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Chapter - 04

“That’s Ridiculous – I Know How To Write…”

Almost everybody starts out with some interest in penmanship and a desire for a legible handwriting. But somehow there seems to appear a vague notion that handwriting and personality are so closely connected as to be too sacred to touch. "The illegible, sloppy handwriting portrays a complex character, so it is best not to try to change either." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Recent experiments conducted at the University of Wisconsin show that people generally would like to write better, but know so little of penmanship that they cannot help themselves. The same experiments revealed that children, with some guidance, reach a point at about sixth grade level where they do their best writing. After that there is a downward trend toward carelessness unless they are held to a reasonable standard of neatness and legibility. This experiment poses a question: What of the child who is allowed to print throughout elementary school? Having missed the chronological peak, can he ever develop ease, neatness, and regularity in script? Perhaps further experiments will reveal that the prolonged and seemingly aimless use of crayons and over-sized pencils is aimless indeed, and wastes valuable time which could be directed into the mechanics and practices of good writing.

The home and the school working together can make immeasurable strides in both how to write and what to write. The parent and the child can together generate a natural and lasting desire for correctness and neatness, and this can result from observation and suggestion—accepted and appreciated by the child as adult interest (and the young try very hard to interest their elders). The parent can implant much that will become a lasting effect by simply having the child practice making numbers and letters with a regulation size pencil on regulation lined paper from the very beginning of school. Oversized numbers and letters on unlined paper only breed habits of carelessness and disorder which are painfully corrected later.

There is the most gleeful observation of, and enthusiastic praise for, the bird house or birch bark canoe that is made in the Cub Scout den, and the apron or painted ash-tray which is brought home from Brownies is given public attention for days—but how closely is the spelling paper observed, what praise is given to the neat and orderly arithmetic paper? All too many parents are willing and ready to bribe for results and offer prizes for achievement, seemingly unaware of the fact that a little time and attention would get better and more permanent results. Children should be encouraged to bring all school work papers home, and at home they should be carefully gone over by parent and child. A sense of neatness and correctness instilled in the mind during the early years of elementary school grow into respect for order, authority, and excellence. The student whose mind is disciplined to work and maturity of purpose is the student who has been taught neatness.

Is all this some highly technical skill that involves some scientific method of handwriting and requires hours of painfully tedious supervision? Indeed, it is not. In a very real sense it is a series of "beginnings." It is beginning to write words in a straight column, beginning to dot i's and cross t's, beginning to make letters distinctly, beginning to write the 4 that is to be added to the 6 directly under it rather that at a glancing angle. There is no added difficulty in doing a neat piece of writing or an orderly arranged arithmetic paper. As a matter of fact, the neat and orderly paper is far easier for all involved—the writer and the person who reads and grades it. It is as easy to write numbers evenly spaced as unevenly, it is as easy to arrange problems in order on a paper as it is to pile them into one corner or splash here and there upon the page, and it is as easy to make all written work a meaningful accomplishment as it is to make it a disgruntled and halfhearted effort. A sense of neatness develops a sense of pride.

But is all this necessarily done at home? Why isn't it done at school? Of course, much is done at school, and much, much more can be done at school, but this will be when more is demanded by parents. One thing, however, should be remembered, the teacher has these hundred and one little things to do for thirty little people, and it is hard to watch over thirty shoulders at once.

Unfortunately, the, child in the elementary school gets all too little experience in writing. Then until reform comes and the over crowded slum condition of our system of education is improved, experience in writing must at least be encouraged in the home.

The amount of painstaking correction in writing the letters of the alphabet so as to make them readable, even among students who have arrived at high school age, is perhaps good reason for beginning with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Of course, the child will have received the basic training in school, but the parent can add excitement and a sense of pride even to the writing of a simple letter, which itself was thousands of years in the making.
The story of the evolution of writing from cave pictures to our present alphabet is exciting, and is available in a junior encyclopedia, condensed to a single page or less. This is not over-simplification, this is finding the significance of the obvious. Indeed, the story of the alphabet and writing has been made into an exciting book length story, The 26 Letters, by Oscar Ogg.* It contains 252 pages, more than a hundred explanatory illustrations; and will prove a pleasant adventure for parent and child. It is not for the very young, but the fifth or six grader might well find historical stimulation as well as a respect for 10,000 years of achievement which will be reflected in his own work.

