A Legibility Index: can handwriting be measured?

Abstract

Writing scripts completed by a representative sample of seven‐year‐old Cheshire children were used to examine the reliability of teacher subjective rating and the reliability, validity and item analysis of a handwriting checklist. One hundred samples were processed by five experienced teachers who rated them on a seven point scale and marked them on the checklist. Thirteen of the 20 checklist items are identified as making significant contribution to legibility and to be worthy of inclusion in a subsequent analysis. The data suggests that handwriting might be amenable to quantification and that a refined measure could be constructed for research purposes.