If you watch historical films about the Victorian era, you’ll notice that they almost invariably  can write in near perfect calligraphic handwriting. In those days, beautiful cursive writing was widely appreciated. The form of the letters might have on occasion engendered as much appreciation as the content. 

In addition, the nobility, neither breaking their backs like the lower classes nor caught up in the distractions of the internet and social media, probably discovered more free time in which to devote to calligraphy. Below, we will tell you how to write in cursive like a proper aristocrat, even now in the age of the internet, when you may find yourself lacking the time to devote to the art.

How to Write in Cursive: Definition

Writing in cursive is a fine art. The basis of cursive writing is the font, that is, letters written in a strictly defined way. A font can be either taken from somewhere or invented independently – cursive writing masters come up with a font to match their texts so that the lettering will emotionally complement the text. Cursive writing can take many forms, depending on the tasks and skill of the writer. “Ordinary” handwriting looks something like this:

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya from Pexels

If you need special writing in cursive, curls are usually used, and the handwriting becomes much more sweeping:

Photo by Katya Wolf from Pexels

Reasons You Can’t Learn How to Write in Cursive

In short, the typical reasons people don’t write cursive are lack of resources and time. 

Cursive writing, broadly speaking, consists of three components:

• Developed fine motor skills in the hands
• Knowledge of what handwriting is beautiful
• The ability to write specific beautiful letters by hand

The skills are interdependent: you can have excellent fine motor skills but not know about calligraphy and therefore are unable to write beautifully; you can have a great understanding of fonts (and work as a designer) (and you work as ain graphic editors) but not have developed the fine motor skills and therefore cannot write beautifully .

Therefore, all three skills or attributes are essential. That’s why most people take formal lessons to learn cursive. And it may be hard to find these lessons. Few teachers themselves know how to write in cursive. 

Is It Possible for an Adult to Learn How to Write Cursive?

Yes, it’s simply a matter of time and perseverance. By the way, teaching a child beautiful cursive writing is easier than teaching an adult because the child hasn’t yet learned bad writing habits. An adult will have to learn how to write in cursive beautifully and also overide their bad writing habits.

How Long Does It Take to Change Your Writing Style?

If you approach the matter thoroughly and train for an hour daily, you will feel the first significant improvements within a week. It will take you a month to write slowly but beautifully. In 3-6 months, you will completely change your writing style. By the way, if you need to write some papers in cursive but have no idea what to write about, you can get help from an essay writer at our service.

Features of Handwriting Changes in Adults and Children

In adults

It is more difficult for adults to change their writing since their “natural” handwriting has already been formed, and they will have to fight it. In practice, in the first weeks of learning, an adult has to think about each next letter. If they lose concentration even for a second, the reflex that has been consolidated over the years will lead their hand along the path of the “old spelling,” and the letter will be spoiled.

We warn you that constant concentration and fighting against your reflexes is tiring, so be careful not to overload yourself. But there is also a plus. If an adult changes their handwriting, they do it consciously and of their own free will, so there should be no problems with motivation.

As a student, you can practice cursive writing by doing essays that teachers assign you. Of course, it’s best to start simple, for example with titles, as this will take less time. By the way, we have material on how to write a book title in an essay.

In children

Children’s reflexes have not yet formed, so mastering beautiful handwriting will be easier for them than for adults. But there can be a problem with motivation. Usually, children don’t care what kind of handwriting they have, and the initiative to learn how to write cursive letters comes from their parents. Naturally, the idea is met with hostility because playing with friends can be more interesting than drawing curlicues on paper. The best way out of the situation for a parent is to first take up cursive writing themselves and then intrigue the child.

Steps for improving your handwriting

Motivation

The first thing you need to master beautiful writing is motivation. Don’t brush this question aside. The fact is that mastering cursive writing is very painstaking and hard work. You’ll be up against your toughest opponent yet: your old habits. You will have to do this, sitting motionless on a chair for long hours and slowly write beautiful letters, one by one, without error.

If you don’t have clear and strong motivation, you will always want to quit. Therefore, set yourself a specific goal. It’s the same with essay writing. Without a clear goal, there is no point in starting. By the way, you can learn how to write a diagnostic essay, the goal of its writing, structure, and steps.

Defining the goal of changing your handwriting

You must understand why you are doing what you are doing. To understand this, you must answer a simple question: “What will I get from this?” Therefore:

1. Formulate (on paper) your ultimate goal clearly.
2. Find and print examples of beautiful handwriting and hang them where they will catch your eye. Your ultimate goal should be in front of your eyes.

According to psychological research, we tend to overestimate the distance to a target if we don’t know where exactly the target is. If you are a driver, you may have noticed this yourself: when driving to an unfamiliar place, the road seems longer. When you return from this location to a known starting point, the journey seems much shorter. Therefore, keep your goal in front of your eyes.

How to write in cursive – assessing current handwriting

This advice is found in many calligraphy materials, but we recommend using it as an auxiliary measure, not the main one. Finding mistakes in your writing is, of course, good, but to find errors in bad handwriting, you need to be able to write well to begin with, and if you’re essentially starting from square one, there’s no point in it.

To know how to write in cursive, assessing current handwriting, do this:

1. Take a regular sheet of paper from a school notebook with line spacing.
2. Come up with a phrase by which you will measure your progress. To do this, it is better to use a pangram – a text in which all the letters of the English language appear in one copy.
3. Write this text on a piece of paper.
4. Look critically at what you wrote.
5. Hide the piece of paper in the closet.

Once every 1-2 weeks, take out a piece of paper and write the same phrase on the next line. You can put a time stamp to indicate the date of writing. This way, you can track your progress. If you want to train with higher volumes, you can write an essay every one to two weeks. Learn how to write an argumentative essay if you want to practice specifically with this type of paper.

Finding a role model

As we have already said, finding a role model is an important part of motivation. In addition, it is from this example that you will find out how to write in cursive. There is no single calligraphic handwriting in nature, just as there is no one-size-fits-all in any art. Therefore, simply choose the handwriting you like and learn how to write cursive in that manner. If calligraphy captivates you, over time, you will learn to invent your own handwriting style. 

As for professional calligraphic handwriting, there are no limits at all – you can find both simple and beautiful cursive writing with curls or opulent writing.

Help with Writing

Unfortunately, even if you learn to write beautifully in cursive, this does not mean that your writing will also be beautiful in terms of meaning. Expressing your thoughts beautifully is also important, especially in essays. Fortunately, on our website, you can find many useful guides to help you with your papers. For example, you can learn how to write an essay in APA format or how to write a narrative essay.

If you don’t want to waste time writing from scratch, our writers will help you. In addition to our professional help, you will also take advantage of the variety of free features that we offer. You can use free edits, an AI essay checker, and a plagiarism detection tool, to name a few of them. We always try to exceed our clients’ expectations.

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