Cursive writing is a style of writing where the letters are joined together. It was first developed in the 17th century and still has many uses today. Read on to learn more about cursive writing and how to write in cursive with our helpful guide.
Cursive writing features letters that are joined together. Essentially the idea is to write without lifting your pen or pencil. It is an alternative approach to block-letters, where you lift the pen between each letter.
Cursive writing was first developed in the 17th century and was mostly adopted by professionals when writing important documents. The origins of cursive writing are also linked with the quill. It allowed people to write for extended periods without having to lift their quill from the page.
Although technology has largely transformed the way we write today, cursive handwriting is still considered a helpful tool for a range of different scenarios.
You’ll find cursive handwriting, or similar styles, appearing in a number of settings:
Cursive writing can offer several benefits. Here are just a few reasons why you might use cursive writing for your own documents:
It’s easy to learn cursive writing. Whether you were taught cursive writing in school and haven’t picked it back up in a while, or you’re looking to learn from scratch, we’ve pulled together a handy guide below:
When you first begin cursive writing, it can help to begin with some basic strokes. You’ll just need a pen or pencil and some practice sheets to hand. Then try the following:
Writing lowercase letters in cursive is easy. You’ll just need a printed cursive calligraphy alphabet for reference. We’ll split the lowercase alphabet into two sections: upward stroke letters and curve stroke letters.
Letters such as b, h, m and u all start with an upward stroke. The letter ‘u’ is often the easiest to grasp:
a, d, e and o are examples of letters that fall under this category. O is often the easiest to practice:
Next its time to move onto the uppercase alphabet. There are different rules here and the curved strokes are typically much bigger. The upward strokes also feature more curls and slants. But don’t worry as they’re just as easy to write as lowercase letters.
It can help to begin with the letter ‘L’:
Slowly make your way through the other letters using a calligraphy cursive alphabet as a guide.
Once you’ve established the basics, try writing out some singular words. You may want to start out with all lowercase words before moving on to lowercase words with capitals. You may be able to find some practice worksheets online.
Now that you’ve mastered the steps above, it’s time to pull everything together. Put your knowledge into action and start practicing cursive writing at any given chance. You could practice writing a short letter or a birthday card to a friend.
You could even scan your own cursive writing to create a bespoke font or signature for any digital documents.
Ready to use cursive writing in your own work? Experiment with different documents and file types using Adobe Acrobat’s online tools.
There are different types of cursive handwriting techniques you can try, so you can find something that suits your style.
This style of cursive writing features letters that slant slightly to the right. Complicated strokes are excluded from writing, which means it is often a simple style to learn.
D’Nealian is a form of cursive writing where the hooks on the tails of each letter connect to the next tail or another letter. This style involves continuously writing without lifting your pen.
Spencerian script is elegant and flowing. Popular examples of this include the original script designs for the Coca-Cola and Ford logos.
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