Peer-reviewed research
Identifying the factors that contribute to handwriting problems experienced by students at a higher education institution in South Africa
Denise Franzsen and Aimee Stewart, South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2014
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A 2014 study of 300 undergraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa who reported handwriting problems in examinations. Students completed a short screening task that copied a passage, and the authors recorded words per minute and legibility.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed in an occupational therapy journal. The sample is one South African university, the task is short copying rather than composing, and speed was counted as words copied per minute, so the figures describe copying speed only.
Facts taken from this source
- In a 2014 study of 300 university students in South Africa, the mean handwriting speed in a short copying task was 22.85 words per minute.
“The results for the mean score of 22.85 wpm found in this study” (Discussion)
- The 2014 study's introduction reports that copying a sentence gives about 26 words per minute when people write neatly and 36 words per minute when they write as fast as possible.
“In a short handwriting assessment when copying a sentence, on average, the speed is 26 words per minute (wpm) when asked to write neatly and 36 wpm when asked to write as fast as possible” (Introduction)