Handwriting is an important but severely neglected skill; yet we encounter the problems of lost productivity resulting from poor writing almost daily. However, we seem unable to address this problem effectively at any level of our society. This is not a new problem. Solutions do exist. We need to adopt the simple methods used in the renaissance to correct our handwriting in the computer age.
If you don’t think this is a problem consider this: Roman Vasquez of Monahans Texas who died a few years ago when his doctor prescribed Isordil, a heart drug, but the pharmasist read it as Plendil. The Vasquez family won a $450,000 judgement.
According to the Institute of Medicine, prescription, errors kill 7000 Americans every year.
Most people learn cursive writing in school and as time goes on and the pace of everyday life increases, their writing degenerates into an intelligible scrawl. For people like medical doctors who write constantly and always feel rushed this has serious repercussions. The same thing happens to police officers, and investigators, though the resulting embarrassment does not usually result in death.
People who write a lot and need to write quickly need to adopt a different script than the one they were taught in school. The problem with the cursive script taught in school is simply that it is slanted too much and the letters are formed with too many loops. The connecting lines between letters are too curved for legibility. The more slanted the writing, the more illegible the writing.
Recent studies have shown that basic italic handwriting produces easily read letterforms when written quickly, where common cursive results in illegible scrawls. These recent studies reaffirm the practices of renaissance merchants who required all business documents to be written in italic script.
The Modern Problem
The problem of dangerously illegible handwriting begins with a gentleman named Platt Rogers Spencer who introduced a system of cursive writing in 1848 which became the basis of how all handwriting is taught in North America. In 1894 Austin Palmer conceived the Palmer method and he wrote Palmer’s Guide to Business Writing. By 1925 the Palmer Method replaced other methods of teaching cursive hand writing in American schools. Unfortunately, these methods require proper posture, full arm movements, and in the case of the Spencer method, either a quill or oblique pen for proper execution. No wonder the US Post Office spends four million dollars each year to decipher poorly handwritten addresses.
The Acient Italic Solution
Italic script has maintained a devout following since it first appeared in the 15th century. This script, in its cursive form, does not have looped letterforms. The letters are formed using a bold downward stroke of the pen and all other parts of the letterform are lighter diagonal strokes with quite a few pen lifts, and no loops to confuse the reader. This script does not rely as heavily upon proper posture and full arm movements to make it legible.
In 1743 George Bickham published The Universal Penman. In it were illustrated many scripts reserved for specific genders, occupations, or classes. In time merchants adopted a stripped-down version of italic as it was legible when written with poor posture or when written quickly, the two greatest enemies of legible looped cursive as taught in the Palmer Method. This script is less slanted and more compact than looped cursive, which makes it ideal for writing in small notebooks.
To find examples of italic script go to: http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/italic/hwlesson.html
George Bickham’s books are still available at: