What factors are involved in good handwriting?
As one who has an EXTREMELY good handwriting, I can say practice, and good one at that.
I set out to develop my handwriting when I was very young. It was borne out of the need to improve myself and prove my teacher wrong.
I had just joined a new Primary school and on the very first day, the teacher described my handwriting as 'fowl scratch'. This solicited laughter from my classmates and I felt horrible. So, I set out to improve my writing and become better than everyone else's.
I remember how it begun. I had been in a friend's house in our compound when the sister asked me to get her note from the dinning table. i mistakenly took a peek into the note and I was amazed at what i saw.
I later manged to get her old note and began practicing how to write like her. It took some time but soon enough, I was writing almost like her. you couldn't differentiate our writings.
I also began to take writing exercises serious. We had a single subject called 'writing'. I endeavored to always do mine and even finish the workbook on holidays if we weren't able to finish it during the term.
I would also look out for other students' own, either in junior or senior classes. I would beg them to have their writing workbook rather than throw them away after the term finishes. I did the workbooks during the holidays.
i even remember re-writing my notebooks during the holidays if i perceived the writings on them were poor.
Soon enough people began noticing and I've grown used to hearing that I write like computer. Teachers began calling on me to write lesson notes on the board as my writing was by far the best and this even went on till I was in Senior secondary school (high school).
So, the truth is that to get a good writing, you have to put some serious practice to it. My writing is so straight and clear that you'd have to look carefully at times to even notice that a human wrote it. i even remember once when a teacher from secondary school had me write a book and he photocopied and sold to students.
I'm posting this to my blog so that I will later add a snapshot of one of my writings so you see what I mean.