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A year long rigorous activity of Handwriting Olympiad 2011 with the Objective “to enhance the awareness of handwriting amongst the students and parents even in this hi-tech era also” finally culminated with the declaration of the champions. Write right organized this Handwriting Olympiad 2011, wherein over 3000 schools participated.

60 State Champs were selected from 1.5 lac students who participated across the country.
It was a three layered process of Selection of the State Champs

Initially the competition was conducted at School level in school premises; the competition was divided in two categories Cat A – 4th to 7th Std., and Cat B – 8th to 12th std.
Two school champs were selected, one from each category from every school and other 9 students were selected for Elite Handwriting club Members.
The School Champs then qualified for District level. Two Students from each Category in every District received various prizes and trophies at District Level.
District Champs qualified for State Level , and two students from each category were selected , and State Champs and Ist runner-up were awarded the Cash Prize of Rs. 2500/- and Rs. 1500/- respectively.

And Finally 60 Students were qualified for National Level Competition which was conducted at Hotel
Sayaji, Indore on 23rd Jan 2012, “World Handwriting Day”.
National Champion, Runner-up and 1st Runner-up from both the categories were awarded the cash prize of Rs. 50000/- , Rs. 25000 and Rs. 12500 respectively.
Certificates, Trophies and Gift Hampers were also given.

Every student was given a participation certificate. Every handwriting was analyzed by experts based on 56 parameters, and necessary corrective advices were given based on their handwriting to one and all.

The entire school fraternity was highly appreciative of the efforts made by handwriting experts in analyzing the handwriting and giving very practical and implementable advices to the students.

Write Right proposes to continue their efforts of establishing the importance and benefits of handwriting in a student’s life by organizing the next handwriting Olympiad 2011

While some people seemed to be blessed with beautiful and expressive penmanship, others spend their entire adult lives wondering why their handwriting resembles a child’s clumsy scrawl. Fortunately, there are many tactics you can use to improve your handwriting.

In today’s computer-driven society, opportunities to practice penmanship and improve your handwriting are few and far between. However, regular practice is the most important step to improve your handwriting. Learning to write is similar to learning how to throw a baseball—you can’t expect perfect results on the first try.

To improve your handwriting, it is helpful to analyze your penmanship to determine what you like and don’t like about your lettering style. Are your letters slanted too far in one direction? Are some of your letters noticeably larger or smaller than others? Is the spacing between words uneven? Compare your handwriting to the writing of your friends, family, and coworkers to see how you measure up. Knowing what areas need improvement will make the process to improve your handwriting much easier.

There are many people who believe that your choice of writing instrument will affect your handwriting. To improve your handwriting, visit your local stationary store and pick up a variety of pens. Many people find that their handwriting improves when they use a fountain pen, but you may have your own preferences as well.

Proper technique is often the key to good handwriting. Research has found that many people who have poor handwriting form the letters with their fingers. They put the full weight of their hand on the paper, use the fingers to form the letters, and pick the hand up repeatedly to move it across the paper. This results in a tight, cramped lettering style. To improve your handwriting, let your shoulders and forearms do most of the work. Your fingers should only serve as the guides to forming your letters.

For some individuals, posture has a minor affect on handwriting as well. When you’re slumped in the chair, it’s difficult to form your letters properly. Sit up straight when you write to give your arm enough room to move across the page.

If you’re serious about learning to improve your handwriting, consider taking a calligraphy course as well . Although calligraphy is most often used to address wedding invitations or create decorative art pieces, the techniques you learn will improve your everyday handwriting as well.

Thus, Legible Handwriting and Calligraphy as a gem is an ornament in Prosperity and Refuge in Adversity.

In a broad sense, calligraphy is merely handwriting, a means of recording and transmitting information, sometimes clearly, sometimes not, but in most instances hastily and with little regard for its appearance. The World of Calligraphy is something more. It is an art—indeed the chief form of visual art—with a history, a gallery of great masters and hallowed traditions. It is an art of grace and elegance which inspires wonderment for its appearance alone.

What distinguishes Calligraphy from ordinary handwriting is, quite simply, beauty. Handwriting may express ideas, even great ideas, but to Artist it must express the richer dimension of aesthetics. Calligraphy to the Artist is “a spiritual technique,” flowing quite naturally from the influence of Nature.

The word of God revealed in the holy books, have inspired generations of calligraphers who have sought to reproduce its words with a perfection of style worthy of its contents. Nature has exerted a more subtle, a more indirect influence on the development of calligraphy: by discouraging the graphic representation of human beings and animals it channeled the creative energies of artists toward other decorative arts, especially calligraphy.

It is true that calligraphy is created in seconds, by means of single unrepeatable brush strokes, but it doesn’t mean that there are no rules governing it.

“The art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner” . The story of writing is one of aesthetic evolution framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and material limitations of a person, time and place is what we call “Calligraphy.”

There are several diseases and conditions that can affect the brain and, in turn, the motor skills required for writing notes by hand. Neurologists can often tell a great deal about what is happening inside someone’s skull by looking at samples of their handwriting — especially if they have past samples. For instance, you can follow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in a patient very clearly through writing samples — handwriting can show the affects of the disease even in very early stages.
Different neurological disorders manifest themselves in different ways, especially on paper. Some can cause an overall decay in handwriting skills, while others can cause a patient to drop letters or words. There are, of course, a wide variety of psychologists who use graphology (handwriting analysis) for the purpose of understanding a person’s mindset as well. However, there is far more controversy about graphology than the simple observances made for the purpose of diagnosing neurological problems.

