1. A method executed on a mobile computing device, the method comprising: detecting a plurality of strokes set forth on a touch-sensitive screen of the mobile computing device, wherein the plurality of strokes correspond to a sequence of handwritten characters that form a word that is to be displayed on the display screen of the mobile computing device, wherein the sequence of handwritten characters comprises a first character immediately followed by a second character, a first stroke for the first character and a second stroke for the second character are set forth in a region of the touch-sensitive screen and at least partially overlap with one another such that the second character is set forth on top of the first character in the region, and wherein multiple strokes are received to represent at least one of the first character or the second character; responsive to the detecting of the plurality of strokes on the touch-sensitive display screen of the mobile computing device, automatically identifying that the first stroke is for the first character and the second stroke is for the second character; responsive to identifying that the first stroke is for the first character and the second stroke is for the second character, presenting the sequence of handwritten characters on the touch-sensitive screen of the mobile computing device; receiving a command that indicates that a next stroke set forth is for a handwritten character that belongs to a second word; subsequent to receiving the command, receiving the next stroke; and displaying the word and the handwritten character that belongs to the second word on the display screen such that the word and the handwritten character that belongs to the second word are separated by a space that visually indicates that the word fails to include the handwritten character that belongs to the second word.