Cursive (also known as joined-up writing or real writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in function and modern-day usage across languages and regions, used both publicly in artistic and formal documents and in private communication. Formal cursive is generally joined, while casual cursive combines joins with pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided into "looped", "italic", or "connected".
Many alphabets use cursive because infrequent pen lifting increases writing speed. However, more elaborate or ornamental calligraphic styles of writing can be slower to reproduce. In some alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected, sometimes making a word one single complex stroke.
History Cursive is a style of penmanship in which the symbols of the language are written in a conjoined, or flowing, manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster. This writing style is distinct from "print-script" using block letters, in which the letters of a word are unconnected. Not all cursive copybooks join all letters; formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive combines joins and pen lifts. In the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Cyrillic scripts, many or all letters in a word are connected (while others must not), sometimes making a word one single complex stroke. In Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not connected. In Maharashtra, a cursive alphabet known as the "Modi" script was used to write the Marathi language.
Subclasses Ligature
A ligature is writing letters of words with lines connecting them so you don't have to lift the pen or pencil between letters. Commonly, some of the letters are written in a looped manner to facilitate the connections. In common printed Greek texts, the modern small letter fonts are called "cursive" (as opposed to uncial) though the letters do not connect.
Looped
In looped cursive penmanship, some ascenders and descenders have loops which allow the letters to link. This is generally what people refer to when they say "cursive" in the context of English. The letters in this style have their own unique characteristics. For example, the lowercase t is taller, while the lowercase v and w are rounder. Also, the lowercase x extends to the baseline.
Italic
Cursive italic penmanship—derived from chancery cursive—uses non-looped joins, and not all letters are joined. In italic cursive, there are no joins from g, j, q, or y, and a few other joins are discouraged. Italic penmanship became popular in the 15th-century Italian Renaissance. The term "italic" as it relates to handwriting is not to be confused with italic typed letters. Many, but not all, letters in Renaissance handwriting were joined, as most are today in cursive italic.
Origin The origins of the cursive method are associated with the practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent pen-lifting to accommodate the limitations of the quill. Quills are fragile, easily broken, and will spatter unless used properly. They also run out of ink faster than most contemporary writing utensils. Steel dip pens followed quills; they were sturdier, but still had some limitations. The individuality of a document's provenance (see Signature) also mattered, unlike machine font. Cursive was also favoured because the writing tool was rarely taken off the paper. The term cursive derives from Middle French from Medieval Latin , which literally means 'running'. This term in turn derives from Latin ('to run, hasten'). Although by the 2010s, the use of cursive appeared to be on the decline, it seemed to be coming back into use.
Arabic In the Arabic alphabet, most letters connect on both sides, but a small group connects only on the right side (i.e., they connect to the preceding letter but not to the following one).
Letters that connect on both sides (22 letters):
ب ت ث ج ح خ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه ي
Letters that connect only on the right side (6 letters):
ا د ذ ر ز و
These six letters never connect to the letter that follows them, so their initial and medial forms look the same as their isolated and final forms, respectively.
Bengali
In the Bengali cursive script The letters are more likely to be more curvy in appearance than in standard Bengali handwriting.
Chinese
Cursive forms of Chinese characters are used in calligraphy; "running script" is the semi-cursive form and "rough script" (also called "grass script") is the cursive. The running aspect of this script has more to do with the formation and connectedness of strokes within an individual character than with connections between characters as in Western connected cursive. The latter are rare in hanzi and in the derived Japanese kanji characters, which are usually well separated by the writer.
English
Cursive writing was used in English before the Norman Conquest. Anglo-Saxon charters typically include a boundary clause written in Old English in a cursive script. A cursive handwriting style—secretary hand—was widely used for both personal correspondence and official documents in England from early in the 16th century.
Cursive handwriting developed into something approximating its current form from the 17th century, but its use was neither uniform, nor standardised either in England itself or elsewhere in the British Empire. In the English colonies of the early 17th century, most of the letters are clearly separated in the handwriting of William Bradford, though a few were joined as in a cursive hand. In England itself, Edward Cocker had begun to introduce a version of the French ronde style, which was then further developed and popularised throughout the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as round hand by John Ayers and William Banson.