To conclude, we can say that handwriting can be of great help to both an individual as well as the medical professional.

It seems like those of us who spend most of our day at a computer are slowly losing those handwriting skills. Our elementary school teachers spent years drilling into us. More than anything else, it’s a matter of disuse: many people hardly ever write anything out by hand and, if they do, it’s a quick note meant only to last until the next time they’re at a computer.
But good handwriting is a skill worth honing, especially in a digital age, and for plenty more than writing your aging grandmother — although I’m sure she appreciates legible writing.

Bad Handwriting Kills
In any given year, approximately 7,000 people die because a pharmacist couldn’t read a prescription. And while prescription pads will likely become electronic in the future, there will always be professions that rely on hastily jotted notes. Not all of these jobs will go electronic any time soon. Consider construction sites: not practical places for most electronic devices. But if you wander around a building site before anyone gets around to painting, you’ll see pencil marks on most of the lumber. Measurements, locations and quantities are all written on the wall, and while an illegible note might not kill anyone, there’s a high likelihood it could cost a contractor some money.

Ensure to write legibly whenever you have to write, do not hesitate to subtly point out to the writer whenever you find a note important but illegible.

Handwriting is an integral part for school-going children as it allows them to communicate their thoughts & ideas within a reasonable time, through a readable product. Handwriting is complex activity involving mind & motor coordination. Although skills of handwriting are required for 30% to 60% of an average child’s school day, 10% to 30% of children have handwriting difficulties.
The three identified deficiencies in any handwriting are legibility, performance time, and physical and emotional well-being.
An important question to be answered is, why such high percentage of children have difficulty in writing?
Handwriting difficulty, or Dysgraphia, as defined by Hamstra-Bletz and Blote (1993) is a disturbance or difficulty in the production of written language related to the mechanics of handwriting.
Clinicians say Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder that generally appears when children are first learning to write. But they also firmly believe early treatment can help prevent or reduce many problems. This can be done by training muscles to remember the shapes of letters and numbers through regular guidance & specially designed method of practice.
Legibility and slow writing speed are most commonly manifested problems with Dysgraphia. It is seen that such children require more time to fulfill handwriting assignments in class. Moreover, studies on such children’s handwriting process indicated that they had less mature movements, with performance was in space and time, and they required more in-air time (between letters and words) than typically developing writers.

Two main outcomes used to assess and define poor handwriting are product legibility and performance time. In addition to legibility and timing deficits, it has also been observed that children with Dysgraphia erase more, complain about fatigue or hand pain, and are unwilling to write and do their homework. All of these may be considered to represent a category of physical as well as emotional well-being.

A child who is struggling with handwriting will find it difficult to keep pace with class assignments or to satisfy parents’ expectations. Indeed, handwriting difficulties influence children’s academic achievements for two main reasons:
1. First, the difficulty in mastery of the mechanical aspects of handwriting, which is transcription ability, may
interfere with higher-order processes required for the composition of text and, hence, influence the quality and
quantity of the written product.
2. Second, teachers tend to give higher marks for neatly written papers than for those in which legibility is poor,
affecting the overall grades of the child.

Some children who have difficulty mastering handwriting skills may respond by simply giving up, having developed a
mindset that they cannot write or compose text.

It thus appears that poor ability to write may influence perceptions of the parents, teachers & peers about child’s overall competence as a student.

In the schools, students get greatly affected by information from others and this can influence their sense of self-efficacy & competence. Given that writing plays a major role in this context, the negative cycle of handwriting difficulties and low perceived self-confidence among children with Dysgraphia may be perpetuated in relation to their writing abilities as well as other academic abilities.

Based on our observations we can say when it comes to training the children with Dysgraphia to write legibly, it is important to have patience and should always use only positive sentences. What you need to do is:
1. Analyze his handwriting; identify the flaws in formations of fonts.
2. Do not give vague advises like write neatly, write nicely etc., rather tell him how to write & how to correct the above problems.
3. Pick up one problem at one time. Move to the next only after he has overcome the first problem.

Through this article we do not intend to raise another problem for the parents or teachers, but certainly want to make a point that the teachers & parents should start empathizing with children having the problem of Dysgraphia.

A Student’s prime concern is legibility with speed, whenever he thinks of handwriting. Despite numerous technical advancements and virtual writing aids, handwriting continues to remain the basic mode of expression for students of any age. 80% of students have gone through torturous moments in their classrooms for their not so legible handwriting ,which in many cases have gone to the extent of affecting not only their educational career but also their personality.

It is no more a point to be worried because a segment of people who have understood the problem of the students have been doing research & training work.

There recent research has proved that handwriting can be repaired at any age. The only need is a willingness and a positive frame of mind.
A few tips to correct the most common “reasons” affecting the legibility of a handwriting:

1. Keep uniform space between letters and words.
2. Maintain Uniform Slant
3. Let the ascenders and descenders not overlap on the letters above and below.
4. Maintain uniformity in the font size.
5. Do not write with your elbow’s hanging off the table.

Do not wait. Refer web world for more information.