One of most cited advantages of cursive writing is the individuality of a person's signature. Signatures continue to be the identification marker that verifies the authenticity of many legal and financial documents. Even though a person's signature may change as she ages, it still retains individual signposts. Those who never learned to write in cursive often develop an abstract and simplistic signature, which is some combination of cursive and print. These signatures are easier to forge than cursive signatures. Signatures that are composed entirely of block letters can be even easier to replicate.
Unless people can write cursive, they usually can't read it. Though cursive may not be the script of choice for the mainstream, it is still used in special documents, invitations and advertisements. Furthermore, original documents from past centuries, such as the Declaration of Independence, primary-source documents and hand-written manuscripts often are written in cursive. In addition, journals or mementos of elderly family members are usually in cursive script. All of these items will be illegible to those who can't read cursive script. This not only results in a loss of information for these individuals, but also leads to a loss of cultural continuity on a personal and national scale.
Cursive writing plays an important role in several important developmental skills: It helps students refine fine motor skills, increase eye-hand coordination and improve the connection between the brain and the hands. When writing in cursive, students must learn how to finely manipulate the pen, maintain fluidity and apply the correct amount of pressure on the paper. As students master cursive script, they gain confidence in their fine muscle control. This, in turn, can lead to increased interest in other areas that require fine muscle development such as art.
Cursive writing can help students learn to read English. First, the continuity of the letters in cursive writing helps guide students' eyes from left to write, which reinforces the directionality used in reading. Additionally, the mechanics of cursive writing help students learn to put words in the correct order as well as make it difficult to swap or reverse letters. Finally, the structure of cursive writing allows students to distinguish individual words: The letters of each word are connected and a space separates each word.
Because students do not need to lift the pen from the page when writing in cursive, they usually write faster and more easily in cursive than in print. As a result, their compositions improve because they can concentrate on content rather than letter formation. In addition, because they write faster, cursive writers usually take better notes. Though computers may be the way of the future, in most classrooms today students complete the majority of their work by hand.