zaner-Bloser in the first year that cursive was introduced, but the school in its infinite wisdom used D'Nealian after that

[Chevalier]

The script by Marion Richardson is called Linked Script. It's made with joined "ball and stick" print letters. This might be the reason it's so hard to find a complete alphabet. The only stuff I've found so far is from Java and such. I have a specimen in a book here, but the book is copyrighted.

 

By the way ... have you seen this? This forum looks a lot like our beloved FPN.

[hardyb]

Without Tears(some controversy), D'Nealian, French Script, Several German Hands (1928-1968), Library Hand (used in Congressional Library), Chatham, plus two Word Doc handwriting overviews which may help:

Edited June 28, 2011 by hardyb

[mirosc]

handwriting overviews which may help:

Thank you for posting these! Good comparison

I'm from Germany and it's always a shame to see that #&$%§ disgrace (fill in some ugly words of your own choice) called "Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift". It's the one with the red marks at the "s". Our kids are taught this nonsense in many schools and it just leads to a horrible handwriting desaster without any character, killing all beauty in writing. The fun part is - when it was introduced and approved for use in schools all advisory opinions and expert assessments came from just one person: the inventor himself.

Ah, I have to stop here, otherwise I'm ranting the whole evening...

[celesul]

I'm pretty sure that what I learned in school was D'nealian, but I've since adopted a handwriting that is essentially Spencerian written without the luxury of a flex pen. Mostly, the proportions are a bit different and I use substantially more elaborate capitals. The idea of using what is essentially print smashed together as if it was cursive seems bizarre to me.

[Turlough]

Hello!!!

 

Out of curiosity, I want to see cursive methods which were taught in schools, or by oneself, such as Zaner-Bloser, D'Nelian, and Spencerian, Palmer, etc, you know what I mean? Especially any lesser known ones.

I learned the Palmer method in the Detroit school system in the early 1940's. It was not a neat trick for a left hander. I remember some ink splattering while reaching for the ink wells in the upper right hand corner of the desks; easy to understand why I got ink on my shirts and other things. Pushing a dip pen across the paper made for some very unique abstract designs on the girls dresses that were fourtunate enough to sit in front of me.

 

If you want to see how it should be done watch this video:

 

Turlough

[Watercycle]

 

for ONE, one sad year, in like the 2nd grade my school system (Us - Illinois) taught strict cursive, telling us we'd need it for the rest of our life. 3rd grade comes and it wasn't even mentioned again lol, nor required in any way.

 

o what a shame for north america to avoid calligraphy's grace.

 

i guess 1 beats none :roflmho:

[The Royal Pen]

I learnt, personally, a style which was a simplified Copperplate, I don't know the name of it, or the style, but it was extremely plain. No frill and thrills, just writing.

[georges zaslavsky]

Try the one that fits your hand the best and doesn't tire it

[Nanny]

As I was looking for vertical joined-up handwriting, I was looking at Marion Richardson's exemplars in Rosemary Sassoon's Handwritng of the Twentieth Century. I have a copy of Richardson's Teacher's Book wherein she makes a point of not adhering too closely to a model, but rather to develop that which suits the individual hand. However, the exemplars and images of student handwriting are definately italic and slightly slanted.

 

Back to my search for the vertical: I want something prior to Handwritng without Tears, and all I can find is the form taught to me when I attended Calvert School. It is a thriving USA independent school with an outreach to the homeschooling market. The exemplar alphabet was designed by Virgil Hillyer in the latter part of the 19th century, and is still in use today. It is vertical and joined. It is legible, but that's all I can say for it. Few people actually write a straight-up hand. It's unnatural for most rapid writing.

 

The Calvert way stuck as long as enforced by the school, but once out of elementary school, I and my classmates followed a more natural scribble until I was asked to teach italic in another elementary school. Thankfully, that is successful.

 

I suspect the same disuse can be atributed to older students who learn by Handwritng without Tears.

[libran88]

I wish I had the chance to learn how to write beautifully and use fountain pen when i was a student.. Unfortunately in my country, penmanship is not really taught and emphasised in studies.. Kudos to all of you..