The Palmer Method of Business Writing | Hacker News Reader

The Palmer Method of Business Writing

palmermethod.com

81 pointskeehun26 comments

This helped me enjoy writing in a notebook, increase my writing speed, and take pride in my writing.

# What I did

I spent an afternoon reading through the first couple chapters and doing the exercise and was surprised not only at the advertised benefits (ease in writing, faster writing, prettier and more uniform writing), but also at how much I learned about the mechanics of writing by doing the exercises.

As I was doing the exercises, as I positioned my elbows and paper and paid attention to the position and easy grip of the pen, the mechanics of writing, I thought about the mechanics of Star Craft. How the use of keyboard shortcuts, control groups, and double tapping numbers to jump to pre-set buildings or units drastically increases your actions per minute. I tried to take that same idea to writing and it worked.

There are two basic movements, up-down and circles. Each letter is a variant of the two. Even a circle is basically an up down motion with a more pronounced finger movement. Drill those like you'd drill 5-s-z to make zerglings, or whatever you use for larva inject.

# What I learned

I eventually figured out that the up-down motion is coming from your arm, not your finger. The fingers are used for fine motion differentiating each letter. The more regular the up-down motion, the more consistent your letters.

The big realization was that I could drastically increase my writing speed by drilling the up-down motion. You should be able to do at least 3 up-down or circles a second. Just do the drill to practice how it feels first, then the writing will take less effort to do quickly and regularly. That is what the drills are for.

# Why I think it was worth doing

I generally like the idea of doing things well. I used to be embarrassed about my writing. Now it is rare that someone sees my writing without complementing it. Writing has become a meditation for me. It helps me focus and slow down my thoughts. When I'm writing on a keyboard I can write a lot faster, which helps when I code, but I find the artificial constrain of writing on pen and paper help me write better, shorter first drafts.

Agreed, especially on the points touched upon in your last paragraph...

So much of what I see on the Internet seems "dashed off",as if a gun were being held to the writer's head...or, more realistically, as if a paycheck might be withheld, if a deadline could not be met...

When I write a note for others with pencil and paper I write in block caps, draftsman style...no one has ever come back to me and asked, "What did you mean by that?"...

I agree. My own posts are even affected by it. In fairness, I often am overburdening myself by juggling multiple things within narrow windows of time. Yet, I think having to physically write each letter would reduce that. The speed of keyboards and our on-screen feedback seem to encourage us to focus on quantity more than quality.

My father has a beautiful handwriting he is an engineer and he goes out of his way to write letters.

Unfortunately, some people that have received his letters perceive it as if he is poor and doesn't own a computer.

My solution: give him beautiful and expensive letter head paper on which to write. So that people don't make mistakes.

Beautiful handwriting is a dying art form.

PS: I'm sorry to say I didn't inherit that skill. and I have other more urgent priorities to try to develop it now.

Right now I just want to touch type with high precision.

Love the Palmer Method.

A bit frustrating, though, that the website (as a modern-day adaptation of a 1915 book) seems to be specifically tailored to right-handed people only. But then again, in 1915 pretty much everyone was forced to write with their right hand.

Did it take much effort to adapt the method to writing left-handed? I'm always leery of "writing methods", since so many fall down when attempted with the left hand. (I'm not sure any method would work for me. I was taught to write by right-handed teachers, so I'm an 'over-hand' lefty. I gave up cursive writing in the 5th grade and have 'fast-printed' ever since.)

Or just write mirrored text, a la da Vinci.

I will concede that I haven't actually learned much of it yet, I've just always thought it looks beautiful.

What I have tried so far (the arm movements, and copying some of the letters) works with the left hand surprisingly well. They tell you to rest your arm only on a point near the elbow and on the ring finger and pinky ("the wrist should never touch the paper"). I managed not to smudge anything instinctively using those instructions. Still, I'm not sure if I've got the posture exactly right yet (and I'll probably be able to tell after I've written like this extensively).

Do they also do a Palmer reading method? I looked at this complete example - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Palmer_M... - and, whilst very beautiful, I found it in no way easy to read. Perhaps the rigorous consistency (derived from the drilling) means you get used to it after a few pages, I don't know.

