A lot of schools don’t teach cursive anymore, but if you’ve always wanted to learn,
we’ve got you covered! Cursive can be described as any style of writing in which the letters
are connected. It’s meant to be practical, so there’s no set style that you have to follow.
In this video, we’ll be showing you how we like to write cursive, but
don’t feel like you have to stick to our style! If you find this video helpful, remember to like
and subscribe to our channel.
Before you start writing, find your preferred style of cursive so you have a guideline. You
can make your own practice sheets on grid paper or find some online. We offer free
downloadable worksheets on our blog! Once you’ve gotten your paper ready,
tilt it at an angle. This is more comfortable for your wrist and arm. Not to mention,
slanted letters look much nicer, and mistakes will be less noticeable at an angle.
Next, grab a pen to practice with: preferably a gel pen or fineliner instead of a ballpoint pen,
since they’re much smoother and you won’t have to press as hard.
You’ll want to avoid broad-tipped pens and markers: it’ll be difficult to read
your handwriting if your line width is too thick. We recommend a fine or medium
point so that you can see your writing clearly. On the same note, avoid using pencil. When writing
in cursive, your lead will quickly wear down on one side, forming a slanted wedge-shaped tip.
Now we'll show you some tips on how to make your cursive pretty and neat.
Unlike print, where you can take a break between each letter, cursive connects letters.
It’s important to nail down individual letters first before trying to connect them. Try writing
the alphabet one letter at a time, with the cursive alphabet guide out as a reference.
As you practice individual letters, keep in mind that the goal is to eventually connect them.
Adding leading lines can help you figure out where connections go,
but not always, so we prefer practicing without them.
Just be mindful of where letters begin and end: the tail of a letter should blend seamlessly into
the start of the next letter.
After you’ve gotten used to writing individual letters,
you can move on to learning how to connect them. First,
try combining letters together in common pairings such as “or”, “an”, and “ing”.
Next, you can practice commonly used words like “and”, “but”, and “the”. This is more
realistic to what you’ll be writing regularly, as opposed to just practicing single letters.
Be sure to practice potentially awkward connections, such as between “b” and “e” in “best”
or “n” and “e” in “vine”. There are two ways you can write the connections: writing the “e”
loop in an uninterrupted line, or stopping midway then writing the “e” like normal.
Also practice writing capital letters with lowercase letters: some capital letters are
more difficult to connect, so it’s up to you whether you want to connect them.
Once you’re comfortable with connections like these, you can write full words with more
confidence! Try to finish writing the entire word before you dot your i’s or cross your t’s.
If you pause in the middle, the connection between letters might
look awkward or messy.
Clear letters are the most crucial part of neat handwriting.
Remember to write slowly. If you write too quickly, your letters
will be harder to read.
Letters without fully-closed tops can easily be mistaken for another letter.
The letters “a”, “o”, and “g” can look like “u” or “y”, making it
difficult to read your handwriting.
Excessive loops obscure letter shapes. Removing them from your writing makes it easier to read.
If you like how looped writing looks, you can compromise by only using loops
in the lower parts of your letters, such as the descenders in “f” and “p.”
On a similar note, space out your letters so that they don’t get tangled with each other.
You don’t want your g’s, p’s, and y’s to cover the words below them.
Consistent height and width are equally important.
Lowercase letters like “o” and “e” should be around the same size.
This also applies to capital letters: “C” should be the same height as “L”.
For your cursive to look neat, your letters should all have a consistent size and angle.
As an example, let’s look at the word
“jump”: if your “u” looks straight but your “m” is clearly slanted, the word will look messy.
If you used a practice worksheet to get familiar with letters,
you probably wrote large to fill up the worksheet. But if you’re writing normally,
writing too large or too small makes your cursive prone to inconsistencies.
Your hand and arm can also get tired more quickly. To prevent this from happening,
try to find a good size for you.
At the end of the day, practice is the only way you can get better.
Writing the same phrases over and over again can get boring, so try writing letters to friends!
You can make use of stationery that might be sitting around at the same time. Just remember,
don’t overdo it and take stretching breaks.
Did you find these tips helpful? Let us know
in the comments! You can find all these products, practice worksheets, and more at JetPens.com.
To show all of our tips in action, here’s a pangram-- feel free to follow along!