TO RELIEVE MUSCULAR TENSION

It is often advantageous to go over the path of the letter, or exercise, with a dry pen. This method is especially helpful to a student whose muscles are hard, and who finds difficulty in overcoming the tendency to keep the muscles of the arm and body in a rigid condition. This plan has been suggested in former lessons, and we consider it of sufficient importance to receive emphasis here.

Another plan which the author has found helpful to students who write with strained muscles, is to place a weight on the paper, and write with the left arm hanging down. The tension of the right arm is relieved at once.

Still another plan to relieve this tension, so common among beginners, is to select some easy drill like o or m, and make it across the ruled lines with the eyes fixed upon some object at a distance on a level with them when the body is fairly erect.

Small f is a little shorter below than above the base line, and is closed on the base line. A fair rate of practice speed is fourteen groups of five letters each, or seventy letters to the minute. Count 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10, for each group.