Cursive Alphabet | Download Cursive Writing Pack (2024)

With increasing digital technology, many people feel that cursive writing has lost its importance. But many teachers, parents, and students believe that cursive writing is very relevant and can help children in many aspects, including their grades.
Our last blog discussed how to write in cursive and improve handwriting can help children in various aspects. When one start learning cursive writing, the most basic yet most important thing is knowing the proper formation and linking pattern of cursive alphabets. Today, we will learn about these alphabets and how you can teach cursive letters to your child.

Cursive Letters

While learning cursive writing, there are few things one should give extra effort to, such as the grasp of the position of each letter. To master the art of cursive writing, it is essential to get a proper hold of the shape of every cursive letter. Every cursive alphabet has its own line upon which they are written, which require proper stroke techniques. Cursive writing is a form of joint writing style, and therefore to master it, one must master the shape of each cursive letter and the linking pattern between them.

Apart from this, sloping letters are also an essential aspect of these cursive letters, which begins in the body line’s base. While learning, we notice that most cursive letters end in a stroke at the upper baseline, which requires the child to have good practice of basic stokes. Many cursive writing teachers give students the practice cursive chart to get a grasp of these basic strokes. Try the below cursive chart for helpful reference.

But before starting your practice, one must know the proper position of your paper and pencil.

Correct pencil positions

Your pencil position is very important in cursive writing and should be at an angle of 45-degree with a light grip. Do not apply too much pressure from the pen on the paper. If you do so, it can affect your writing. Different people have different styles of holding the pen, and experts recommend the tripod grip where the pen rests on the middle finger and is held by the thumb. Although there is no confirmation of which grip is better, choose the one you feel most comfortable in.

Correct paper position

The other very important thing is the position of the paper. Correct positioning makes a huge difference as it determines the hand position and how comfortably a child is writing and can move his hand freely on the paper. The tilt in the position of the paper helps kids maintain the letter’s slant. The position of the paper, in general, should be parallel to the child’s dominant hand.

Learning Cursive Alphabet

The first thing you need to do when you start learning the cursive alphabet is tracing. Tracing the dotted letters over and over again will help kids grasp the perfect shape of the letter efficiently. You can encourage your child to start tracing on the cursive handwriting worksheets or use a lined paper. The dotted lines help the child to maintain the size and shape of these cursive letters.

When you begin tracing letters, we suggest you start with lowercase letters as their similar to primary alphabets; it will be easier to memorize them and thus help in learning efficiently.

Lowercase letters

Lowercase letters are categorized in upper stroke and curved stroke. You can start with the easiest letter that is “u”. To draw the cursive letter u, make an upward stroke, slide back down to the bottom line, and then curve upward to join the dotted and go down again to form a little tail.

You can further learn these easy-to-write letters such as b, f, h, I, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w, x, and y in the group. These are the easiest letters to start with because they are created using one stroke only.

(Image of these group)

Once you’ve mastered these, you can continue with b, f, and k. These letters are more complex than the first ones; they also consist of one stroke but are more complex in their shape. Once you grasp them, you can continue with the letters a and o.

Then try the curved stoker counterparts: c, d, e, and g.

Uppercase letters

Once you feel confident with lowercase letters, you can begin to try uppercase letters.

We recommend you learn the first capital letters: C, E, G, L and O. Start with L and then attempt the other letters in the group.

Then start practising, R, as it is one of the most challenging letters to write. But, once you have the hang of it, it will come as a second nature to write.

Once you have mastered these letters, you can try B, D, F, I, J, P and T.

Categorizing the alphabets

Categorization is the trick used in learning cursive writing. In this, alphabets are divided into categories based on the style of the alphabet. Grouping these alphabets allow children to learn efficiently without confusing them between random and unrelated strokes. The four categories are –

Letters with clockwise and anticlockwise rotation

You can group letters that contain clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation such as a, d, g, q, and c.

Letters with upper stroke

This group contains letters i, u w, t, j, p, r, s, and o as they contain the upper stroke like the kite string.

Letters that contain loops

This group contains letters h, k, b, f, l, and e as they contain loops.

Letters that contain hills and valleys

This group contains letters n, m, v, y, x, and z as they all look like a hill and valley when traced.

How to perfect Cursive alphabets

Once you’ve practised both uppercase and lowercase cursive letters, you’ll learn the cursive alphabets, but still, there are some lessons left to master cursive writing. The next step in the learning process is learning the linking patterns of these letters to understand how to connect these letters to form the word.

One of the most popular advantages of cursive writing is that it makes writing quicker and more efficient. However, to improve your writing speed through cursive writing, you need to practice connecting these different cursive alphabets. Kids may find connecting these letters difficult at first, but as they will keep practising, they will be able to easily write these cursive words, sentences, and even passages.

Letter Guides

The best and most effective way to perfect your cursive writing alphabets is through Letter Guides. Once you have good practice of tracing through worksheets, you will have a good idea of the patterns and strokes of each letter. After practising tracing, you can use letter guides to perfect these letters. Letter guides give step by step guidance on how to draw every cursive letter using arrows and dotted lines, which you can easily trace and understand the strokes and pattern through it.

Download the cursive writing practice packs

More Reading

How to write in cursive and improve handwriting

Cursive Words

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WikiPedia – Cursive