Descriptions[edit]

Cursive is a style of penmanship in which the symbols of the language are written in
a conjoined and/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 and in Roman/Gothic letter-form rather than joined-up script. Not all
cursive copybooks join all letters: formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a
combination of joins and pen lifts. In the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets, many
or all letters in a word are connected (while other must not), sometimes making a word one
single complex stroke. In Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not
connected. In Maharashtra, there is a version of Cursive called 'Modi'
Subclasses[edit]
Ligature[edit]
Ligature is writing the letters of words with lines connecting the letters so that one does not
have to pick up 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[edit]

Looped cursive as taught in Britain in the mid-20th century

In looped cursive penmanship, some ascenders and descenders have loops which provide
for joins. This is generally what people refer to when they say "cursive". [citation needed]
Italic[edit]
Cursive italic penmanship—derived from chancery cursive—uses non-looped joins or no
joins. In italic cursive, there are no joins from g, j, q or y, and a few other joins are
discouraged.[2][failed verification] 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 that slant forward. Many, but not all, letters in the handwriting of the
Renaissance were joined, as most are today in cursive italic.

Origin[edit]
The origins of the cursive method are associated with 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 the provenance of a document
(see Signature) was a factor also, as opposed to machine font.[3] Cursive was also favored
because the writing tool was rarely taken off the paper. The term cursive derives
from Middle French cursif from Medieval Latin cursivus, which literally means running. This
term in turn derives from Latin currere ("to run, hasten").[4] Although the use of cursive
appeared to be on the decline, it now seems to be coming back into use. [5]

Bengali[edit]

Half of the National Anthem of Bangladesh, written in cursive Bengali

In Bengali cursive script[6] (also known in Bengali as "professional writing"[citation needed]) the
letters are more likely to be more curvy in appearance than in standard Bengali
handwriting. Also, the horizontal supporting bar on each letter (matra) runs continuously
through the entire word, unlike in standard handwriting. This cursive handwriting often
used by literature experts differs in appearance from the standard Bengali alphabet as it is
free hand writing, where sometimes the alphabets are complex and appear different from
the standard handwriting.[citation needed]

Roman[edit]
Main article: Roman cursive

Example of old Roman cursive

Roman cursive is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some
extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive, and new
cursive. Old Roman cursive, also called majuscule cursive and capitalis cursive, was the
everyday form of handwriting used for writing letters, by merchants writing business
accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Latin alphabet, and even by emperors issuing
commands. New Roman, also called minuscule cursive or later cursive, developed from
old cursive. It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the 7th century, and uses
letter forms that are more recognizable to modern eyes; "a", "b", "d", and "e" have taken a
more familiar shape, and the other letters are proportionate to each other rather than
varying wildly in size and placement on a line.
Greek[edit]
Main article: History of the Greek alphabet

Ancient Greek cursive script, 6th century CE

The Greek alphabet has had several cursive forms in the course of its development. In
antiquity, a cursive form of handwriting was used in writing on papyrus. It employed
slanted and partly connected letter forms as well as many ligatures. Some features of this
handwriting were later adopted into Greek minuscule, the dominant form of handwriting in
the medieval and early modern era. In the 19th and 20th centuries, an entirely new form of
cursive Greek, more similar to contemporary Western European cursive scripts, was
developed.

Western Europe[edit]
English[edit]

Cursive in English letter from 1894

William Shakespeare's will, written in secretary hand[7]

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 standardized 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 popularized
throughout the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as round hand by John Ayers
and William Banson.[8]
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.

Cursive handwriting from the 19th-century USA.

