Cursive is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and modern-day usage across languages and regions; being used both publicly in artistic and formal documents as well as in private communication. Formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided as "looped", "italic", or "connected".
Example of classic American business cursive handwriting known as Spencerian script, from 1884
Looped cursive, as taught in Britain in the mid-20th century
Half of the National Anthem of Bangladesh, written in cursive Bengali
An English letter from 1894, written in Continuous Cursive
Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most commonly done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different implements. The various generic and formal historical styles of writing are called "hands" while an individual's style of penmanship is referred to as "handwriting".
Example of classic American business cursive handwriting known as Spencerian script from 1884
A thin object (pen), clamped in three fingers, allows you to display thin drawings
Example of semi-cursive style Chinese calligraphy
A typical Kanji practice notebook of a 3rd grader
