How To Make Cursive Letters With Wire

Over the years here at the Art of Manliness we've sung the praises of the handwritten alphabetic character and simply writing things out by hand in general. Typically, when folks think about writing a handwritten notation, they imagine doing it in cursive. Perhaps it'south because we've all seen movies set in times past where people open upwardly handwritten letters to reveal a annotation filled with handsome script.

Whatever the reason, I know a mutual refrain we hear with these posts is that many people experience their cursive handwriting is atrocious, to the point that it's illegible. And when nosotros go letters in the post from readers, many of them begin with, "Lamentable for my bad handwriting. This is the first time I've written in cursive since 2nd course."

With schools spending less and less fourth dimension on cursive handwriting (and sometimes doing away with penmanship lessons altogether), and our increased reliance on keyboards to communicate, it's understandable that virtually people aren't getting much practice writing things out by paw.

It's easy then to dismiss the decline in penmanship as a non-problem, but there are a surprising number of people who do wish their handwriting was better. And there actually are a few reasons you might consider joining their ranks. Today we'll discuss those reasons, also every bit how to improve your cursive penmanship.

Leave your inkwell, sharpen your quill, and let'southward get started.

The Rise and Autumn of Cursive Penmanship

Ever since written text came into being, there has been a class of individuals who specialized in handwriting — scribes, penmen, etc. And every age had a unique handwriting style. Monks in the viii^thursday century gave u.s.a. the Carolingian script with its bold, easy-to-read letters. During medieval times, the legibility of Carolingian script gave mode to the more indecipherable "blackness alphabetic character" script. Renaissance scribes and writers returned to the Carolingian fashion, but made it await a scrap more than ornate by slanting it and connecting some of the letters with lines. Considering this type of script originated in Italy, information technology became known equally "italic."

Copperplate script

The 16^th century ushered in a more ornate style of handwriting chosen "copperplate" – so dubbed considering students used engraved plates to larn to write it. Copperplate incorporates all sorts of loops and capital letters with unique flourishes, and was used to pen the Declaration of Independence.

Spencerian script

With the ascent of literacy in America, a more systematic way of teaching handwriting was needed. Enter Platt Rogers Spencer. Spencer used nature to teach penmanship — water worn pebbles served equally his model for ovals and the waves on a lake served as the inspiration for the lines that connected his letters. Spencerian script was a simple, yet elegant form of cursive handwriting that focused on legibility and ease of writing. Beginning in the 1830s, Spencer developed a system to teach his script that included over 100 question and answer catechisms on how to draw each line and bend in his particular style. By 1850, Spencerian cursive was the standard writing organization throughout America.

After his death in 1864, students of Spencerian penmanship began to make the way even more ornate by adding in flourishes, shaded strokes, and extra ovals. This fancy style of Spencerian cursive became extremely pop and can however be seen today amongst professional penmen (like Jake Weidmann).

Palmer script

During the early years of the twentieth century, a handwriting instructor named Austin Palmer realized that while the loops and flourishes made Spencerian cursive look nice, it wasn't very practical or efficient for the growing amount of bureaucratic paperwork that faced bookkeepers, accountants, and other businessmen. Moreover, it had become overly complicated to teach, especially to children. He also observed that Spencerian cursive primarily used finger movement to write all the letters, which often led to cramped hands.

To solve these problems, Palmer modified the Spencerian system in the following ways: First, he simplified the letters and got rid of the flourishes. In many means, this was a return to the original cursive that Spencer taught. Second, he simplified and condensed the instruction of cursive — no more complex catechisms. Finally, he introduced "whole hand move" to gainsay the fatigue and hand cramping that came with finger-only writing. Given these benefits, the Palmer Method became the standard mode of teaching penmanship well into the 1960s.

Since and then, several other systems of cursive have been developed, all with the goal of simplifying how it's taught. D'Nealian script was the most pop (and the 1 that I learned as a child). Developed in the 1970s by Donald Thurber, D'Nealian script was a way to aid children transition from manuscript (block letter) writing to cursive. While information technology's easy to learn, it'due south certainly not as nice looking as Spencerian or even Palmer cursive.

Upwardly until the early 1990s, teachers in schools across America spent a corking bargain of time on penmanship. But with the rise of computers, the amount of fourth dimension spent on penmanship began to decrease in the U.Southward. (From what I read, this didn't happen in Europe to the same extent. If yous're a younger reader from Europe, permit u.s. know if you had rigorous penmanship lessons in school.)

