I have an 8 page application form to fill out by hand this weekend.

The problem is my hand writing is terrible at the best of times and years of typing reports into laptops haven’t improved it.

So apart from getting someone else to write it for me (because if all goes well I would be found out), please can you suggest a way to improve my hand writing to at least look a little better?

Cheers

Best advice I can give John is to have all of the answers written out before you fill the form in.

Also use a good quality pen, either fountain or a good liquid ink and take your time.

Jeff

Kids in school who are struggling we can use line guides. Print off lines quite books and put the sheet behind the thing you are writing on, might help with letter height. Make sure you say the whole sentence you are going to write before you start it to avoid getting half way and realising what nonsense you are writing.

Have a thick pad of paper under the sheet you are writing on.

scan it into a PC and complete it electrocically?

Cheers all, any more tips?.

BTW it has to be hand written CBIL

So is the handwriting bit a kind of skills test ?

Whats the job ?

Sorry cannot advise, just a nosey sod, good luck !

No, skills test is done and was typed as suggested.

Can’t say……. Top Secret 007 and all that….

And thanks

BTW it has to be hand written CBIL

sorry, slightly better at handing out useless advice than reading posts
what about a page at a time?

Are you a GP?

I used to have fairly spidery handwriting. What sorted me out was concentrating on making the loops and curls bigger, if that makes sense.

Get one of those fountain pens with the wide tip. Can’t remember the name of them but I won a handwriting competition in my infant school as I was the only kid who used one.
38 years later and my handwriting is considerably worse.

Scan it into a PC, print out some copies and practice. When you’re happy then do the original.

Are we talking proper joined up writing with finger spaces??

My handwriting is bloody awful too.
I get over it by writing everything in capital letters.
At least then it’s a little earlier to read.

iolo – Member
My handwriting is bloody awful too.
I get over it by writing everything in capital letters.
At least then it’s a little earlier to read

I stopped doing joined up writing the day I left education…….25 years ago.

Know what you’re going to write in advance, use a pen that suits your style, relax, slow down.

Bookwyse has it, I’d just add: have a spare copy of the form in case of emergency.

My tips would be:

1. Scan and photocopy the form
2. Word process the content you wish to add –
3. Copy the word processed text into a copy of the form to make sure it will fit and to give you practise
4. Repeat 3 if required
5. Copy into the proper form

Can’t help you with the handwriting John but you seem to change jobs more often than most people change their underwear!

Have the same problem, when at school a teacher called me to front of class and sarcasticly asked why i had let my pet spider fall into an inkwell and then walk randomly accross the pages of an essay i had written, oh how the other kids laughed.

But the reason why some applications are required to be writen is to check for punctuation, spelin and neatness of written sentances, something a computer can manipulate out.

No idea how to help sorry.

if its a deal breaker and could cost you the job then id be tempted to get someone else to do it for you. once youre in, then you can work on improving it maybe.

I’m not sure if this would count as cheating or not?

Make sure you have some other layers of paper under the form and write a page of text to warm up your hand muscles before you start writing. Use a decent quality pen.

What you want to do is, break your hand. I’ve always had terrible handwriting but since i broke my hand, any time anyone criticises it I can say “I’ve got a cabbage for a hand you insensitive ****, it’s a challenge just to hold the pen”. Completely untrue but, **** it, if you’re going to be a **** you might as well be a full ****.

If I’m filling out any kind of form then I tend to always use caps, that way there’s less chance of confusion through lower-case characters being confused with other characters.
My cursive writing isn’t that great, I was taught a sort of copper-plate style, that really doesn’t lend itself to writing quickly, unlike italic, which friends who went to different schools were taught, but I’ve sort of adapted it over the years, and I can write fairly neatly now, if I put my mind to it.
If I see anything I wrote when I was much younger I rather squirm at how bloody awful my writing was back then! 😳

The vacancy isn’t for a calligrapher or sign writer, is it?

Letraset?

as already mentioned, get a fountain pen. I found even a cheap one for 6 or 7 quid made a huge difference to my writing

or print it in comic sans of course…

if its a deal breaker and could cost you the job then id be tempted to get someone else to do it for you. once youre in, then you can work on improving it maybe.

Sackable offence if it’s SIS/MI5
is one of the questions
How do you drink dry martinis
[ ]shaken
[ ]stirred

bookwyse – Member
Also use a good quality pen, either fountain or a good liquid ink and take your time.

Only if the form itself is half decent paper.

As Capt Jon said, modern cheap office paper tends to be a bit crap for pens, especially fountain pens.

It’s too late to help the OP, but I’d reprint the form onto decent paper, the sort that has a watermark maybe, after I’d done a draft or two. I like Rotring ArtPens, YMMV.

Really depends on what they mean by handwritten application. Block capitals are easier to keep legible. If that’s not allowed, you could try finding a font close to your handwriting, print it out and copy it on to the form. Either way, some lined paper behind the application form would help keep it all straight and level. It will also help soften the paper somewhat. Quality fountain pens look nice but I find the nib can be a bit scratchy until bedded in which I think you may not have time for. I’d personally go for a gel pen with a fine point. I assume you’ll try to get a lot of info into a small box so a really fine nib will help it look less cramped.

If neat handwriting isn’t needed for the job and it is just a hurdle you need to get over to be considered then just fill it it, but put a note at the beginning apologising for the poor handwriting explaining you broke your finger, sprained hand etc., and you had to write it with your left hand.

Edit – and cross your “broken” fingers they don’t read STW!

Berol handwriting pen

You need the right pen for your style. My writing is usually hopeless, and some pens make it worse, for example the Parker range. But the right pen, in my case a Lamy Safari makes a huge improvement.

They’re really cheap, I think about £8? I think Smith’s sell them.

The nib is quite long and flexible, so it’s quite forgiving if you get the angle right it’ll track quite smoothly. It seems to need to be held leant over for me but YMMV.

You need to use it for a few hours to get the most out of it I’d guess, but if you can pick one up today you could give it a spin and see if it works for you straight away.

In this pic you can see the line shape, slightly oval, with tapers as you reduce the force on the nib. The pens are available in a range of colours.

The carts are quite big too.

Other tips – make sure you’re using thicker paper, perhaps sold as writing paper not copier paper. Also, most paper has two different sides, with a rough and a smooth one. Chekkit 🙂

And yes, write on a sheet with a few sheets below to cushion things.

Cheers all, it’s in the post box now.

Fingers Crossed