Effects of Page Prompts on Beginning Handwriting Legibility

Because the prompts for manuscript letter-formation found on handwriting worksheets are considered critical for facilitating legibility and for building in-dependent writing skills, the influence of printed writing prompts on legibility was studied in a within-subjects design. Worksheets contained l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of educational research (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 1984-07, Vol.77 (6), p.360-365
Main Authors: Sims, Edward V., Weisberg, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allography
Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods
Educational research
Educational sciences
Handwriting
Legibility
Letter writing
Orthographies
Phonetics
Reading, writing
Teachers
Teaching methods
Writing instruction
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Summary:Because the prompts for manuscript letter-formation found on handwriting worksheets are considered critical for facilitating legibility and for building in-dependent writing skills, the influence of printed writing prompts on legibility was studied in a within-subjects design. Worksheets contained line spacings, as well as: (a) strongly prompted traced letters; (b) two types of intermediate prompts cuing the letter's starting position; and (c) a minimally prompted blank space. Whether letter prompting affected legibility depended upon the measurement of legibility. With a highly objective overlay (template) procedure, the legibility scores of preschoolers and second graders improved as letter prompting increased. Using teacher ratings, the relationship was not as clear-cut, and the greatest measurement discrepancy was found for the blank-space condition in which the letters, when written, were reduced in size. Apparently, teachers are tolerant of these shortened letters, rating them as acceptable, whereas an overlay procedure is obliged to score them as unacceptable.
ISSN:0022-0671
1940-0675
DOI:10.1080/00220671.1984.10885557