Fast-forward to today. With increasing pressure to meet federal and country test standards, many schools have dropped teaching cursive handwriting completely. Too the pressure to spend more time preparing for standardized tests, school districts have as well dropped penmanship from their curriculum because they experience it's no longer necessary in our earth of computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Why You Should Bring Back Cursive Handwriting and Improve Your Penmanship

While we're certainly spending more time communicating with our digital devices, I think at that place's a case to be fabricated equally to why we shouldn't give up on good quondam-fashioned cursive handwriting and why nosotros should all strive to improve our penmanship:

Writing things by hand makes yous smarter. Research shows that writing things out by mitt tin can help improve general learning. 1 study out of the University of Indiana scanned the brains of a grouping of four and five-twelvemonth-olds and found that neural activity was about the same amongst all of them. The researchers so carve up the kids into two groups: one grouping was shown letters and instructed to recognize them visually, and the other was taught to write them. The researchers scanned their brains over again and discovered that neural activity was now dramatically different between the two groups. The kids who were taught to recognize letters visually showed no change in neural activity, while the kids who learned how to write messages showed more "adult-like" action in their brains' reading network.

Researchers believe at that place's something about manually manipulating and drawing out ii-dimensional shapes (like letters) that aids in learning comprehension. Studies have noted like brain boosting results from handwriting exercise in adults.

What's more, other studies show there are cerebral benefits that come with cursive writing in particular — such as improved reading and spelling scores — that yous don't get when writing cake letters.

Anecdotally, I've seen the power of handwriting (particularly cursive handwriting) boost learning in my own life. Whenever I get stuck on an idea, I naturally plow to pen and paper to work out the problem. I did this in law school when I was having problem grasping a difficult legal concept. I'd just get a legal pad and outset writing in cursive, and 9 times out of ten, later thirty minutes or so, clarity came.

I all the same do this exercise today, and don't even have to recall about information technology. When I'g having a hard fourth dimension expressing myself via the keyboard, out comes my notebook and Airplane pilot pen and I start writing things out by hand. For example, my posts on anti-fragility, the OODA Loop, and much of the Manhood series we published earlier this year were handwritten and and then transcribed onto the computer. Those topics were hard nuts to crack, so I naturally went to pen and newspaper, afterwards which the words and thoughts began flowing. I ever make these notes in cursive; for whatsoever reason, I don't get the same effect when I use manuscript.

Of grade just writing things downwards isn't enough – if I had really crappy penmanship, I wouldn't have been able to transcribe those handwritten pages!

Writing with pen and paper is convenient. While I have some actually handy notation-taking apps on my smartphone, they're nevertheless impuissant to utilize compared to a pen and a pocket notebook. With my smartphone, I take to enter my homescreen passcode, navigate to my note-taking app, and type in my note using those tiny keys – all while struggling with autocorrect. Fifty-fifty with voice recognition capabilities, taking notes is still frustrating. With a notebook and manual writing tool, you just put pen to newspaper and y'all're done.

Once again, if my handwriting was and so horrible that I couldn't even read information technology, my writing would be in vain. Poof! — in that location get those spur-of-the-moment ideas.

Pen and paper don't need batteries. Function of the convenience of pen and paper is that they don't crave batteries, so you never take to worry nearly losing power while you're in the centre of writing something out.

Expert penmanship truly saved my academic rear cease when I was in police school. Somehow I mixed upwardly the time for my Civil Procedure Two final exam. I thought information technology was in the afternoon, so I strolled into the constabulary school building in the morning time to get some study time in before the examination. But when I walked by the room where my exam was going to exist, I saw my entire Civ Pro class sitting in that location getting exam instructions! I rushed in and was told past the proctor that it was as well late to become my laptop out. I'd take to handwrite my exam. Iii hours of handwriting!

Luckily, I had kept up with regularly writing in cursive so my handwriting was legible, and I could do information technology quickly without getting mitt cramps. Ended upwards making an A-. Score one for penmanship.

Cursive writing is easy on the manus. As attested past my examination case above, when done correctly, writing in cursive is much less tiring than writing in manuscript. Remember, 1 of the reasons cursive was adult was to make writing for long periods of fourth dimension easier. I'm able to write in cursive for over an hour in my periodical sometimes without feeling whatsoever fatigue or cramping in my hand.

