Cursive is any style of handwriting which is designed for writing down notes and letters by hand. In the Latin and Cyrillic languages the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. In British English, the phrase "joined-up writing" is far more commonly used, while the term "running writing" is sometimes used in Australia. Cursive is considered distinct from the so-called "printing" or "block letter" style of handwriting, in which the letters of a word are unconnected, and from "print-writing", which is a cross between cursive and printing, with some unconnected letters and some connected. In the Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not connected. Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... British English (BrE) is a broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. ... Block letters may mean any of the following : In America, they are simple letters that children are taught to write in first grade. ... Block letters may mean any of the following : In America, they are simple letters that children are taught to write in first grade. ... Hebrew cursive script is a style of Hebrew calligraphy that is very popular for writing Modern Hebrew by hand, since it is arguably easier to learn and faster to write than the traditional Hebrew script. ... A replica of Old Roman handwriting based on the Vindolanda tablets: veni vidi vici/qui tabernam habet taber-/narius est (I have arrived, seen, and conquered/[He] who has a shop is a shopkeeper) Roman cursive is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to...

Cursive English

An example of a cursive alphabet - lower case and upper case

In the handwriting of William Bradford, in the early seventeenth century, most of the letters were separate, but a few were joined as in a cursive hand. By the late eighteenth century, a century and a half later, the situation had reversed; in Thomas Jefferson's draft of the United States Declaration of Independence most but not all of the letters were joined. The presentation copy of the Declaration, written professionally a few days later, was written in a fully cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the nineteenth century, Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1025, 71 KB) Other versions w:Image:Cursive. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1025, 71 KB) Other versions w:Image:Cursive. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Minuscule, or lower case, is the smaller form (case) of letters (in the Roman alphabet: a, b, c, ...). Originally alphabets were written entirely in majuscule (capital) letters which were spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds. ... Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ... Bas-relief on Bradford Street in Provincetown depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact William Bradford (March 19, 1590 – May 9, 1657) was a leader of the separatist settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and was elected Governor of the Colony for 15 two-year terms. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... A copy of the 1823 William J. Stone reproduction of the Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence was an act of the Second Continental Congress, adopted on July 4, 1776, which declared that the Thirteen Colonies were independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain. ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history. ...

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before the development of the typewriter, professional correspondence was written in cursive. This was called a "fair hand", meaning it looked good, and all clerks in a firm were trained to write in the exact same script. In the early days 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. Block letters could not do this. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Small-town post office and town hall in Lockhart, Alabama A post office is a facility (in most countries, a government one) where the public can purchase postage stamps for mailing correspondence or merchandise, and also drop off or pick up packages or other special-delivery items. ...

Although women's handwriting had noticeably different particulars from men's, the general forms were not prone to rapid change. In the mid-nineteenth century, comparatively few children were taught cursive, and as it was an important skill, more emphasis could be placed on learning it; there was no pervasive striving for efficiency in the classroom. Few simplifications appeared as the middle of the twentieth century was reached. An example of the timeframe in which cursive came to be taught is that in the United States, it would usually be taught in second or third grade (around ages seven to nine). Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ...

After the 1960s, it was decided that the teaching of cursive writing was more difficult than it needed to be. Forms of simply slanted characters, termed italic, were argued as being easier and traditional cursive unnecessary. Also, the copyrighting of handwritten letter forms as a sort of typeface became profitable. Because of this, a number of various new forms of cursive appeared in the late twentieth century; D'Nealian and Zaner-Bloser are two of them. With the range of options available, handwriting became unstandardized across different school systems in different English-speaking countries. The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Articles with similar titles include copywrite. ... For the origin and evolution of fonts, see History of western typography. ... DNealian is a style of writing and teaching cursive and print (block) handwriting for English (and perhaps other languages written with the Latin alphabet). ...

With the advent of computers, cursive as a way of formalizing correspondence has fallen out of favor. Any task which would have once required a "fair hand" is now done using word processing and a printer. Increasingly, the teaching of cursive is being de-emphasized in schools, and is generally reserved only for situations such as timed tests with large writing portions, where it is considered faster, although this use too is falling out of favor. Word processing, in its now-usual meaning, is the use of a word processor to create documents using computers. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ...

