upstrokes

At the end of the session, if you managed to keep them all in mind while you sat straight but also stayed relaxed, and if you concentrated on what you were doing instead of wishing you were out in the school yard playing Red Rover, you had pages of perfect ovals, upstrokes, and downstrokes, and by the end of third grade, these would have come together into some species of legible penmanship.

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting 2009

TRUINI: Because this saw cuts on the upcuts, upstrokes.

CNN Transcript Jul 23, 2005 2005

Why should downstrokes be thick and upstrokes thin?

The History of Mr. Polly 2003

She drew more lines — dots and dashes, downstrokes and upstrokes, bends and hooks.

The Bonesetter's Daughter TAN, Amy 2001

It was written, not printed; written in a clear, even hand, with thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes, very large, easier than print, and so beautiful that Lucy stared at it for a whole minute and forgot about reading it.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Lewis, C. S. 1952

On his return with the inkstand to the corner of my shelf, he could not resist sometimes boasting when he had not made a single blot; or confessing to me, in perfect confidence, how much the thinness of Susan's upstrokes, or the thickness of her downstrokes, was owing to the clearness of his slit or the fineness of his nib.

The Doll and Her Friends or Memoirs of the Lady Seraphina Unknown

The times I've written it, thick down strokes, thin upstrokes!

Captivity M. Leonora Eyles 1924

_Why_ should downstrokes be thick and upstrokes thin?

The History of Mr. Polly 1906

It was written, as were all the letters we received from this Cornish venturer, in a woman's hand, small and delicate, with upstrokes like spider's thread; written in French, too, quite easy and careless.

Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

_Self-esteem_, to which is allied conceit and ostentation, shows itself in proportion to the size of the writing, the taller and more flourished the upstrokes and the longer the downstrokes, the greater the self-assertiveness.

The Detection of Forgery A Practical Handbook for the Use of Bankers, Solicitors, Magistrates' Clerks, and All Handling Suspected Documents Douglas Blackburn 1893