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 their clerks to write in exactly the same
script.
In the early days[when?] of the post office, letters were written in cursive – and to fit more text
on a single sheet, the text was continued in lines crossing at 90 degrees from the original
text.[9] Block letters were not suitable for this.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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, a
number of various new forms of cursive italic appeared, including Getty-Dubay,
and Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. In the 21st century, some of the surviving cursive
writing styles are Spencerian, Palmer Method, D'Nealian, and Zaner-Bloser script.[10]
Decline of English cursive in the United States[edit]
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on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for
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D'Nealian Script, a cursive alphabet, shown in lower case and upper case

See also: Cursive handwriting instruction in the United States

One of the earliest forms of new technology that caused the decline of handwriting was the
invention of the ballpoint pen, patented in 1888 by John Loud. Two brothers, László and
György Bíró, further developed the pen by changing the design and using different ink that
dried quickly. With their design, it was guaranteed that the ink would not smudge, as it
would with the earlier design of pen, and it no longer required the careful penmanship one
would use with the older design of pen. After World War II, the ballpoint pen was mass-
produced and sold for a cheap price, changing the way people wrote. Over time the
emphasis of using the style of cursive to write slowly declined,[quantify] only to be later
impacted by other technologies such as the phone, computer, and keyboard.[11][12]
Cursive has been in decline throughout the 21st century due to its perceived lack of
necessity. The Fairfax Education Association, the largest teachers' union in Fairfax
County, Virginia, has called cursive a "dying art". Many consider cursive too tedious to
learn and believe that it is not a useful skill.[13][14]
On the 2006 SAT, a United States post-secondary education entrance exam, only 15
percent of the students wrote their essay answers in cursive.[15] However, students might
be discouraged from using cursive on standardized tests due to exams written in hard-to-
read handwriting receiving fewer marks, and some graders may have difficulties reading
cursive.[16]
In a 2007 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. [17]
A 2008 nationwide survey found elementary school teachers lacking formal training in
teaching handwriting to students. Only 12 percent of teachers reported having taken a
course in how to teach it.[18]
In 2012, the American states of Indiana and Hawaii announced that their schools will no
longer be required to teach cursive (but will still be permitted to), and instead will be
required to teach "keyboard proficiency". Since the nationwide proposal of the Common
Core State Standards in 2009, which do not include instruction in cursive, the standards
have been adopted by 44 states as of July 2011, all of which have debated whether to
augment them with cursive.[19][20]
Conservation efforts and cognitive benefits[edit]
Many historical documents, such as the United States Constitution, are written in cursive—
the inability to read cursive therefore precludes one from being able to fully appreciate
such documents in their original format.[21] Despite the decline in the day-to-day use of
cursive, it is being reintroduced to the curriculum of schools in the United States. States
such as California, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, New
Jersey, and Tennessee have already mandated cursive in schools as a part of the Back to
Basics program designed to maintain the integrity of cursive handwriting. [22] Cursive
instruction is required by grade 5 in Illinois, starting with the 2018–2019 school
year.[23] Some[who?] argue that cursive is not worth teaching in schools and "in the 1960s
cursive was implemented because of preference and not an educational basis; Hawaii and
Indiana have replaced cursive instruction with 'keyboard proficiency' and 44 other states
are currently weighing similar measures."[24]
With the widespread use of computers, researchers set out to test the effectiveness of
both mediums. In a study done by Pam Mueller which compared scores of students who
took notes by hand and via laptop computer showed that students who took notes by hand
showed advantages in both factual and conceptual learning. [25] Another study done by
Anne Mangen showed that children showed an acceleration in learning new words when
they wrote them by hand rather than on a computer screen. [26] Learning to write in cursive
is alleged (by its practitioners) to be a stepping stone to developing neat handwriting, and,
in a third study conducted by Florida International University, professor Laura Dinehart
concluded that students with neater handwriting tend to develop better reading and writing
skills, though it is difficult to conclude causation from such an association.[13] Aside from
these cognitive benefits, students with dyslexia, who have difficulty learning to read
because their brains have difficulty associating sounds and letter combinations efficiently,
have found that cursive can help them with the decoding process because it integrates
hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and other brain and memory functions.[27] However,
students with dysgraphia may be badly served, or even substantially hindered, by
demands for cursive.[28]
German[edit]

Kurrent (left, pre-19th century) and Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift (right, from 1969)

Up to the 19th century, Kurrent (also known as German cursive) was used in German-
language longhand. Kurrent was not used exclusively, but rather in parallel to modern
cursive (which is the same as English cursive). Writers used both cursive styles: location,
contents and context of the text determined which style to use. A successor
of Kurrent, Sütterlin, was widely used in the period 1911–1941 until the Nazi Party banned
it and its printed equivalent Fraktur. German speakers brought up with Sütterlin continued
to use it well into the post-war period.
Today, three different styles of cursive writing are taught in German schools,
the Lateinische Ausgangsschrift [de] (introduced in 1953),
the Schulausgangsschrift [de] (1968), and the Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift (1969).[29] The
German National Primary Schoolteachers' Union has proposed replacing all three
with Grundschrift, a simplified form of non-cursive handwriting adopted
by Hamburg schools.[30]

