Download Georgia Ref and Palatino and Trebuchet for best viewing - p.7

Evaluation
Assessing the 3R's ~  Readable Rapid Ryting

Evaluation and Assessment [7]

Examples of how a handwriting sample was evaluated
and recommendations provided
Write it ~ Scan it ~ Send it as an email attachment

Evaluation of Handwriting Books

Recommended books:

Evaluation of Handwriting Instruction
 

Comments: 
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The School

What is the teacher?  A guide not a guard
What is learning? A journey, not a destimation
What is discovery? Questioning the answer not answering the question
What is the process?  Discovering ideas not covering the content
What is the goal?  Open minds not closed doors
What is the test?  Being and becoming, not remembering and reviewing
What is the school?  What we choose to make it.

Quibbles /kwibalz/
Is the u following the q a silent letter 
should [qu] digraph be considered to be a consonant?

Linguists - Onset and Rime
have discovered that children have a natural tendency to look for the biggest recognizable chunks of letters when attempting to read unfamiliar words.  In single syllable words, these chunks usually consistss of a beginning letter or letter blend called the onset and the rest of the word calle the rime.  
 
 

Steve writes:

We need a handwriting in a nutshell web page

Kate responded:

There is already one on-line.  Look at the summary wrote at the request of the 2001 OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC - http://almanac.com/tour.2001/sevenways.html -

I gave only the bare-bones essentials in the ALMANAC piece. 

To see the result of applying those tips to one's handwriting, look at the attached graphic (sent privately and used with permission) from an ALMANAC reader who wrote what you see one afternoon - *before*, and then *after*, reading my ALMANAC suggestions on simpler handwriting. I can find and scan examples of some of those, if you need: so let me know!

To see "bad handwriting that was in  some time and place considered ... good ... ," you need  look no further than your own schooldays' handwriting-textbooks (or, indeed, most  handwriting-textbooks published in  the English-speaking/European/ Roman-alphabet -using world from, say, 1650 onwards:  though a number of medieval and ancient writing-styles also show an annoying  and conspicuous "badness"  (by which I mean "failure to permit at one and the same time adequate speed *and* adequate legibility) - I can find and scan examples of some of those, if you need: so let me know!

Seven Ways to Simplify Your Cursive

1. Cross lowercase t's as you write them. Don't wait to go back after the entire word is written.

2. Emphasize the downstrokes of letters and use only about a 5 to 15 degree slant to the right (too much slant causes poor legibility).

3. Eliminate loops wherever possible. Simply retrace your initial stroke on ascenders, or lift the pen without looping on descenders. (Most adults who write fast but legibly normally eliminate some or many loops and joiners in their handwriting.)

4. Join letters with straight lines, not curves. For examply, join o to n with a straight, short horizontal line.

5. Use "print" forms of capitals in cursive writing, with the same slant as the cursive, especially for twisty letters like S, G, J, and others. Remember, capitals form only 2 percent of ordinary prose text.

6. Strongly consider print-like forms for the lowercase letters
b, f, r, s, andz.

7. Position the paper in front of the writing-arm's shoulder.

                                               Kate Gladstone

Extracted with permission from the Farmer's ALMANAC