In the approach to the improvement of writing there is a distinct vocabulary that covers letter parts and letter relationships in words. There are eleven areas for consideration in good writing: (1) slant, (2) spacing, (3) size, (4) alignment, (5) loops, (6) stems, (7) closings, (8) roundness, (9) retraces, (10) endings, and (11) capitals. The meaning and use of each is worth attention and study.

And why is all this so important? Isn't it rather simple and absurd to bother about stems of letters and endings of letters? Not at all. Clean ears, straight collars, and table manners excepted, here is neatness in its most influential form. The child can be taught that neatness is a part of education, and the part of education which impresses his teacher most favorably, as lack of neatness impresses everyone most unfavorably.

A comparison between a child's written work and an attractively packaged product is one that can be used most effectively. People who do not fold their homework papers neatly grow up and have swaying gates and crooked fences around their dooryards. Children who write their names sloppily on their papers today will tomorrow be the last people on their street to rake and burn their fallen leaves at autumn—and be thought of as inconsiderate by their neighbors. Here, indeed, is a realm of the obvious where help can be given in the home, and how grateful the teacher at school will be.

* Oscar Ogg, The 26 Letters, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1948.

The attractively packaged product is the list of words, the arithmetic problems, or the ten sentences. The big exam or theme will never reflect a greater degree of neatness than the simplest written assignment. The list of words should be a straight list, and if they are numbered, a period should follow each number. The arithmetic problems should be properly spaced on the paper, all numbers written directly above and below each other, plus or minus signs at a particular place, and all lines straight and parallel to the top and bottom of the paper. All these little things add up to a very big thing. The big thing is the answer to a question formed in the teacher's mind: Does this child really want to learn? If the work is neat the answer is "Yes." The most evident and measurable product which the child has to sell is his written paper. If it is neatly packaged, the teacher is assured of the effort put into it, and effort usually contains its own reward.

Extreme forward slant, backward slant, and irregular slant are hard to read. A slant guide placed under your writing paper may help you develop regular slant.

This sample shows you the proper angle.

Allow a space equal to the width of a small letter between words. Don't crowd your writing. There should be enough white space showing between letters.

Even-sized letters increase legibility. If you slur certain letters, it may appear that the word is spelled incorrectly. Capitals and loop letters should be Ò\ least twice as high as the others and should also be even in size.

Keep your writing on the line. A paper with heavily ruled guide lines under your paper will help you get into the habit of writing in a straight line on unruled paper.

The loops of your loop letters should be open, but neither too fat nor too thin. Keep the long stems straight and not curved.

Stems are the backbones or straight down strokes which are part of most letters. They should be written as slanted, parallel lines.

The letters shown must be closed carefully at the places indicated by the arrows. Closing these letters Improves legibility. Be careful and practice your closings.

Letters like m, n, v, u, h and y have rounded tops or bottoms. They should not come to a point. If they do, they may be illegible. Slow up a little when you are writing such letters.

Retracing means carefully writing over a part of a letter which you wrote before, particularly in such letters as the "d" and "t."

Making fancy endings doesn't improve your writing and may affect its legibility. Make your endings come to the height of a small letter, not like these poor samples.

If you write capital letters poorly, select one style below and practice it until you can write it well. There are many acceptable forms of capital letters.

Excepting the proper use of time, the habit of neatness in writing has probably the most influence upon the student. It stimulates a sense of pride and develops an interest in perfection. This sense of neatness in the child becomes self-respect, application, and integrity in the adult later. The philosopher, William James, put it so aptly: "Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone." Though some psychologists suggest that there might be regression after the zenith of neatness is reached at sixth grade level, the child who has been encouraged to write his papers neatly until a habit has been formed will never regress much; for the pattern of neatness is pleasant and enjoyable to all, and once established becomes part of character.

The parent who starts home practice for neatness very early in the child's school career is fortunate indeed. The longer it is delayed the greater the barrier of indifference which will have to be overcome. It is paradoxical that neatness seems to have become outdated in our mad attempt to make everything easy; and yet, children enjoy doing a neat job, as indeed they enjoy having worth-while demands made of them.

