Adults with poor penmanship may have particular letters of the alphabet with which they experience the most trouble. An effective activity for helping adults improve their handwriting is to do a letter repetition exercise. In this activity, adults start at the beginning of the alphabet and rewrite the letter "A" -- upper and lower case -- a certain number of times before moving on to the next letter, "B." The activity works all the way through the alphabet, giving adults practice writing all of the letters in both cases. This exercise helps the hand become accustomed to creating each letter.
Adults may have legible handwriting when writing at a slow pace. However, their handwriting can become sloppy when the writer is rushed. If this is the case, adults can improve their handwriting with speed writing exercises. In a speed writing exercise, the writer is given a sentence to write as fast as he can. He may have to rewrite the sentence two or three times before moving on to the next sentence. The moderator of the activity can time the adults to see who completes the sentences the fastest. This activity lets adults practice their handwriting at a rapid pace so that they can eventually complete written tasks quickly and legibly.
When words are spaced too close together, handwriting becomes less legible. An even spaces activity teaches adults how to evenly space the words that they write in a sentence to keep their penmanship legible. For the activity, the adults write a paragraph and make a special effort to space the words one-half inch apart -- not any closer. The half-inch spacing is estimated by the writer's eye -- no rulers necessary -- but should be a close approximation. The goal of the exercise is for each word to stand separate in a sentence and not be grouped too closely to the others, making it difficult to decipher individual words.
While handwriting exercises are taught to children using pencils, adults should participate in activities to improve their handwriting with pens. Writing with a pencil and a pen is different, and some types of pens make it easier or harder for adults to write. For this reason, provide a variety of pens for adults to use in the activities. For instance, you may give adults one gel pen and one ink pen that they can practice with, to see which type makes the handwriting process easier and the penmanship more legible.