Thankfully, the art of handwriting is not completely lost. I ran across several recent stories, mostly related to Zaner-Bloser’s handwriting contest sponsorship that remind us how handwriting is taught at a young age. What pleasantly surprised me in this age of emails, text messages and voice mail was that Zaner Bloser had 157,000 entrants from around the country.

The National Handwriting Contest is sponsored by Zaner-Bloser, a language arts and reading company. Each year, schools that use Zaner-Bloser handwriting as their handwriting text may select one student from each grade level for the contest.

This year, students in grades one and two submitted manuscript samples, while older students submitted cursive samples. Entry forms on the Zaner-Bloser Web site asked students to first write their full name and then write down a designated sentence.

The final portion of the entry form asked students to write why neat handwriting is important. Colleen’s response was simply, ‘‘so people can read it.”

Entry forms were grouped into the categories of grades one and two, grades two through four, and five through eight. The Zaner-Bloser Web site provides a legibility key to help entrants use the correct size, slant, spacing and shape in their entries. Entries are judged according to these four principles.

According to Zaner-Bloser, this year there were 157,000 entries; 6,500 from Maryland.

Winners are grouped into two categories based on their school, public or private⁄Catholic. Judges choose one winner from each grade level in each category at the state level.

From these, national grade level winners will be chosen in each grade in both categories. The 16 national winners will then compete against each other to be named the Grand National Champion.

You can read the whole article here.

UPDATE: More articles, here, here, and here. And a completely different handwriting contest here.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference. A small thank-you here, a nice follow-up, or just a reminder that you are there to help. All these little actions add up to create a good impression for your current clients or even potential clients.

This article in BusinessWeek touches on many of those small gestures. But it was number 7, the finale that got my attention.

When was the last time you received a handwritten note? I bet you remember it. I do. After a brief conversation with the chief executive officer of a well-known franchisor, I was surprised to receive an envelope in the mail with a short handwritten thank-you note along with several coupons for his product. The coupons were for small amounts, but the gesture left a big impression on me.

My insurance and financial planning adviser gets plenty of business from me because of numerous, small touches during the year. Several times a year I can expect to receive a handwritten note, a short voice message, or a copy of an article that I might find valuable given what he knows about my interests. None of these touches are accompanied by a hard sell, but I wouldn’t consider bringing my business to anyone else.

There is something about the power of handwriting. Typed words cannot match this personal touch. The spoken word, while personal, does not have the permanence. Handwriting alone has that special quality that grabs our attention and also communicates our emotions as well as our thoughts.

For example, why do we remember the name John Hancock? It’s because there is emotion in his signature. Emotion in his statement. No typewritten or printed text can convey that feeling.

It’s the same with your correspondence. Printed notes just cannot match the personal nature of handwritten. So, the next time you think about which option is best for you think about what you’re trying to accomplish. Convey information? Any note will do. Convey emotion and a personal touch? Nothing beats handwriting, whether we do it for you or not.

If you’ve ever been frustrated having to buy small 2 cent stamps because the post office raised their rates, you’ll appreciate this new “forever” stamp coming out April 12th. Just buy it once and it will be good forever. Or so they say.

Well, we’re finally getting close to launching our web application so perhaps it’s time to start putting down some thoughts, interesting information, and links here at blog central. I’d also like to mention that your comments are welcome, since your input is, and will be our most important guide. If you don’t want to comment directly here on this blog, feel free to send me a message, either electronic or handwritten, with your thoughts or suggestions. I’m always listening and will read everything with interest.

Over time, I hope to fill you in on our business philosophy. Our commitment to creating quality handwritten pieces. And our interest in helping you. I may even add some relevant articles or links to help in your decision making. Nothing too fancy or complicated though.

That’s about it.

Let’s get busy. We’ve got a lot of writing to do.