The school papers that are required of a pupil become in a real sense the grade-brand that the teacher will use to judge all the work of the pupil. The written paper, more definitely and. thoroughly than any other single part of school life, will reflect how the pupil feels toward his work. If the paper is neat, words spelled correctly, simple rules of indentation and margin observed, the problems spaced orderly, the list of words put in a straight column, letters and figures made with care, the paper reflects the will and determination of the writer to learn. If there is no order or arrangement, obviously careless mistakes in spelling, and a generally messy and hurried appearance, then the teacher sees at once that this paper was done as an assignment only, and with no thought for learning or anything else, except to get finished with as little effort as possible. There is little doubt that the writing habits developed during the first years of school might well influence for neatness or disorder all work from that time forth. Consequently, habits of neatness and order should be started early.

Writing, like reading, comes from practice, and the nature of the practice usually determines the quality of the result. Although the first years of school do not lend themselves to a great deal of writing, there is enough to provide practice in the fundamentals. Neatness can be taught from the moment the child learns to write his own name. Order and arrangement can be taught very early. Six words on a paper can be put in a straight column or a crooked one. The numbers for sentences or examples can be put to the left of the red margin; this sounds like a very simple thing; so it is, but there are college freshmen who have never been taught that the number is more easily read if placed at the left of the column. The parent can counteract much of the messiness that escapes notice in school for lack of time on the part of the overworked teacher.

The parent can also profitably note the position of the hand and wrist as the child writes. There is, then, much that can be taught in the early years of school that will make writing easier and more creditable when more and more writing is required in school and in life. Practice in writing can be made a much sought after exercise with the aid of a little imagination. One method is to give a child a list of words or phrases—a broken bicycle, an old man, a crooked road, two children—and allow him to write a story using these things. It can become difficult in one respect only; the parent will have a hard time keeping up with correcting stories and giving out new lists. But junior will learn to write.

The written work in school falls generally into three groups: (1) daily papers, which may be an assignment of problems, a short test, or a list of spelling words; (2) research reports and themes, and (3) tests and examinations. These groupings are not all-inclusive, but will serve as springboards for considering the nature of much of the written work that comes in middle and late elementary school (or certainly should), and continues with few changes, except for quantity, through the remainder of one's formal schooling.

There are certain fundamentals necessary for all writing, regardless of its nature or grouping. To write well there are four basic considerations that should be kept in mind (by all students at fifth grade level and above) for all written work: (1) The writer must have in mind the purpose for which he is writing, whether the immediate purpose is to inform, entertain, or review. One abiding purpose should be in all written work—to make it as fundamentally perfect as possible, that is, neat, all words spelled correctly, distinct letters, proper indentations, form, etc. (2) The writer must have either a mental or written outline (blueprint) of what is to be written. There is no substitute for a carefully thought-out plan. We only fool ourselves when we are persuaded that writing "comes naturally." Writing, like thinking, is hard work, and requires much organizing. (3) The writer must have a feeling for the difference between what is important and what is unnecessary in the development of a thought or theme. A little pointing over the shoulder by the parent will help the fifth grader begin to recognize the confusing words and unnecessary information. He can be shown how the essentials build up in writing, as stones in a tower, until the thought is completed at the top. The most important consideration for written work, and for all other work: (4) The writer must have a sense of pride in his work. This rule should begin in the first grade. No written work is complete until it is the neatest that can be done. There should be a feeling on the part of the student that every written paper required of him is a complete judgment of his own character and intent, and that what the masses do is not necessarily the universally approved. Form, spelling, punctuation, and order must be a basic consideration in every written paper, whether it be a sentence or a final examination. The young can be taught that carelessness is expensive; the old have to pay for it with costly experience.

To write correctly requires correct thinking, and not even the simplest daily paper can be thoughtlessly done. No one can hope to write clearly unless he has clearly in mind what he is going to say. Unless there is something to be said, nothing can be written, not even the answer to the simplest question on a daily quiz. Not all students are gifted with equal creative ability, but all are equally obligated to have a working knowledge of the purpose and aim of whatever they write; all are obligated alike to convert the basic information into a neat and coherent piece of writing, and all are obligated alike to never try to pass off messy, thoughtless, trite, and boring written work in the hope that they will get by, or because "this is as good as my friends do."