Cursive writing in the United Kingdom Today there is no standardised teaching script stipulated in the various national curricula for schools in the United Kingdom, only that one font style needs to be used consistently throughout the school.Be School Ready – What Letter Font is Your Child’s School Teaching? (online), 29 August 2019, access date 30 March 2022 In both the cursive and the continuous cursive writing styles, letters are created through joining lines and curve shapes in a particular way. Once pupils have learnt how to clearly form single letters, they are taught how single letters can be joined to form a flowing script.Teach handwriting: The three handwriting stages (online), access date 30 March 2022
Characteristics of cursive and continuous cursive scripts:What's The Difference between Cursive and Continuous Cursive Handwriting Fonts? (online), 9 November 2017, access date 30 March 2022 Cursive Continuous cursive Starting point for letters Variable Always on the writing line Finishing point for letters Always on the writing line (except for o, r, v and w, which have a top exit stroke) Single letter formation Letters taught with exit strokes only Letters taught with entry and exit strokes
Whether cursive or continuous cursive is to be favoured remains a subject of debate. While many schools in the United Kingdom are opting to teach continuous cursive throughout the year groups, often starting in Reception, critics have argued that conjoined writing styles leave many children struggling with the high level of gross and fine motor coordination required.Angela Webb: 'Continuous Cursive: Cure or Curse?', National Handwriting Association (online), access date 30 March 2022
Cursive writing in North America
Development in the 18th and 19th centuries In the American colonies, on the eve of their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, it is notable that Thomas Jefferson joined most, but not all the letters when drafting the United States Declaration of Independence. However, a few days later, Timothy Matlack professionally re-wrote the presentation copy of the Declaration in a fully joined, cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today.
Not all such cursive, then or now, joined all of the letters within a word.
In both the British Empire and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, before the typewriter, professionals used cursive for their correspondence. This was called a "fair hand", meaning it looked good, and firms trained all their clerks to write in exactly the same script.
Although women's handwriting had noticeably different particulars from men's, the general forms were not prone to rapid change. In the mid-19th century, most children were taught the contemporary cursive; in the United States, this usually occurred in second or third grade (around ages seven to nine). Few simplifications appeared as the middle of the 20th century approached.
After the 1960s, a movement originally begun by Paul Standard in the 1930s to replace looped cursive with cursive italic penmanship resurfaced. It was motivated by the claim that cursive instruction was more difficult than it needed to be, that conventional (looped) cursive was unnecessary, and it was easier to write in cursive italic. Because of this, various new forms of cursive italic appeared, including Getty-Dubay Italic, and Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. In the 21st century, some of the surviving cursive writing styles are Spencerian, Palmer Method, Zaner–Bloser, and D'Nealian script.
Decline of English cursive in the United States
Numerous factors have affected the declining use of English cursive in the United States. Largely, they have been technologically based, but in the 2000s cultural changes (such as diminished instruction of educators how to teach it) have also contributed to its marginalisation. However, by the second decade of the 2000s “back to basics“ movements have emerged advocating for its preservation.
The declining emphasis on using cursive began in the 20th century, first from the introduction of the typewriter and its widespread adoption by the 1920s. The post-World War II proliferation of the inexpensive ballpoint pen added convenience to writing by hand and eliminated the flourishes liquid ink and flexible metal tips had allowed. In the digital era, the introduction of technologies such as the word processor and personal computer in the 1980s and smartphone in the 2000s have increasingly displaced all forms of handwriting, most significantly cursive.
Cursive has also been in decline throughout the 21st century because it is no longer perceived as necessary. The Fairfax Education Association, the largest teachers' union in Fairfax County, Virginia, has called cursive a "dying art".
In the 2006 SAT, an American university matriculation exam, only 15 percent of the students wrote their essay answers in cursive. However, students might be discouraged from using cursive on standardised tests because they will receive lower marks if their answers are hard to read, and some graders may have difficulties reading cursive. Nevertheless, in 2007, a survey of 200 teachers of first through third grades in all 50 American states, 90 percent of respondents said their schools required the teaching of cursive. In spite of this mandate, a nationwide survey in 2008 found elementary school teachers lacking formal training in teaching handwriting; only 12 percent reported having taken a course in how to teach it.