Although it may seem like handwriting is becoming unnecessary, it’s a skill that is even nowadays important in many walks of life. A written missive carries more gravitas than a typewritten missive, like an application for a job, an invitation or an apology.

You might believe it’s a recent phenomena of people eschewing hand writing for the keyboard, but way back to the late 1800s, there were cries that hand-writing was uncared-for due to the invention of those times : the typwriter. These days, the charge is being corresponded to the ubiquitous utilisation of computer keyboards.

Nevertheless, there still exists a healthy demand for handwriting skills in academia and the business world. Penned missives are considered as far more authentic, they evince the author has carefully thought out his words, while demonstrating more respect to the reader. In this age of “canned responses”, the penned missive has never been more authoritative.

I must confess to something. I’ve frequently been caught red-handed with my own poor hand writing - made even worse due to decades of relying on the keyboard. In situations where I’ve had to hand write something, my words have been almost unreadable at times. What did I do? I handwrote as often as I could, and my writing improved greatly. So it’s best to polish your hand-writing through sheer repitition.

One more piece of advice is to find a pen you are comfortable with, and it must accept refills. Great refills include the illustrious mont blanc refills. This enables you to polish your penmanship with the same pen.