The child should be taught at home to put himself in his teacher's place, and pass judgment upon his own work. It can prove very effective in improving the quality of his papers. All written work, even simple daily papers, paragraphs, answers, etc. require some standard of value; and the child can be made conscious of what that standard is, or should be. Seventy per cent of written work failures result from carelessness, carelessness in form and order, or carelessness that comes as a consequence of ignoring instructions and directions. The closest tie between teacher and pupil probably grows out of assigning, receiving, grading, and returning written work. (A school system which because of overcrowding no longer requires written work does both teacher and pupil great harm.) The pupil should be encouraged to check over carefully all papers returned to him, and one of the most fruitful things a parent can do regarding written work is to require that all corrected papers be brought home. Once home, the parent can generate tremendous interest on the part of the child to improve, by going over his papers with him, praising what is good, and with honesty and firmness pointing out how improvements can be made. Writing is one of learning's important processes for continued improvement, and whoever bypasses its importance for a typewriter ad which says this brand of typewriter "will improve junior's grades thirty-five per cent," will some day be held accountable for neglect by junior himself.

Little theme writing is done in elementary school, and only a minimum is required in high school. This is greatly to be lamented. Colleges have found it necessary to teach basic composition courses in order to teach students enough about writing to equip them to answer written test and exam questions. Good theme writing results from good planning. All the basic rules of order and neatness that apply to daily work are required in themes, plus the added responsibility of carrying out a well-designed outline.

One of the most difficult tasks in theme writing is choosing the topic if it is not assigned by the teacher. It must be specific and definite, otherwise the result is a two-page smattering of a topic that should be covered in a volume. An outline is an absolute requirement for good theme writing; to omit it is to put together a patchwork of ideas which take longer to revise and put in order than the original writing required. Outlining one or two themes will convince the student that the outline is a great time saver. The outline prevents mistakes in unity and omissions, it serves as a check against blunders in selection of subject matter for inclusion, and provides a sense of proper proportion of parts throughout the theme. The student who does not outline before he writes takes the element of certainty out of his chance for success.

Education requires many building stones for its foundation. Outlining, so essential to understanding what to write, is not one of the least of these foundation stones. Outlines are sometimes referred to as thought puzzles, and, in deed, a great deal of school work consists of putting idea-parts together to solve thought puzzles. Ideas are represented by words, and the words themselves are only symbols or signs and have no value except as they picture ideas; thus, they are arranged to become representative of thoughts, and the thoughts are arranged to represent topics. In this order the outline is built. The mechanical form or frame of the outline is standardized as follows:

Title

I. Main Topic
A. Sub-topic
            B.

II. Main Topic
            A.
            B.
            C.
                        1.
                        2.
                                    a.
                                    b.
            1)        
2)

The indentation is to the right and to the point directly under the first letter of the first word above. A well-organized outline begins with the main topic and ends with the smallest contributing, or subordinate, idea or detail. Many stories lend themselves to outline practice, and topics in textbooks are usually arranged in proper relationship so that outlining is not difficult. For the younger student, however, there are any number of possibilities for practice. A list of pink flowers and blue flowers, a list of birds of prey and song birds, how to build a dog house, how to write a story—a little thought can provide the parent with unlimited material for teaching the child to outline properly.

Outlines usually fall into one of several possible arrangements, determined by the nature of the subject. These arrangements are referred to as the order of outlines, and they are six in number: (1) Time order, (2) Place order, (3) Alphabetical order, (4) Numerical order, (5) Mechanical order, and (6) Arbitrary order. The Arbitrary order is used where the others cannot be used, and requires only a sound and logical reason when used.

Having learned the six orders, the average fifth or sixth grader will find plenty of examples for the use of each. An outline of the childhood of Abraham Lincoln would follow Time order from birth to manhood. Place order could be used to outline a tour of the zoo or the description of a building. The 50 states could be outlined alphabetically, or numerically, according to population. The plans for building a model would probably fall naturally into mechanical order. Some topics are outlined arbitrarily, but always with a good reason for the arrangement of ideas. The outlines of flowers and birds which follow are in Arbitrary order; the arrangement is made according to size. The outline of flowers begins with the largest and ends with the smallest. Arbitrary order requires only a logical pattern; consequently, the outline of birds is perfectly correct although it starts with the smallest and ends with the largest. It is well to note, and remember, that an outline is incomplete unless it has a title. The outline also lends itself to practice in packaging the product attractively. The outline which follows was copied from the blackboard by a sixth grade class. The class had been taught form, indentation, etc., and were told to put this outline neatly in their notebooks for use in the future. David's parents require that he bring home all written papers after the teacher grades them. David's parents also look at all homework which David does at home, and doubtless have suggested the importance of neatness and good writing. John's parents believe the school should do the whole job so John is left alone— doubtless, "to develop a sense of independence and responsibility." The boys are equally capable, and both have the love and hopes of good parents. The two outlines reflect the degree of concern for learning at home:

