English cursive writing, introduced in the 16th century, connects letters with a continuous stroke and includes serifs and varying stroke widths. It was traditionally written with a quill pen and is now being replaced by keyboard typing in schools. Authentic English calligraphy is rarely practiced today.
English handwriting is a western style of cursive writing. The distinguishing feature of cursive writing is that the letters of each word are connected with a continuous stroke. Early Old English characters, developed around the 12th century, were written with unconnected letters. In the 16th century, cursive writing was introduced in England as a way to save time when writing documents by hand, and by the 18th century, English cursive writing had been widely adopted in Europe and America.
Fonts used in English writing contain extra pen strokes called serifs at the beginning and end of written words. Serifs can also embellish some features of letters. The capital letters of Old English script are often surrounded by thick serifs and elaborate flourishes that add a pleasing aesthetic. Another identifiable trait of English writing is the varying width of the strokes that form letters and words, which is an effect caused by early types of ink pens.
Before the advent of modern writing implements, proper English script was written with a long feather cut flat on the end of the quill and dipped in ink. The writer pressed the flat point of the quill pen to the paper at an oblique angle, taking care to keep the pen at the same angle as it moved across the page. This precise method of writing caused the ink strokes to widen or narrow as each letter was formed, a distinguishing feature of authentic English cursive.
Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians commonly use the words “handwriting” or “cursive” to describe the combination of words associated with English writing characters. Australians also call it “running writing.” In the UK and Ireland, however, cursive-style writing is commonly referred to as “joint script”, “joint script” or “real script”.
All over the world, wherever electronic fonts and digital devices are available, the use of cursive script has started to fall out of favour. Keyboard typing and efficiency have replaced handwriting classes in many schools. In some jurisdictions, the teaching of cursive writing has been removed from school curricula.
Authentic English calligraphy is rarely practiced in the 21st century, except by calligraphy artisans. Modern calligraphers use special nibs to create the effect of old English writing. Today’s calligraphy pens also have an ink reservoir that keeps the ink flowing freely, unlike ancient quill pens, which required frequent dipping in an inkwell. While the means of calligraphy have improved over the years, authentic English cursive has remained a practical writing method.
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