Have you ever observed your handwriting? Some would find it beautiful and neat. But some won’t approve of it as the best handwriting. Everyone has unique handwriting and it does not match with anyone. Although, you can learn different types of handwriting styles the uniqueness will always be there.
When you are trying to enhance the aesthetics of your handwriting, it is essential to know about the types of handwriting styles. Through this article, you will discover all of the different types of handwriting examples and styles that you can teach to your students.
You can check out the handwriting worksheets provided by EnglishBix for the practice. So, what are you waiting for? Explore this article and start your journey with us today!
In primary education, handwriting is an important skill, as all of their writing literacy lessons will require students to put pen to paper in one form or another. Handwriting is writing done by hand with a pen, pencil, digital stylus, or another instrument. The art, skill, or manner of handwriting is called penmanship.
Handwriting styles include printing, pre-cursive and cursive styles and are separate from formal calligraphy or typeface. Because each person’s handwriting is unique and different, it can be used to verify a document’s writer.
To begin practicing and teaching handwriting styles to your students, we first have to understand what the different handwriting styles are. In primary education (KS1/KS2) students will learn print, pre-cursive, and cursive handwriting styles as they progress through their education.
So let’s know about the different handwriting styles and how to implement it.
1. Print Handwriting Style
Children are usually taught to write in print first before moving on to learning cursive writing. Print handwriting is sometimes also called block letterings and is most often seen on official documents (think anything from your exam papers to official voting forms). This is a clear and easy handwriting style to teach, as the letter formation of block/ print handwriting encourages your students to slow down and consider how to form their letters and words.
This basic form is the reason why print handwriting is often the first style of handwriting that pupils are taught. Handwriting interpretation suggests that the absence of connectors symbolizes a difficulty to communicate and to talk about feelings through their writing. This can be important for teachers and parents to understand, as it can guide additional support that pupils may require.
2. Pre-cursive Handwriting Style
Pre-cursive handwriting is the transition between printing (unjointed) letters and joining all letters in cursive handwriting. This handwriting style begins to branch out from the block lettering as children practice adding lead-ins and lead-outs to letters. This ensures the letters start and finish in the correct place for writing to be joined. Pre-cursive handwriting styles are commonly introduced towards the end of KS1. However, this is at the school’s or teacher’s discretion.
3. Cursive Handwriting Style
Cursive is the final handwriting style that children are encouraged to develop once they have mastered the letter formations of print and pre-cursive handwriting styles. Following on from pre-cursive handwriting styles (where children are encouraged to add lead-ins and lead-outs to their letters), cursive handwriting is a form of writing in which the letters are connected, in an attempt to write faster.
Cursive handwriting is introduced in KS2. Children will typically begin to learn the basics of cursive at the age of seven. By age eight, they should be able to write with the help of a teacher, and by nine, they’re expected to write in cursive independently. Other styles can also be chosen within cursive handwriting. These are often chosen at the teacher’s discretion, or can simply evolve out of the student’s own handwriting style. These include:
- Looped: Looped cursive handwriting is when some letters are written with ‘loops’ to make joining the letters easier. In this style of cursive, all the letters should be connected.
- Italic: Italic cursive doesn’t use looped joins. Joining the letters g, j, q or y (and some others) is discouraged. Fun fact – the ‘italic’ style in its name refers to the fact that the handwriting style originated in Italy.
- Connected: Connected cursive writing is considered to be the origin of the main cursive writing method.
Benefits of Cursive Handwriting Style
The cursive and continuous cursive handwriting styles are largely considered the best handwriting style for students. Check out some key benefits and pros of teaching cursive handwriting to your students:
- Inspire creativity: The flowing style of cursive handwriting encourages children to follow their imagination and fun ideas. This isn’t just our opinion! According to science, the visual and hands-on experience of cursive writing can inspire those creative skills. Since this handwriting style engages both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, it can actually aid in students’ comprehension, idea generation, spelling, brain development, and memory.
- Improve handwriting speed: Cursive handwriting styles can be a fun and helpful tool when it comes to handwriting. Not only does it make your handwriting look neater, but it also can help you write faster and more efficiently! As the pen leaves the page less frequently, the words are allowed to simply flow out without pause. This means that your students are encouraged to write more, and you can fit more content into your lesson plans.
- Reduce letter formation mistakes: There are certain letters such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ and ‘p’ and ‘q’ that are very similar and can therefore be easily miswritten. Cursive handwriting styles are of particular value to children with learning challenges such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and difficulties with attention. As every letter is connected in very specific ways, this encourages students to correct their mistakes in letter formation.
- Increased fine motor skills: Cursive handwriting naturally develops sensory skills. Through repetition, children begin to understand how much force needs to be applied to the pencil and paper, the positioning of the pencil to paper at the correct angle, and motor planning to form each letter in a fluid motion from left to right.
- Improved spelling and clear handwriting: Cursive handwriting styles require children to write from left to right so that the letters will join in proper sequence and with proper spacing. This makes their writing easier to read and more legible. It also helps with spelling through muscle memory, as the hand acquires memory of spelling patterns through fluid movements that are used repeatedly. This is the same thing that occurs when people play the piano. Pianists learn patterns of hand movements through continued repetition.
Summary:
These days we rarely pick up a pen as typing on keyboards and screens has become the norm. Will handwriting become a lost art form? We hope not. EnglishBix will help you to boost your handwriting skills and keep the concept alive.
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