The big benefit isn't learning a specific writing style, it's building the eye-hand motor control skills needed to form letters the way your eye intends. Take a glance at the 2nd practice exercise on the OP (two continuous rows of interlocked O's with a vertical zig-zag between them) - very few people have the eye-hand coordination to make those shapes nicely without practice (let alone make them quickly). If you do nothing but practice that one exercise, you'll get 90% of the benefit of the Palmer method and your handwriting will improve noticeably, regardless of what style of handwriting you prefer [0]

[0] yes, this is a semi-anecdotal study, but I go through the drill every five or ten years and each time my handwriting radically improves, and I've watched multiple co-workers go through the same experience (each time after admitting they envy'd my handwriting because they were too embarrassed to write on whiteboards because of their own illegible scrawls)

Interesting. Did you learn cursive in elementary school? I find the sample really easy and pleasant to read. I wonder if it's a difference in experience or just personal preference.

I felt the same about that sample text - I'm used to writing in cursive, and that sample was actually pretty easy on the eyes for me.

I think we're well on our way to a day when nobody writes by hand at all. It's a shame, but at the same time kind of cool that I can just speak a keyword and have my phone transcribe an email for me.

Ha, awesome to see nice writing being posted here.

I am working on my cursive, as well as have regular writing sessions (with fountain pen and paper notebook). Palmer method is really helpful.

I would say check youtube for examples and suggestions how to improve your writing.

For an alternative that uses more consistent primatives, check out the Getty-Dubay method: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty-Dubay

My Grandfather had this book. He also had the most beautiful day-to-day penmanship of anyone I've ever met. He attributed it to this book :-)

Mine, too. He gifted me the book, along with one called something along the lines of "learning how to write for left handed people". I browsed both books, gleaned that if I followed the practices I could improve my handwriting, but didn't care enough to actually do it.

My practical experience demonstrates that as long as I can read my chicken scratching, that's plenty. For stuff I want others to read, typical engineer block print is perfectly ok.

Is it really worth spending time to get a nicer handwritting? I mean the only thing I write by hand is todo-lists and my signature.

Am I an exception?

No, sales of pens and pencils are at lowest for a century according to freakonomics podcast (2.6bn in pencil sales this year apparently)

I was just listening to that episode this morning. They said that pencil sales had five years of consecutive decline — but sales of pens were actually rising.

That's coming off of a huge upswing in 2012, when pencil sales increased by 6.8%.

Definitely not the lowest in a century, in fact, the industry is much higher than it was fifty years ago simply due to population growth, even though per capita use may be down.

Cant trust anyone on HN these days:-)

My bad

Every time something ceases to be necessary, it turns into a bit of an art form. Consider old cameras, writing letters, painting portraits and so on. The fact that it's no longer necessary inflates its worth as a thoughtful gesture.

Of course, different people have different opinions about whether that's worth anything at all. You may have other preferred ways of communicating thoughtfulness.

No, my TODO list is on my phone and whenever I need to sign something I slap my signature bitmap on the PDF.

For me, typing (be it on a keyboard or a touch screen) works well. I never understood why people even consider pen based entry methods. But everyone is different, I guess.

No, you're not an exception.

I personally discovered that writing things down helps me think about them. I take copious notes for meetings and phone calls.

I've tried typing instead, but there's something about dragging a pen across the page that makes my brain work. Some others have the opposite experience.

"Why the hell you doing that," is what everyone asks. I didn't always, I just found it helped.

Eventually, I found I hated my handwriting so much I went to the trouble of doing some drills to improve it.

I... am not at all sure if this is some kind of satire, that's trying to prove some kind of point, or not.

At first I thought it's Onion-style funny and waited for some kind of "misogynistic" punchline, but it never came. So... I guess it's serious?

I think a lot of people struggle with bad handwriting, and this sort of thing used to be taken a lot more seriously.

Handwriting used to be taken very seriously and Palmer was generally adopted as the default cursive method. I had handwriting classes (which, as I recall, were my lowest marks) for a number of years in grade school.

Remember that secretaries were just about the only ones who typed. I don't think I turned in a typed paper until senior year of high school.

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