🏁 Try to write c, s and w as small letters when they start normal words:
The car collided with the wall when it skidded.
Unfortunately some people handwrite these letters like this:
The Car Collided With the Wall When it Skidded.
Does that look wrong to you? Can you see that if these letters are too big they look like capitals, and it’s a bit confusing to read?
📲 💻You can use this link to a Google Form so you can test you’ve got it. Click Submit and then View Score and it will self-mark for you and tell you how many you got right.
🔆 If you’re now going to write all the c, s, and w letters at the same size as the other half-height letters then you have sorted another handwriting skill already, and you can go to the next one!
🛠 If you need some more practise exercises, read on.
For example, look at the c,s and w letters in this sentence:
I Was going Shopping in my Car When I Saw an accident.
Does it look right to you? Does this now look better?
I was going shopping in my car when I saw an accident.
🎯 📝 Here’s a quick workout to help you sort this skill if you need to. Just rewrite it and then check if you wrote all the first letters of each word the same height as all the rest, instead of the capitals used here:
The Cautious Cat Crept Silently along the Wobbly Wall, Watching out for Some of the other Cats he Wanted to Catch up with.
✅ The text should look like this:
The cautious cat crept silently along the wobbly wall, watching out for some of the other cats he wanted to catch up with.
🚦 Time to stop for more?
These consonants are often written as capitals when they should just be small (also called lower case), especially when they’re the first letter of a word in the middle of a sentence. The problem is that it can look like you don’t know the difference between large and small letters (i.e. upper and lower case). They should be the same height as your other half-height small letters, unless they’re starting sentences or are being used for names, like Charles, Sally or William.
People who do this often get ‘i’ and ‘I’ mixed up too, so their work is harder to read because it’s full of what we call random capitals. You may need to accept that your handwriting style could have to change to get this sorted- but don’t be too offended about this. Write the letters how you like in your own work, and just change them for more formal English, like assessments and exams!