The Palmer Method of Business Writing · Lesson 5 · Part 2: First movement drills

5. Drill 2: compact ovals and slant

Goal: Your child makes a long row of compact ovals with a light, even motion, pulling the down strokes toward the middle of the body.

⏱ About 15 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗ 🖨 Copywork sheet

You'll need

  • Wide-ruled lined paper (several sheets)
  • A sharp pencil or a smooth gel pen
  • The book open at today's page
  • A watch, clock or phone timer that shows seconds (only for the optional speed check)

What's in the book

Lesson 5 is drill 2: long rows of compact, continuous ovals, with dotted lines showing the direction of the down strokes. It also explains slant and tells how pupils made hundreds of ovals with one dip of ink.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Warm up

    Run the writing machine for a minute without the pencil. Then make one line of straight push-pulls and one line of ovals from Lesson 4, two ruled spaces tall. Check that the wrist and the side of the hand stay off the paper.

    The book asks for at least five minutes of energetic movement practice without the pen at the start of this lesson; three is fine for a young child.

  2. Look at the model

    Open the book page. Look at drill 2.

    Do you see the dotted lines at the left in drill two? They are to show you the general direction in which the pen moves in making the downward strokes.

    The ovals overlap closely, like a coiled spring, two spaces tall.

  3. Rows of ovals

    Your child makes a row of compact ovals across the page, moving the paper with the left hand two or three times along the line. Do four or five lines.

  4. One dip of ink

    The book's pupils counted how many ovals they could make with one dip of ink. With a pencil, play it as: how far across the line can you go without stopping, keeping every oval light and the same size?

  5. Watch for

    Slant takes care of itself if the paper is tilted and the down strokes come toward the middle of the body.

    Never make ovals on the "back slant." Avoid this by pulling the strokes toward the center of the body.

  6. Gentle check and finish

    Compare a line from today with yesterday's drill 1. Which is smoother? Then write the child's name once with the same light motion.

Afterwards

Two or three minutes of ovals at the start of every writing time from now on.

Tip

If the ovals lean backward, check the paper tilt first, then where the down strokes are aimed.

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