| Show STYLE OF prof pratt favors the OPPOSES THE VERTICAL thinks it would toe a bad mistake to adopt it in provo editor enquirer will you ainaly publish the following artic e in defense of slant writing this is an answer to ahe article on vertical writ iliR in the enquirer of the 26 iner legibility ia the only point that can possibly be claimed in favor of vert icle writing speed not be claimed from strictly professional test why in vertical witting we must have the vertical position of the paper which is only favorable to z up and down motions while the medium slant position of paper is favorable to both loop up and down motions and left to right motions found in forming the chort or minimum letters this has been proven from a physiological stand point by a careful test any one who has any motion io the arm canteau can teat it by taking any capital letter and joining them rapidly he will find to his that he can move taster and farther on the paper without moving his arm with the medium slant than the vertical the mucella of the forearm must act in harmony or sympathy with tha position or the paper the reason children under 8 years of aase can write vertical better than slant is write naturally with the finger movement and the vertical vei is written entirely by the average learner with the finger movement as is indicated by their work if they acquire some accuracy of form nine cases in ten when they farow ap and enter the rush of their vertical or finger movement writing will degen erate into mere meaningless scrawls because they will be compelled to write rapidly Yer lical writing has been recently tested in the schools of chicago as a failure BO far as queed goes an expert authority on writing in chicago dictated a verse of four lines six words to a line to one of the best writers in the ath and ath grades of the public babool of that city it took two and a half minutes to write it fairly plain he increased the speed to one minute and a half when abe writing degenerated to illegible scrawls the average one in my ath and ath grades could have written the same verse in one minute just as legibly as the 2 minute time on a wager the 2 minute time indicated slow finger movement and the one minute time did not indicate anything A teacher of writing who under stands his business will develop more bleed and legibility with the slant position of paper and letters than a teacher who does not can develop in twice the time it is possible for him to drill his class BO thoroughly that the form of the letters will be permanently fixed in their mind and muscles knowing a thing and doing it are much different we have too many theorists in the penmanship profession and not enough doers consequently they are always experimenting like quack doctors the vertical of writing is not new it has been used lor years when ledger r ting or accuracy was needed the secret of becoming a good easy rapid writer lies not in position of the for no two persons ever adopt the same slant alter leaving the school oom the secret is this that motion must be created in the muscles of the forearm and controlled bv careful scientific drill just the bame as we drill in physical culture to develop our natural self before any one can write rapidly easily and plainly lor any length of time any particular position of letters whatever that blant or position may be it roust be written rapidly plainly and uniformly throughout of course I 1 am in favor of vertical writing for teachers and where slow deliberate action is required in ledger copying but it should not be taught to learners past 8 years of age or as boon as tho forearm muscles ara large and strong enough to be trained to action to develop motion and god forbid that it should be universally adopted for it would certainly de enera e our future writers to worse lera than they are now the old copybook copy book system is bad enough but that would be thild injury to whai the vertical effect would have with the learner it is hard to write even slowly and to be plain it must be whitten wild the finger movement slowly atwould It would lead to scribbling cramp muscular paral asye because we haye large forms made with small of the none of the official organs of rapid writing the western penman or the art journal have conceded the vertical writing to be the best sorin fact have any professional penman who ought to be arthor ity I 1 feel at least eafe in working with eljia class who have done so much good for the public in this line of work the western penman alon has taught its hundreds of thousands thou sanda to write with success the slanting writing VM |
