Yes and yes!

It's due to the way penmanship was written. Consider the arm position [0] of proper penmanship. The page is at an angle to the left, such that it is similar to the angle of your forearm on the page. Pivoting at the elbow allows you to swing your arm from the left side of the page to the right. The forward slant allows you to always be moving "forwards" as you write across the page.

I hope that was clear. Please feel free to ask clarifying questions if not.

[0] https://archive.org/details/armmovementmetho00zane/page/12/m...