THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HANDWRITING STYLE AND SPEED AND LEGIBILITY

The relationship between handwriting style and handwriting speed and l egibility was investigated. Three samples of writing (narrative, expos itory, and copying) were collected Pram 600 students in Grades 4-9. Th e copying task provided a measure of handwriting speed and all 3 writi ng samples were scored for handwriting style (manuscript, cursive; mix ed-mostly manuscript, and mixed-mostly cursive) and legibility The han dwriting of students who used a mixed style was faster than the handwr iting of the students who used either manuscript or cursive exclusivel y, In addition, papers written with mixed-mostly cursive letters gener ally received higher ratings for legibility than papers written with t he other 3 styles did, There: were no differences between manuscript a nd cursive in term of legibility or speed.