Russian[edit]

The standard modern Russian Cyrillic cursive alphabet with uppercase and lowercase letters, used in school
education

Main article: Russian cursive

The Russian Cursive Cyrillic alphabet is used (instead of the block letters) when
handwriting the modern Russian language. While several letters resemble Latin
counterparts, many of them represent different sounds. Most handwritten Russian,
especially personal letters and schoolwork, uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet,
although use of block letters in private writing has been rising. Most children in Russian
schools are taught in the 1st grade how to write using this Russian script.

Chinese[edit]
Cursive forms of Chinese characters are used in calligraphy; "running script" is the semi-
cursive form and "rough script" (mistakenly called "grass script" due to misinterpretation) 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.

Semi-cursive style Calligraphy of Chinese poem by Mo Ruzheng

Classical poem in cursive script at Treasures of Ancient China exhibit

 

Eight cursive characters for dragon

Calligraphy of both cursive and semi-cursive by Dong Qichang

Four columns in cursive script quatrain poem, Quatrain on Heavenly

Mountain. Attributed to Emperor Gaozong of Song, the tenth Chinese
Emperor of the Song Dynasty

One page of the album "Thousand Character classic in formal and Cursive
script" attributed to Zhi Yong

Examples[edit]


Example of classic American business handwriting known as Spencerian

script from 1884.
 

Table of 19th-century Greek cursive letter forms.

United States Declaration of Independence.

Bold running hand exemplar by English chirographer Joseph Carstairs

published 1820.

See also[edit]
 Cursive script (East Asia) (Grass script)
 D'Nealian Script
 Emphasis (typography)
 Hieratic and Cursive hieroglyphs
 Palmer Method
 Paper
 Pen
 Penmanship
 Shorthand
 Spencerian script
 Sütterlin and Kurrent – German Cursive

Notes[edit]
1. ^ Also known as handwriting, looped writing, joint writing, joined-up
writing, or running writing