Victorian Modern Cursive

A sample of Victorian Modern Cursive handwriting (the phrase used is a common pangram)

Victorian Modern Cursive originates from the state of Victoria, Australia, and was first used in 1985. In addition to Victoria, it is used in Western Australia and, to some extent, the rest of Australia. The most traditional of about six writing forms, specialized for either the left or right hand, it is based on French cursive handwriting, and therefore features a "p" and "b" with open bowls such that the letters look like "n" with a descender and "u" with an ascender, respectively, as well as an "x" formed from two semicircles. It differs particularly in its use of a block-letter "r" rather than a half "r", reduced loops and onsets, and slanted print-style capital letters similar to the "italic" schoolchildren's writing forms. The other writing forms do not have loops. This style of writing is taught primarily in primary school. Image File history File links Cassowarys_Victorian_Modern_Cursive. ... Image File history File links Cassowarys_Victorian_Modern_Cursive. ... Look up pangram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Capital Melbourne Government Const. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Capital Perth Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Ken Michael Premier Alan Carpenter (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 15  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $100,900 (4th)  - Product per capita  $50,355/person (3rd) Population (December 2006)  - Population  2,050,900 (4th)  - Density  0. ...

More samples can be seen on the Victorian Government's early years of schooling webpage.

Criticism of cursive English

• Cursive writing is increasingly denounced as out-of-date and obsolete ^[1]
• Although the efficiency of cursive is debatable, there is no doubt that it is becoming less prevalent ^[2]
• Cursive can't be used to fill in forms, and confuses OCR software, including the machines used to sort mail [5].
• Some left-handed people may be at a greater disadvantage with cursive than printing [6].
• Research shows that the fastest and most legible handwriters do not adhere to cursive style. For instance, highest-speed, highest-legibility handwriters join only some, not all of their letters (they skip the more difficult joins, and use only the easiest joins) and they do not use exclusively cursive letter-shapes.^[3]

Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is a type of computer software designed to translate images of handwritten or typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them (e. ...

Arguments for cursive English

• Cursive is easier and faster once mastered. There is no need to constantly pick up the pencil point and put it down again.^[4]
• Cursive may be especially useful for certain students with learning disabilities such as dysgraphia because it has fewer letters that are mirror images of one another, such as the printed b and d, and so may be easier for students who are prone to mixing them up. In some schools, students with such learning challenges are taught cursive before print.^[5]

Dysgraphia (or agraphia) is a difficulty writing coherently, if at all, regardless of ability to read. ...

Cursive Hebrew

See main article Cursive Hebrew. Cursive Hebrew script is a style of Hebrew calligraphy that is very popular for writing Modern Hebrew by hand, since it is arguably easier to learn and faster to write than the traditional Hebrew script. ...

The Hebrew alphabet in cursive script, read from right to left.

Cursive Hebrew script is a style of Hebrew calligraphy that is very popular for writing Modern Hebrew by hand, since it is easier to learn and faster to write than the traditional Hebrew script. It features round letter shapes as opposed to the standard "square" Hebrew script. It is not very old and, like other cursive systems, it was designed to make writing down notes easier. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

Cursive Roman

See main article Roman cursive. A replica of Old Roman handwriting based on the Vindolanda tablets: veni vidi vici/qui tabernam habet taber-/narius est (I have arrived, seen, and conquered/[He] who has a shop is a shopkeeper) Roman cursive is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to...

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 Roman alphabet, and even emperors issuing commands. New Roman cursive, also called minuscule cursive or later Roman cursive, developed from old Roman 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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of AD 1407 on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Letter case. ... The 7th century is the period from 601 - 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

Cursive Russian

See main article Russian cursive. This is the standard Russian Cyrillic Cursive Alphabet with its Uppercase and Lowercase letters. ...

The Russian Cursive Cyrillic alphabet is used (instead of the block letters) when handwriting the modern Russian Language. Some letters look much like Latin/Roman cursive alphabet letters but most have different sounds. Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet. Most children in Russian schools are taught by 1st grade how to write using this Russian script. The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Russian ( , transliteration: , ) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ...

References

See also

• Cursive script (East Asia) (Grass script)
• Penmanship
• Spencerian Script
• Emphasis (typography)

Chinese characters of Cursive Script in regular script (left) and cursive script (right). ... Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... P. R. Spencers book, published 1866 Spencerian Script, perhaps the most elegant penmanship style ever developed, is a uniquely American style which flourished in the United States from 1850 to 1925. ... In typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them. ...

External links

• 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
• Download Normal and Bold Victorian Modern Cursive electronic fonts