The Lost Art Of Handwriting

Revisit the lost art of writing with these fun prompts, worksheets, exercises—and more!—and experience the many benefits of writing by hand, including increased focus and memory, relaxation, and creative expression. Writing by hand may seem passé in the digital age, but it shouldn’t be dismissed as simply an activity for grade schoolers—it offers countless benefits that have been studied by researchers, brain neurologists, therapists, educators, and others who are invested in helping handwriting thrive in an age of advancing technology. Handwriting may be slower than typing—but this gives your brain more time to process information, and stimulates neurological connections that aid in memory, focus, and composition. The process of handwriting can also have a soothing, calming effect and can even serve as a great form of meditation. And of course, it’s a great way of expressing your individuality and personal style. The Lost Art of Handwriting explores the history of writing longhand, and reintroduces proper stroke sequences, letter forms, and techniques for evaluating and improving your handwriting. You will discover how the amazing variety of letter forms provide endless opportunities for making these alphabets your own, and how to choose alternatives that fit your preferences while keeping your writing neat, consistent, and unique to you. You’ll learn how to connect letters in cursive writing to help you write more smoothly, and with practice, more efficiently. Learn how easy it is to apply what you’ve learned into your everyday life with tips for integrating handwriting practice into already jam-packed schedules. Soon, you’ll notice a steady increase in the relaxation, value, and joy that handwriting offers to everyone who persists in putting the pen or pencil to paper.

Improve your handwriting skills and calm your mind with this lovely, inviting companion workbook to The Lost Art of Handwriting. Practice your penmanship to perfection with this helpful handbook to mastering beautiful handwriting. Brenna Jordan of Calligraphy by Brenna and author of The Lost Art of Handwriting presents you with pages of wonderfully crafted letters, sayings, and quotes that you can use to practice your handwriting. The Zen-like repetition of cursive and printed letters will calm you and provide a sense of well-being as you make your way towards more legible, pleasing, and impressive handwriting that you can apply to correspondence, cards, artwork, and more. The Lost Art of Handwriting Workbook has everything you need to master calligraphy and provides a wonderful way to practice your handwriting every day.

When Philip Hensher realized that he didn't know what a close friend's handwriting looked like ("bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash"), he felt that something essential was missing from their friendship. It dawned on him that having abandoned pen and paper for keyboards, we have lost one of the ways by which we come to recognize and know another person. People have written by hand for thousands of years— how, Hensher wondered, have they learned this skill, and what part has it played in their lives? The Missing Ink tells the story of this endangered art. Hensher introduces us to the nineteenth-century handwriting evangelists who traveled across America to convert the masses to the moral worth of copperplate script; he examines the role handwriting plays in the novels of Charles Dickens; he investigates the claims made by the practitioners of graphology that penmanship can reveal personality. But this is also a celebration of the physical act of writing: the treasured fountain pens, chewable ballpoints, and personal embellishments that we stand to lose. Hensher pays tribute to the warmth and personality of the handwritten love note, postcards sent home, and daily diary entries. With the teaching of handwriting now required in only five states and many expert typists barely able to hold a pen, the future of handwriting is in jeopardy. Or is it? Hugely entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking, The Missing Ink will inspire readers to pick up a pen and write.

When Philip Hensher realized that he didn't know what a close friend's handwriting looked like, he felt that something essential was missing from their friendship. But does it really matter that typing and texting have largely taken the place of passionate love letters, secret diary entries and postcards home? From the crucial role of handwriting in a child's development, to the novels of Dickens and Proust - and whether a person's writing really reveals their true personality - The Missing Ink goes in search of the stories and characters that have shaped our handwriting, and how it in turn has shaped us.

A thorough guide to making your cursive writing efficient, legible, and expressive.

There's no getting around the fact that typing on keyboards and screens is the new norm, but the simple, meditative art of writing words by hand can't be forgotten! Written by Hand is a guide designed to give you a new appreciation of writing. Everyday notes and lists don't have to be mundane scribbles; with a little practice, you can make them works of art! Writing longhand isn't a chore when you can turn your notes into mini works of art. Grocery lists, to-do lists, sticky notes, make them look more like art rather than work with Written by Hand. Whether you're an aficionado or mildly interested in creative journaling, this book can really take your text embellishments and your general font catalog to the next level. Every art journal needs captions, and with Written by Hand, you can make how you write as beautiful as what you write. A practical workbook with a creative element, fall in love with the art of your own handwriting and know with certainty that typed text has none of the charm and heart expressed in something beautifully scribed. Written By Hand walks you through the habits and skills needed to turn everyday scrawls into miniature pieces of art that are both wonderful to look at and fun to "draw". With walk-throughs of various lettering styles, examinations of personal writing habits, interesting facts on handwriting and calligraphy, and plenty of practice pages to use in your own hand-lettering practice, Written by Hand is an immersive guide to the written word.

"Persuasively argues that our fixation with writing by hand is driven more by emotion than evidence, as it is perceived to be inextricably linked to our history, core values and individual identities."--Los Angeles Times The future of handwriting is anything but certain. Its history, however, shows how much it has affected culture and civilization for millennia. In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures--far from John Hancock's elegant model--have become scrawls. In her recent and widely discussed and debated essays, Anne Trubek argues that the decline and even elimination of handwriting from daily life does not signal a decline in civilization, but rather the next stage in the evolution of communication. Now, in The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, Trubek uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity--from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today. Each innovation over the millennia has threatened existing standards and entrenched interests: Indeed, in ancient Athens, Socrates and his followers decried the very use of handwriting, claiming memory would be destroyed; while Gutenberg's printing press ultimately overturned the livelihood of the monks who created books in the pre-printing era. And yet new methods of writing and communication have always appeared. Establishing a novel link between our deep past and emerging future, Anne Trubek offers a colorful lens through which to view our shared social experience.

Practice makes perfect!It’s no secret that improving your Spencerian penmanship requires practice. Unfortunately, Platt Rogers Spencer published less than 30 Spencerian practice sentences. That’s why this helpful workbook offers over 180 pages of all-new phrases and sentences for you to refine your lettering.Across the top of each page is carefully composed Spencerian lettering by penman Schin Loong. Below the sample sentence is line after line of practice space where you can master your letter height, width, spacing, stroke weight and more. The pages are even perforated so it is easy for you to tear them out and practice on a perfectly at surface. But this book contains no ordinary words—they are the immortal phrases from the Declaration of Independence that define freedom and liberty, such as “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”