How American Cursive Appears to the British

I have a couple of quick, interesting handwriting anecdotes to share.

Years ago, one of the British teachers at our school shared with me that she couldn’t understand why all the American teachers’ handwriting looked the same. She told me that she later discovered that we actually have handwriting class in America, where we are all taught the American cursive (extremely different from modern British “joined-together” writing). Apparently in Britain, they let each child evolve their own system of writing, forming, and joining letters. Of course, Americans do see much variation when they look at other Americans’ writing. But these variations are not apparent to British who are not used to looking at American writing.

Letter written in England in 1894, showing handwriting typical of the period, and still very similar to today’s North American cursive writing (in terms of slant, letter formation, and connections). Image from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handwriting

Below is a typical sample of today’s modern British “joined-together” writing (especially in terms of slant and letter formation):

Typical Modern British Writing, image from:

http://benzographology.co.uk/images/sample1.jpg

One British friend shared with me this evening that someone she knows is giving a poetry class in Britain to some middle-aged American ladies. When they turned in their poems, the British teacher was convinced that one lady was doing all the homework for the others, writing everything and giving it to the other ladies to turn in. My British friend (having known me, and seen how we teach cursive and work on handwriting) explained all this to the poetry teacher. Had the teacher not mentioned this to my friend, she would have remained convinced that the middle-aged American ladies were all cheating!

Eileen

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