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Today, Colleen, 10 — who now writes correctly — has continued to amaze her parents with her skills in penmanship. Last month, Colleen was named the state handwriting winner in Zaner-Bloser’s National Handwriting Contest.

The award came as no surprise to the fourth-grader, as she was named a state winner in the same contest as a first-grader.

All of her classmates and other fourth-graders at St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick competed against each other, Colleen said. Then the fourth-grade teachers decided which student they would enter into the contest.

Colleen’s entry was deemed the best. ‘‘I was excited,” she said.

She practiced to ensure that her writing was perfect for the contest. ‘‘I did a bunch of handwriting sheets and handwriting assignments,” she said.

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.

Colleen is still waiting to hear if she has been selected to move on to the national competition.

State and national level winners receive a plaque and prize package. The schools that the winners attend will also receive awards. A plaque and prize package will be awarded to the grand national champion.

Colleen, who is left-handed, began her study of cursive in school as a third-grader. ‘‘We started learning last year,” she said. ‘‘But we practiced more this year.”

Even with all this practice, Colleen is still challenged by cursive. ‘‘Sometimes it’s hard,” she said. ‘‘I have trouble writing the letter ‘Z’.”

Colleen also enjoys writing creatively, and has done so since she was young. ‘‘When I was about 6 or 7 I started writing stories,” she said.

‘‘I write about all sorts of things,” she said. ‘‘Fake things and real things.”

Colleen hopes to pursue her love of learning and literature in the future. ‘‘I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” she said. ‘‘I like being taught, and I think it would be fun.”