Stroke order (Part 2)

»»Rule 4: Create diagonal strokes that go from right to left before writing the diagonal strokes that go from left to right. You write the character meaning culture — 文 wén — with four separate strokes: First comes the dot on top, then the horizontal line underneath it, then the diagonal stroke that goes from right to left, and finally the diagonal stroke that goes from left to right. »»Rule 5: In characters that are vertically symmetrical, create the center components before those on the left or the right. Then write the portion of the character appearing on the left before the one appearing on the right. An example of such a character is the one meaning to take charge of: 承 chéng. »»Rule 6: Write the portion of the character that’s an outside enclosure before the inside portion. For example, the word for sun: 日 rì. Some characters with such enclosures don’t have bottom portions, such as with the character for moon: 月 yuè. »»Rule 7: Make the left vertical stroke of an enclosure first. For example, in the word meaning mouth — 口 kǒu (ko) — you write the vertical stroke on the left first, followed by the horizontal line on top and the vertical stroke on the right (those two are written as one stroke) and finally the horizontal line on the bottom. »»Rule 8: Bottom enclosing components usually come last. For example, the character meaning the way: 道 dào. »»Rule 9: Dots come last. For example, in the character meaning jade — 玉 yù — the little dot you see between the bottom and middle horizontal lines is written last.