References[edit]
1. ^ Bara, Florence; Morin, Marie-France (June 2013). "DOES THE
HANDWRITING STYLE LEARNED IN FIRST GRADE DETERMINE THE
STYLE USED IN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES AND INFLUENCE
HANDWRITING SPEED AND QUALITY? A COMPARISON BETWEEN
FRENCH AND QUEBEC CHILDREN: Does the Handwriting Style
Learned in First Grade Determine". Psychology in the Schools. 50 (6):
601–617. doi:10.1002/pits.21691.
2. ^ Bounds, Gwendolyn (5 October 2010). "How Handwriting Boosts the
Brain". The Wall Street Journal. New York: Dow Jones. ISSN 0099-9660.
Retrieved 30 August 2011.
3. ^ Georges Jean (1997). Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts,
London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. ['New Horizons' series]
4. ^ Harper, Douglas. "cursive". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 29
October 2011.
5. ^ Rueb, Emily S. (13 April 2019). "Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of
Quills and Parchment. Now It's Coming Back". The New York Times.
Retrieved 1 September 2019.
6. ^ Adak, Chandranath; Chaudhuri, Bidyut B.; Blumenstein, Michael (23–26
October 2016). Offline Cursive Bengali Word Recognition Using CNNs
with a Recurrent Model. 15th International Conference on Frontiers in
Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR). Shenzhen, China. pp. 429–
434. doi:10.1109/ICFHR.2016.0086.
7. ^ Cardenio, Or, the Second Maiden's Tragedy, pp. 131–3: By William
Shakespeare, Charles Hamilton, John Fletcher (Glenbridge Publishing
Ltd., 1994) ISBN 0-944435-24-6
8. ^ Whalley, Joyce Irene (1980). The Art of Calligraphy, Western Europe &
America. London: Bloomsbury. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-906223-64-2.
9. ^ Livingston, Ira (1997). "The Romantic Double-Cross: Keats's
Letters". Arrow of Chaos: Romanticism and Postmodernity. University of
Minnesota Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0816627950.
10. ^ Heller, Karen (2 September 2018). "From punishing to pleasurable, how
cursive writing is looping back into our hearts". The Washington Post.
Retrieved 8 September 2018.
11. ^ Giesbrecht, Josh (28 August 2015). "How The Ballpoint Pen Killed
Cursive". The Atlantic. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
12. ^ Enstrom, E. A. (1965). "The Decline of Handwriting". The Elementary
School Journal. 66 (1): 22–27. doi:10.1086/460256.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Shapiro, T. Rees (4 April 2013). "Cursive handwriting is
disappearing from public schools". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-
8286. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
14. ^ Braiker, Brian (25 January 2011). "Tossing the Script: The End of the
Line for Cursive?". ABC News. Retrieved 30 October2015.
15. ^ "The Handwriting Is on the Wall". The Washington Post. 11 October
2006.
16. ^ Adams, Richard (21 August 2016). "Poor handwriting 'may hinder
students' chances of exam success'". The Guardian. Retrieved 14
November 2018.
17. ^ "Schools debate: Is cursive writing worth teaching?". USA Today. 23
January 2009.
18. ^ Graham, Steve; Harris, Karen R.; Mason, Linda; Fink-Chorzempa,
Barbara; Moran, Susan; Saddler, Bruce (2008). "How do primary grade
teachers teach handwriting? A national survey". Reading and Writing.
New York: Springer Netherlands. 21 (1–2): 49–69. doi:10.1007/s11145-
007-9064-z. ISSN 0922-4777.
19. ^ Webley, Kayla (6 July 2011). "Typing Beats Scribbling: Indiana Schools
Can Stop Teaching Cursive". TIME. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
20. ^ "Hawaii No Longer Requires Teaching Cursive In Schools".
Education. The Huffington Post. 1 August 2011.
21. ^ Steinmetz, Katy (4 June 2014). "Five Reasons Kids Should Still Learn
Cursive Writing". TIME.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
22. ^ "Is cursive handwriting slowly dying out in America?". PBS NewsHour.
Retrieved 30 October 2015.
 23. ^ "An act concerning education". ILGA.gov. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
24. ^ Serratore, Angela (6 March 2013). "Is Cursive Handwriting Going
Extinct?". Smithsonian. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
25. ^ Mueller, Pam (2014). "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard:
Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking". Psychological
Science. 25 (6): 1159–
1168. doi:10.1177/0956797614524581. PMID 24760141.
26. ^ Mangen, A.; Anda, L. G.; Oxborough, G. H.; Brønnick, K. (2015).
"Handwriting versus Keyboard Writing: Effect on Word Recall". Journal of
Writing Research. 7 (2): 227–247. doi:10.17239/jowr-2015.07.02.1.
27. ^ "How cursive can help students with dyslexia connect the dots". PBS
NewsHour. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 30 October2015.
28. ^ "Myths and Fact...Dysgraphia". NURSING Magazine. Retrieved 8
October 2018.
29. ^ "Grundschrift-Schreibschrift". grundschrift-schreibschrift.de.
30. ^ Pidd, Helen (29 June 2011). "German teachers campaign to simplify
handwriting in schools". The Guardian.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Cursive.

 Lessons in Calligraphy and Penmanship, including scans of

classic nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century
manuals and examples
 The Golden Age of American Penmanship, including scans of
the January 1932 issue of Austin Norman Palmer's American
Penman
 Normal and Bold Victorian Modern Cursive electronic fonts for
downloading
 Mourning the Death of Handwriting, a TIME Magazine article on
the demise of cursive handwriting
 Op-Art: The Write Stuff, a New York Times article on the
advantages of Italic hand over both full cursive and block
printing
 The Society for Italic Handwriting, supporters of teaching a
simplified cursive hand
 Has Technology Killed Cursive Handwriting?—Mashable, 11
June 2013
 Why Cursive Still Matters in Education
 Cursive Coming Back in the US Schools
 Hausam's practical writing course. 1917 State Library of
Kansas' KGI Online Library

hide

Types of handwritten European scripts

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