When I was younger, some of the homework I had consisted in writing sentences several times to improve handwriting. In Spanish, I know this concept or action as "hacer planas".
To give an idea. "Hacer planas" is the same action Bart Simpson does everyday at detention. Filling a blackboard with a sentence as punishment. In my case, the blackboard is a notebook. "The punishment" is in reality the intention to improve handwriting.
do this action has a name in English?
Penmanship is defined as the art or skill of writing by hand. You can describe what you are doing as exercises in penmanship. Or perhaps you can simply refer to them as handwriting practice.
When I started to write in ink, with a dip-pen, the school gave us "Copy Books." Usually the the sentence at the top of the page was moralistic e.g. 'A stitch in time saves nine.' But later we might copy: 'Mount Everest is 3,000 feet in height.' So-o-o-o outdated.
If it was a punishment , just to write out "I must not ...." that was called 'doing lines.' We would say "He set us a hundred lines."
The term writing lines or writing sentences is used for the practice of writing the same sentence over and over again, as Bart Simpson often has to do. It is a form of discipline or punishment. It is not necessarily done to improve penmanship.
The term copywork is used by educators for the practice of copying (in handwriting) quotes and passages from books. It is done to teach penmanship, but also to teach spelling and grammar.
What is copywork? Copywork is the act of writing down, word for word, a sentence or passage from another source. The goals are excellent penmanship, accurate punctuation and capitalization, and a discussion of sentence structure and English grammar as appropriate for the child's learning level.
Copywork is not necessarily repetitive, like the task given to Bart.
ROTE / rōt / noun: mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned. "a poem learned by rote in childhood"
synonyms: mechanically, automatically, unthinkingly, mindlessly; See Google rote
Most often used in the expression "learned by rote" to mean learning something through repetition. I have never heard it applied to writing out something over and over again. It usually refers to memorizing the content of that which is repeated, for example learning lines of dialogue for a play or learning a prayer by repeating it over and over again. It's the closest I can think of, and does apply to learning something by repetition.
