Weigh legibility gains against speed gains when choosing a penmanship style to teach¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article closes by posing an equating-values question for penmanship instruction: whether a legibility advantage is worth more than a speed advantage. It asks "Is 10 per cent. (9.76 per cent, appearing in vertical writing over medium slant) in legibility more worth striving for in teaching penmanship, than are 3 words ... in speed of writing?" It further asks whether the measured factors can be used to secure both improvements regardless of slant type.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers must decide the relative instructional value of legibility versus speed, as the article offers no resolution of the tradeoff

Constraints¶

• The article presents this as an open question rather than a tested recommendation

Target Learners¶

• elementary school pupils learning penmanship

Target Learning Goals¶

• handwriting legibility
• handwriting speed

Claims¶

• Back-hand shows the largest average deviation from the median, indicating the least stable speed, while medium slant shows the least deviation in the one-minute test [+M]
• The fastest handwriting style, back-hand, shows the largest percentage of cases written with free hand movement [+M]
• Medium slant is 9.76 per cent less legible than vertical writing, while mixed writing is 4.26 per cent more legible than extreme slant [+M]
• Extreme slant is fastest in the one-minute test while back-hand is fastest in the five-minute test and vertical writing slowest [+M]

Related Strategies¶

• Use rhythmic guides in early years to organize unit strokes and facile movement, with imposed rhythm reserved for simple repetitive forms rather than word writing
• Handwriting Fluency Practice

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Graves, S. Monroe. (1911). A Study in Handwriting. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://www.jstor.org/journal/jeduapsych