Blossoms in Our Garden                             Some Bird Neighbors

I. Pink Ones                                               I. Summer Neighbors
            A. Apple Blossoms                                     A. Wrens
            B. Flowering Almond                                  B. Song Sparrows
            C. Coral Bells                                             C. Cat-Birds

II. Blue Ones                                              II. Winter Neighbors
            A. Wisteria                                                 A. Chickadees
            B. Delphinium                                             B. Downy Woodpeckers
            C. Gentian                                                  C. Blue Jays

Outlining is basic training which should either be started very early at school or at home. These basic things which give education the job of making sore muscles might disrupt the general lethargic peace of the household, and put parents out of step with the Joneses, but these fundamentals can change your child's life.

Outlining is the art of putting things in their proper place and perspective. These things may be ideas gathered from a speaker or book, they may be the furniture in one's house, or they may be the arrangement of flowers in a vase. We are forever planning, and in a broad sense planning is outlining. Outlining requires precision and develops the power to discriminate between the important and the incidental; it disciplines the mind to orderliness and teaches the art of planning—whether the plan be for an oratorical contest, a vacation, or an attack upon an elephant.

It is well to remember that outlining is more than a mere mechanical form and practice; it is a very creative exercise, one of the important learning processes, and a very formative influence in the development of good study habits. Topics should be outlined in statements full enough to save the complete meaning, but the greatest problem in outlining is keeping the outline brief. Most students, and especially the younger ones, encounter great difficulty learning to discriminate between the important and the incidental. They will need much help when they have passed beyond work-group outlines and start searching out vital facts from written material. With a little help they will, however, learn to identify and omit illustrations, repetitions, comparisons, transitions, etc. and include such important items as definitions, rules, and facts which bear directly upon the topic. A beginning knowledge of outlining should be taught to the fifth or sixth grade pupil. It leads to orderly thinking, writing, and speaking.

Parents can play a vital role in helping the child improve its writing. And in this help, it is surely evident that almost every parent qualifies. No great technical skill is necessary. Providing the actual practice of writing which the school does not provide is the way to be most helpful. (It has been estimated that with objective tests, classroom discussions, functional English, and social studies, it is possible for a boy or girl to go from the first grade through high school without having written more than four thousand words in sentence or composition form.) Encouragement for the beginning of neatness, openly expressed satisfaction for a straight column of words or an orderly grouping of arithmetic problems—all very simple, but all require time on the part of parent and pupil, and all help the pupil improve. Perhaps the greatest help a parent can be to a child in regard to tests and exams is to start early to counteract the public philosophy of distaste for anything that resembles a test or an examination.

Writing, in all phases of school life, like everything in learning, improves in proportion to the time and effort devoted to the practice of good habits. These habits are the important building stones upon which all learning must stand in fruitfulness or topple in frustration and indifference.

Home Helps For Learning to Write

1. Good writing habits can be developed at home by nothing more complicated than continued observation, suggestion, and praise for achievement.


2. Have all written papers brought home. Go over them carefully with the child. Here can be developed a mutual interest out of which will grow—respect for order, excellence, and authority.


3. Begin with the excitement of writing a single letter of the alphabet itself, the product of thousands of years of development and change. Introduce the child to the history of the alphabet and writing. A junior encyclopedia provides the story.


4. Make this study so important that even the parts of letters be learned:  (1) loops,  (2)  stems, (3)  retraces, (4) closings, and (5) endings. Use the illustrated chart for checking relationships of letters within words: (1) spacing, (2) size, and (3) alignment.


5. The child must be taught that his written paper is the most important product he has to sell the teacher, and that it shows the teacher whether or not the child really wants to learn.


6. The five basic considerations for all written work should be memorized, and all work should be checked against them.


7. The child should be trained to believe that each written assignment is a complete judgment of his character and that "how my friends do it" does not make it right.


8. The child should be taught to judge the quality of his own work by putting himself in his teacher's place.


9. The value, form, purpose, and orders of outlining should be learned by every child at fifth grade level or above.


10. Give the child four check-words for all written work: (1) neatness, (2) correctness, (3) brevity, and (4) quality.
    

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