I have been studying hiragana and have encountered Two different ways of writing each of these syllables. Is there one correct way? The parts I wonder about are the lower curve in ki and sa, and the area in the middle between the left and right in ri.
I have seen people write sa and ki without separating the lower curve, but it’s definitely less common than splitting them into two parts.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone link the two parts of ri (unless they were writing with a brush).
Both forms are acceptable, although I believe the connected forms are more common in machine printing/computers and in traditional brush calligraphy.
For example, in the MS UI Gothic and MS Mincho fonts, き, さ, and り are all connected.
In whatever font my browser is using (Arial Unicode?), the り above is not connected but the other two are.
I seem to remember from Japanese class in college that we were taught to use the unconnected forms for all 3 when writing with a pen or pencil. I actually find it easier to write the connected forms of き and さ.
You could ask the same question about ko, ni or ta. It’s a matter of style, whether or not you lift the pen completely off the page. If you look at the characters written with the strokes connected, you may find that the connecting lines are thinner than the main strokes. Basically the way you learn the characters is like how they appear in print, but the way people actually write them is more flowing and less precise. It’s even harder with kanji, I think.