What is Business Penmanship?

Contrary to what the name implies, “Business Penmanship” isn’t really used all that much for business in the twenty-first century. The phrase refers to the businesses of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which operated at a time when penmanship held a much stronger role in communication and society.

Business Penmanship is a style of American cursive handwriting. It is a natural evolution of the ornamental handwriting styles of the 1800s, being their simplified descendant. This beautiful style of writing served as a answer to the increasing popularity of the typewriter and shorthand writing systems. Penmen, clerks, and business people of the time were tasked with writing legibly, quickly, and for long periods of time.

Business Penmanship offered significant advantages in these regards over the ornamental styles of writing prevalent throughout the mid-to-late 1800s:

• It is written almost exclusively with arm movement, making it generally more consistent, faster, and less fatiguing.
• It boasts no shades or changes in line thickness, making it more uniform when presented in page format.
• It is unflourished, making it ideal for simplified, clear transactional communication.
• It can be produced with nearly any writing tool. Dip pen, chalk, ballpoint, whiteboard marker, etc.

Common Aliases

• Business Writing
• Practical Penmanship
• Arm Movement Writing
• BP