Writing past manus makes your messages more personal. While there's a full general form to cursive handwriting, your handwriting volition develop its own unique personality and idiosyncrasies. Thus, when you handwrite someone a alphabetic character, they'll be able to see you through your handwriting. When you get notes from your grandparents, parents, and other loved ones, you immediately recognize their distinct style, and it triggers a feeling of warmth and connection. That doesn't happen with emails or text letters.

What'south more, handwriting allows you to convey emotion that y'all can't with computer text. For instance when we're angry, we accept the tendency to press down harder on the paper with our pen and to write faster. Consequently, your writing will announced darker and more mushed together and squibbly. Also, for some reason, emotional phrases like "I love y'all" come across much more 18-carat in handwriting than in the digital strokes of a computer; mayhap considering we know information technology took existent, personal try rather than simply the punching of a few keys.

Cursive writing but looks nice. It's a pretty superficial reason, but a letter written out in nice cursive is just aesthetically pleasing. We get letters every week from AoM readers and while we love and appreciate them all, I'll admit that the letters written with cursive stand out the near.

And while I utilize cursive to write in my journal for its ease, I too do it considering it just looks nice and timeless.

People estimate the quality of your ideas by the quality of your handwriting. This is related to the previous point. While yous'd think people would judge the quality of an idea on the content and not the mode it looks, studies bear witness that's not the example. Ane study demonstrated that in a classroom setting, practiced handwriting can have a generic test score from the l^th to the 84^th percentile! If you're looking for an like shooting fish in a barrel way to bump up your essay exam scores without having to know more about the topic, but work on improving your handwriting. Better even so, write your test in nice cursive.

You need to know cursive and then you can read historical documents. An important reason for kids to learn cursive is and so they tin read historical documents similar the Declaration of Independence or just old messages from their ancestors. I don't want my kiddos going through the old letters or journals that Kate and I take from grandparents and cracking-grandparents and not knowing what they say. So even if our kids' schools don't teach cursive, nosotros're going to exercise it at dwelling house.

It'due south meditative. We're large proponents of journaling around these parts. While I've experimented with digital journals, I keep coming back to my trusty paper journal. And I think information technology has to do with the meditative qualities handwriting has, particularly cursive writing. Synchronizing continuous hand motility with idea puts me in a state of period that I can't get with typing or even writing block letters. Whenever I'thousand typing, I take a tendency to second estimate myself and hitting "delete" when a sentence doesn't come up out right. Considering there's no delete push with cursive handwriting, I spend less time judging what I'thousand writing and more time just getting lost in the process. The result is a feeling of calmness and catamenia.

How to Amend Your Cursive Penmanship

So you've been inspired to ameliorate your cursive penmanship. Below I've complied some general tips to help you get started. Really, the best way to improve your cursive is to do every single day. In that location is no royal road to good penmanship!

Buy a handwriting course book. While I tin provide some general tips on how to improve your handwriting, the best way to do it is to go through a handwriting course book that has daily exercises. The best one that I've see is American Cursive Handwriting by Michael Sull. It's a big ol' volume that takes you through the paces on this mode of script. American Cursive is a applied system of handwriting based on the Palmer Method and is bully for everyday use like writing in your journal, writing a alphabetic character, or fifty-fifty writing police force school exam answers. What'southward peachy nearly American Cursive is you don't need a fancy calligraphy pen, fountain pen, or quill. It works bully for pencils, ballpoint pens, gel pens, etc. (We'll be doing a series of posts in early 2015 nigh the wonders of the fountain pen. Stay tuned.)

If you lot're looking to learn fancier script, selection-upward an instruction manual on the Spencerian fashion. One that I've used with limited success (due only to my lack of endeavor!) is the original volume that taught Spencerian penmanship. You'll learn all sorts of cool flourishes that volition brand your writing look like important historical documents.

You tin can also find several free cursive handwriting lessons online. Here are a few adept ones that I've come beyond:

• Peterson Handwriting (this is the best online resource I've found)
• Donna Young Cursive Handwriting

Review your letters. If it's been ages since y'all've written cursive, information technology's time to review your letters. Check out one of the sources in a higher place to brush up on their unique shapes and flourishes.

How to hold your pen (quill pen not necessary)

Hold your pen correctly. Your penmanship will never reach its full potential if yous don't hold your pen the correct way. Grip your writing utensil so that it'southward resting on your middle finger and concord it in identify between the thumb and index finger as shown in the illustration. Go along your grip loose on your pen or pencil. If your fingernails are white, you're squeezing too tight. A tight grip will lead to a tired hand, and handwriting that looks stiff and stilted.

