Get a liner.  A liner is a small piece of cardboard or ruler or folded paper that is placed under a row of book print.  A liner is usually 1 1/2″ wide by 6″ long and easy to make.  The best are made from an old file folder.  By placing a liner under a row of print, the eye is forced to go in a straight line across the page by blocking out the other visual distractions.  Using a liner will increase reading speed by 1/4 and also enhance reading comprehension.

THE REASON it works:  The human eye is drawn to interesting things.  On a page of print, interesting things may be the spaces–not the words, or it may be bold print or italic print or oddly shaped letters.  The use of the liner will train the eye to follow one line of print.  It also trains the eye to move along the print.  A person who uses their finger to follow a line of print will read slower because of the brain time it takes to move finger, see word, read word, move finger, see word, read word, move finger.  The liner cuts that down to move liner, see word, read word, see word, read word, etc.  Use of the liner cuts out approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of the brain work and lag time.  Use one until the reader becomes very proficient or whenever the reader is tired or the information to be read is boring.

Tip # 2

Quite often people think the ability to pronounce the words is the same as reading–it isn’t.  Understanding what is read is reading.  Sometimes students will read words as fast as they can.  Listen closely to the student read.  If they are reading words fast, they aren’t getting the meaning.  Tell the student to take a breath at every comma and period.  Suddenly what they are reading will make sense to their ears and comprehension goes up to match the student’s ability to make the sounds of words correctly.

These tips and others are included in the small book So…Teach Them to Read & Write…Easily by Nina Sipes available at www.amazon.com and our own [ Order Page ].

As a tutor for many years, Mrs. Sipes has discovered that most people thought to be slow thinkers actually only lack micro skills or crucial bits of information–not intelligence. She says,”Lack of only one of these skills can make a person fail homework, tests, grades, and ultimately–life.”

The information contained in her small inexpensive book has meant better lives for everyone touched by her tutoring over the last 31 years. In fact, So…Teach Them to Read & Write…Easily, while still in manuscript form, was being used as reference material by a student teacher, parents, and literacy programs.

This book contains powerful information. However, if all you want to do is improve your handwriting techniques in three spare minutes, buy the book and turn to page 64.

If this book isn’t available at your local library ask them why not?

Printing teaches and reinforces the symbol language necessary to communicate in the print form, e.g., books.  It does not and is not likely in the near future to replace cursive.  Cursive is faster to accomplish than printing and therefore very useful in note taking and communication.

Although great strides in voice recognition technology have been made for computers and other electronic devices, they are not perfect, nor are they easily checked for accuracy in a quick moment of note taking.  Cursive notes are easy to check.

Often people are judged by their penmanship.  People frequently compliment a fine, clear, or ornate penmanship.  Poor penmanship is sometimes considered a sign of an undereducated person.  If the person with poor penmanship is a highly educated professional then poor penmanship is sheer aggravation to him and others.  He is wasting not only his own time, but also that of others as they have to hunt him down to verify what his lousy handwriting actually says.  He had better hope they bother.

It is thought by many that a printed signature is easier to forge.  Since experts did not agree, I called the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) headquarters in Washington, D.C.  They transferred my call to their handwriting expert, who could be anywhere, downtown Toledo, Ohio for all I know.  I didn’t catch the man’s name as he was too busy getting mine.  When asked, “Which is easier to forge, printing or cursive handwriting?” I received an in-depth answer of, “It depends.”  When I asked, “Is a scrawled signature easier to forge than one with well formed letters?”  I received the same in-depth answer, “It depends.”  Faced with such detail, I went back to work…thinking.  This is the answer I came up with.

It will depend upon the skill of the forger.  If he has a lot of time to learn the way you sign your name or can copy one of your signatures by using the same ink, pen, and paper that you normally use, then he might be successful.  Catching him might also depend upon the expertise of the law enforcement agency in charge.  Therefore, the conclusion I reached is this: Trying to make a signature un-forgeable by scrawling an unclear signature is not the protection from forgery it is commonly held to be.

Fellow authoress, Starla Kaye, attended a seminar on white collar crime.  At the seminar, she learned from a professional handwriting analyst and certified document examiner that criminals who try to forge a signature by copying it are more easily caught than those who scrawl something similar.

Beautifully executed initials would be more admired by others than an unreadable wavy line that could be made by anyone’s two-year-old cousin running amok with an ink pen in his fist.

Elegant handwriting is often thought of not only as an accomplishment, but also a recognized and admired art form.  Please do not hinder personal expression in older children about the formation of cursive letters as long as that expression doesn’t hamper clarity.

Kate Gladstone has written on her web site many eye-opening facts.  One is that there is substantial proof that students with good handwriting average one letter grade higher on the same work than a student without good handwriting skills, even though the content is the same.

To get a better job. If you learn to write so everyone can read it, less mistakes are made and blamed on YOU!

To get a raise. Fewer mistakes means your company has lesser costs from do-overs.  As a part of that new bump in profits, you may ask for that raise!

To improve the way you talk. Improving reading and writing automatically  improves speech and vocabulary.  This will also give you a boost in job skills.

Now for some scary facts.  There are people who believe that a person’s personality can be seen in their handwriting.  The people who study handwriting for this are called graphologists.  There is a growing movement in the USA for companies to have a prospective employee’s handwriting analyzed for good and bad personality traits.  I found the paragraph below at:

http://handwriting.cc/entertaining/whatyourhandwritingsayaboutyou/

With proper training, a graphologist can help people understand themselves and others better, help attorneys size up their clients or potential jurors, help law enforcement agents catch criminals and help employers who are looking to hire the best person for the job.

Don’t be a victim of Graphologists.  Work on your handwriting.