Thousands of students nationwide compete each year for honors in the nation’s best-known handwriting competition. The top winners of the 32nd annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest hail from 16 states, including Azlynn Florence, fifth grader from Sacred Heart Catholic School in Cullman, who was named a national semi-finalist. The competition, which shows the enduring value of studying manuscript and cursive, is the longest-running and best-known competition of its kind in the U.S., attracting close to 80,000 students each year in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Along with the fun of competition, contestants reap the cognitive benefits that stem from the handwriting process. Among them: Writing by hand engages more of the brain and enables better recall than using a keyboard. In the earliest grades, learning to write letters by hand helps children learn to recognize them more quickly.

“Research tells us what handwriting can do to support cognitive development and better academic outcomes,” said Zaner-Bloser President Lisa Carmona. “That’s why we’re committed to recognizing those schools that encourage the use of manuscript and cursive, and the students who work so hard to master it.”

Each year, 20 winners are chosen, including one grand national champion and one national semifinalist in each grade. In addition, the Nicholas Maxim Award is given to two students with cognitive, intellectual, physical, or developmental disabilities who excel in manuscript or cursive.

Winners have been thoroughly tested through the competition, which begins at participating public and private schools throughout the country. Schools choose their own winners, who then advance to their respective state-level competitions. State winners advance to the national competition, where judges select nine grade-level grand national champions and nine grade-level semifinalists. Since the contest began in 1991, about 2.5 million students have participated.

All students write the required sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” because it contains every letter of the alphabet. Judges select winners based on Zaner-Bloser’s four keys to legibility: the shape, size, spacing and slant of the letters. 

Each Grand National Champion receives an engraved Zaner-Bloser trophy and a $500 check. Their schools receive a $1,000 Zaner-Bloser product voucher and a certificate of achievement handcrafted by master penman Michael Sull. The winners’ teachers also receive a handcrafted, personalized certificate.

Each semifinalist receives an engraved Zaner-Bloser trophy. The semifinalists’ schools and teachers receive certificates of achievement handcrafted by master penman Michael Sull. 

The Nicholas Maxim winners will each receive an engraved Zaner-Bloser trophy and a $500 check. Their schools will each receive a $1,000 Zaner-Bloser product voucher and a personalized certificate handwritten by master penman Michael Sull.