The Palmer Method of Business Writing / A Series of Self-teaching in Rapid, Plain, Unshaded, Coarse-pen, Muscular Movement Writing for Use in All Schools, Public or Private, Where an Easy and Legible Handwriting is the Object Sought; Also for the Home Learner

by A. N. Palmer

With the right forearm crossing the lower edge of the paper a little to the right of the center, the pen should progress one-fourth or one-third of the distance across a sheet of paper eight inches wide, before the position of the paper is changed. Always use the left hand to move the paper. Paper 8×10½ inches in width should be moved three or four times in the progress of the pen across it. When the end of the line has been reached, the paper should be returned to its original position, and should be moved up on the desk the width of one line. Lift the pen before moving the paper.

It is not Palmer Method if the lines are tremulous. Study instructions for speed requirements.

LESSON 4

Now the serious work of using and applying the correct movement begins. Before attempting to make any part of drill one, review lessons one, two, and three, and give the closest possible attention to position, muscular relaxation, and penholding. Don’t practice before you know how. With the left hand, move the paper to the left three times at equal intervals, in the progress of the pen across it.

Drill 1

Letting the distance between the two ruled lines, three-eighths of an inch apart, represent one space in height, any part of this drill should be two spaces high. Look at these drills until you have a good mental picture of the height, proportions, and general appearance.

In connection with the straight line part of the drill, study closely diagrams twenty-six and twenty-seven on page eighteen. There is no value in this straight line exercise unless practiced with a forward and backward motion, from and toward the center of the body, with the paper held in the correct position.

If you cannot make the several parts of drill one high enough at first with pure muscular movement, practice without touching the pen to the paper until you have developed more muscular freedom.

In the second line of drill one, the traced oval should first contain six, and later, as a lighter movement is developed, ten revolutions. In this drill it will be well to make first the straight line on the correct slant, and then the oval enclosing it. This order may be changed frequently and the ovals made first. This is an important drill as it has a very specific bearing upon slant.