Has anyone used Mills' 'Modern Business Penmanship'?

[Jehu]

Hey folks,

 

From internet searches I know that a lot of people recommend E.C. Mills' Modern Business Penmanship to learn and practice business writing/monoline Spencerian.

But how is it to be used? It just seems to be a series of examples and exercises with no guidance on how to practice them in a methodical way. Are we just meant to go through each plate one-by-one in sequence? Am I missing something?

 

Thanks!

[JonDC]

You may want to check out the set of Spencerian copy books that are reprinted by Mott Media publishing. They are available from the publisher and Amazon and are fairly inexpensive.

 

They use the original Spencerian letterforms, but I'm sure they could be adapted to Mills. I haven't used them but have been thinking about it after seeing this youtube video that reviews them. The reviewer shows how the books make you practice the letters in methodical way, and it was interesting to see and hear how she has been improving her handwriting.

 

Good luck!

[Jehu]

Thanks, Jon. 

 

I've actually been using the Spencerian copy books for a couple of years now. I'm currently on Book 5, and am just thinking about moving to another resource once I'm finished in order to keep moving forward and improving. 

 

I like Mills' style, which I believe is rooted in Spencerian, and so many people seem to recommend the book that I thought it might be a good direction to head in. But on taking a look at it, I'm just left thinking, "Okay, so what exactly do I do with this?" 

 

I suppose there are others that look like more complete methods, like Zaner's Rapid Writing, but I thought I'd ask about Mills in case I'm missing something obvious. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Jehu

[arcfide]

I think the best thing to do is to look at the other books of the same era and see how they organize their curriculum, in particular, I would check out Zaner and Palmer. If you look at them, and then also look at the way in which the Spencerian books arrange their copy books, you'll have a good coverage of the different pedagogical approaches. Those books are filled with fairly clear pedagogical scripts for doing what and when. From there, you can take the contents of Mills' and understand how to use the exercises you find in there to build your skills, and you'll be able to see better how they are intended to fit into the curriculum. The biggest thing will be identifying what appropriate bio-mechanic you want to use, because some exercises are centered around a certain mechanic, and I'm not sure which one Mills uses. For instance, the Palmer core writing exercises might not be a good fit for working on Spencerian's combined movement, but are excellent for training the Palmer arm movement. 

[Jehu]

Thanks, arcfide. That helps a lot!