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The Switch to Vertical ScriptUpon handwriting analysis of older examples of English handwriting a marked change from cursive writing the was slanted to the right to vertical text was noticed around the beginning of the 20th century in Britain. In times past the cursive writing was very precisely slanted at a 52 degree angle to the right but now writing in England that is between 60 and 75 degrees is seen as ideal, but why did this occur? Vertical script was introduced by a professor by the name of john Jackson because he felt that vertical text had supreme legibility as opposed to slanted writing. English writing examiners began to require this type of writing in every branch of the civil service in Britain after this point and many of the schools in Britain also adopted the writing styling of John Jackson after his copy books were released. Progressive german educators began to use this style as well in their schools. One of the main arguments behind using this style of writing that was noted during this time is that it was more efficient because the perpendicular of right triangles is always shorter than the hypotenuse. The meaning behind this is that the distance the pen has to travel to make a vertical line is less than a slanted one so the writing style takes less time. Though this ideology persisted in Britain for quite some time some scholars have found that just the opposite is true.
Another argument for why Britain made the switch to vertical script is that it is easier for the student to adapt to. Many believed that the students that wrote in the classroom had to twist their spines in order to write in the old slanted way but with vertical writing a student can sit upright and write which many deemed better for posture. This is also seen as false by many scholars who do handwriting analysis. Whatever the case, the vertical style of writing became very popular after world war II and it still persists today.
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