"HANDWRITING CLASS WAS NEVER LIKE THIS"
- Lou A., AppShouter.com
"ON-THE-GO OPTION FOR PEOPLE WHO DONT HAVE TIME
TO SIT DOWN WITH A WORKBOOK EVERY DAY"
- Sarah Parker, TheIPhoneAppReview.com
"MY KIDS LOVE THIS APP!"
- Paula Ward, TheIPhoneAppReview.com
AS SEEN IN GQ MAGAZINE (Dec. 2009, p128, right sidebar)
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Better Letters is your personal handwriting trainer,
inspired by the instructional handwriting font work of
UK handwriting specialist Christopher Jarman. The app
provides instructional lectures (audio and written) and
practice fonts with choice of writing style, guidelines, and
directional arrows.
Research shows that the fastest, clearest writers join some
letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping
the rest. Also, the fastest and clearest writers tend to use
the simplest letter shapes: avoiding the complex,
accident-prone letter forms of conventional cursive. In
fact, the earliest published handwriting books, half
a millennium ago, taught a semi-joined style of this
type (called “Italic” after the styles origins in
Renaissance Italy) well before todays more complicated
cursive came along. Now, more and more people who
seek better handwriting – doctors, teachers, and
ordinary folks of all ages in every walk of life –
are reviving the Italic style. Its high-speed clarity and
simplicity fit the findings of handwriting research and
meet todays continuing need for fast, legible writing
on paper or in a pen computing environment.
BetterLetters puts an Italic handwriting class in
your pocket!
Unlike other handwriting apps, Better Letters soars past
the worksheets. Beyond its sample letters and numerals
to trace and copy, Better Letters includes:
--User-selectable "ink" color. All letter and numeral
examples display in black, but BetterLetters allows you
to trace the on-screen examples in a color of your choice.
--Two style variations on Italic: letters with, or without,
lower-case exit-strokes.(Choose according to personal
taste,or choose whichever feels easier for you to write.)
--A list of 299 practice words, including every letter
combination used in English. (Elsewhere in the
program, you can input your own practice words.)
--Onscreen instructional essays and audio by our
handwriting specialist Kate Gladstone (known
internationally as the “Handwriting Repairwoman”) on
such topics as joins, stroke order, handwriting history,
and speed development.
--Built-in sketchpad to practice and apply your skills.
--Links to handwriting instruction web-sites, selected by
our handwriting specialist, extend your resources for
mastering rapid, readable writing. (REQUIRES
INTERNET CONNECTION: Wi-Fi, 3G.)
WHO WRITES BETTER with Better Letters?
--MDs, nurses, and medical and nursing students can
gain and maintain clear, rapid writing for situations that
require handwriting. (In the most computerized hospitals,
computer networks crash; generators fail. Even when
computers work, doctors must often scribble notes, or
give ward clerks the days handwritten records to read
and process.)
--Children, teens, and young adults can prepare for
written sections of high-stakes tests. (Since 2003, the SAT
exam for USA high school students includes a timed
handwritten essay: 1/6 of the total score. When schools
neglect handwriting instruction or use counterproductive
methods, Better Letters allows students to gain and
maintain competent handwriting.)
--Parents and teachers – from kindergarten through grad
school -- can boost the legibility and speed of their own
writing in order to teach more effectively. (When a
teachers handwriting lacks precision and speed, it can
wreck the best-planned lesson or demonstration.)