The Non-Correlation of Printing and Writing Skills

Abstract

Many teachers of second and third grade do not teach cursive writing to students with poor printing skills. The appropriateness of this practice was studied by collecting manuscript writing samples from 137 third-grade students in six schools from three school districts during a fall term. Cursive writing samples were collected from the same students the following April. Handwriting samples were compared in an attempt to answer the question "Do poor printers make poor writers?" A diagnostic inventory, developed for use in the study, provided a means for testing and evaluating the nature of the relationship using the major elements of form along with neatness. A low positive correlation was found for the scored elements letter formation, letter size, letter and word spacing, and letter alignment. No correlation was found for letter slant scores hut a high correlation was found for neatness.