HANDWRITING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1938, Page 8

HANDWRITING

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l was greatly interested in the! opinions on the subjects of spelling and handwriting published in your paper, more particularly in the writing section. Mr. F. Martyn Renner, in making his survey, was most Interesting, and I would like to make reference to some of his remarks. He says, "In my day we used to have copy books for writing practice and I think that copy books are not the slightest use in teaching good writing." This is completely true and I would go further and say that the published copy books spoilt more writing than they made. The form of copy set made for slow and laborious writing and when speed was called for the writer fell badly. Further, Mr. Renner says, "in all these years we haven't yet discovered a fluent, easy script that we could use as a basis for good writing." In my young days we had visiting writing master^ who had systems of their own which for obvious reasons were unpublished. The one I had experience of was a cursive system aimed at producing a flowing, rapid, and legible script and it certainly obtained remarkable results. It broke away from the stiff copperplate writing of the day and built a useful commercial type, clear and rapid. If Mr. Renner or any other schoolmaster would care for further particulars I would be glad to supply them. —I am, etc., B.T.