It is quite obvious for a 4th grader to pass the buck for his/her bad handwriting. Recently, I came across some “real research articles” published in indexed journals addressing the same issue.
Research indicates, it can be the type of pencil which should be blamed for legibility and speed in various writing task which include cursive writing, 10-min copy task, etc or maybe not !!!
Conclusion 1: Results indicate that although the students in this study wrote more legibly on the short task than on the long task, the type of grasp they used did not affect their legibility. Because of the limited sample size, the results of this study should be interpreted cautiously. More research in handwriting performance and pencil grasp is needed to provide clear expectations and treatment options for students.
Conclusion 2: Study found the lateral quadrupod and four-finger pencil grips to be as functional as the dynamic tripod, lateral tripod, and dynamic quadrupod pencil grips. Study also provided average handwriting speeds for fourth-grade students on the ETCH-C.
Conclusion 3: The quality of the handwriting decreased after the 10-minute copy task; however, there was no difference in the quality or speed scores among the different pencil grasps before and after the copy task. The dynamic tripod pencil grasp did not offer any advantage over the lateral tripod or the dynamic or lateral quadrupod pencil grasps in terms of quality of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task. These four pencil grasp patterns performed equivalently. Findings did questioned about the practice of having students adopt the dynamic tripod pencil grasp.
Schwellnus H, Carnahan H, Kushki A, Polatajko H, Missiuna C, & Chau T (2012). Effect of pencil grasp on the speed and legibility of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task in Grade 4 children. Australian occupational therapy journal, 59 (3), 180-7 PMID: 22690768
Dennis JL, & Swinth Y (2001). Pencil grasp and children’s handwriting legibility during different-length writing tasks. The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 55 (2), 175-83 PMID: 11761133
I agree that sometimes a good handwriting depends upon the pencil or pen itself and the paper. I noticed myself that my handwriting looks nice when I like the pencil or pen I’m using.