How to position your paper

Position your paper correctly. Proper paper placement is central for effective handwriting. If you're correct-handed, the elevation correct and bottom left corners of your paper should line upwards in a straight line with your nose, as seen in the analogy. Your left arm holds your newspaper still. If you lot're left-handed, flip the above instructions. If you're a lefty that'south gotten used to the "hooked" writing manus position, handwriting expert Michael Sull suggests that you endeavor the standard position, as it's more than comfy for longer writing sessions.

This newspaper position facilitates proper letter slant in your handwriting. Ideally, letters should slant upwardly and to the right past 35 degrees. If the above paper position doesn't facilitate that, adapt the paper until it does.

Stay in the "writing zone." The "writing zone" is the four-to-six inch area between your hands when they're in the position as described higher up. Your writing hand will naturally residue in this area as you write.

The problem is that equally you move your mitt left to right as you write and as you move down the page, your writing hand will eventually exit the "writing zone." Instead of straining and contorting your body, arm, and paw in order to keep writing, you lot simply need to move the paper with your not-writing hand as you work your mode down the page. This mode you'll stay within the writing zone.

To practice this, Sull suggests the following technique:

"Before starting to write, shift the paper to the correct until the left side of the paper is in the 'writing zone.' Then, after writing toward the right side of the paper for about two or three inches, stop, shift the newspaper to the left a few inches [with your non-writing hand], and continue writing for the side by side few inches. Then shift the paper as before and continue this procedure throughout to the finish of the page."

By shifting your paper instead of your body or manus, you'll remain comfortable as you lot write, which leads to better looking handwriting.

Continue things loose and blusterous. A mutual mistake people make with their handwriting is that they press down too hard on the paper equally they write. This leads to both manus strain and bad-looking handwriting. Y'all don't need to utilise that much pressure with the pen or pencil as you write in social club to create a nice well-baked line. Focus on keeping things loose and airy instead. To help with that, when you lot make a bend stroke, recollect of information technology as part of an unabridged oval. So when yous write a lower example "a" for instance, fifty-fifty though you lot're not actually making an oval, visualize the oval that your curve stroke would exist a part of if you were making 1, similar this:

This simple visualization technique can help keep things nice and loose and consequently produce more svelte handwriting.

Movement exercises. Some other thing you can practise to help proceed your writing loose and airy is to practise movement exercises every day. These exercises railroad train your muscles for the movements yous make when you're really writing.

Here are a few simple move exercises you tin exercise:

Connected ovals starting from the top:

Connected ovals starting from the bottom:

Connected curves:

When you practice these exercises, really focus on maintaining an like shooting fish in a barrel, light touch. Don't tense upward.

Movement your whole paw and wrist for capital letters, your fingers just for lowercase letters. Most folks have a tendency to but use their fingers when writing. This leads to cramping in both your hand and in your handwriting. To avert this, use a combination of whole hand and finger movements. On capital letters, focus on using your entire manus to write the letter; apply only your fingers for lowercase letters. This practice will allow you lot to write longer without tiring too as produce more graceful handwriting compared to simply using finger movements.

Don't write likewise fast. When you talk actually fast, people have a hard time understanding you lot. The same goes for handwriting. When you write fast, your handwriting will become less and less legible. Don't rush it. Focus on making neat, well-formed letters and words. Speed will come as you go the movements down.

Practice 20 minutes every twenty-four hours. As with everything in life, the key to successfully improving your penmanship is consistent practise. Set up aside at least xx minutes a solar day to practice your handwriting. Start off with 5 minutes of motility exercises, and then spend the rest of the fourth dimension focusing on a letter. Improve nonetheless, follow the lesson plans set out in a handwriting volume or online PDF.

Another style to become more handwriting exercise is to write things out by hand more. Instead of a digital journal, switch to a pen and paper ane; instead of sending emails to loved ones, write them an actual letter of the alphabet; instead of keeping your to-do list on your smartphone, keep it in a pocket notebook. You get the idea.

Another way to sneak in some handwriting exercise while simultaneously working on improving your writing power is to practice copywork past hand. My favorite author to exercise copywork from is Jack London. I'll simply have excerpts from his writing and copy it in a notebook by paw. I go a dose of virile, manly inspiration while beautiful, graceful letters fill the page.

Heed to our podcast on the power of penmanship:

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Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/improve-your-cursive-handwriting/

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