Hollenbeck, K., Tindal, G., Stieber, S., & Harniss, M. (1999). Handwritten versus word-processed statewide compositions: Do judges rate them differently ? University of Oregon Research Consultation, and Teaching Program.

Research report

Raters judged essays in two forms: Handwritten, Typed (the handwritten essays transcribed by the researchers). Each judge did not rate both forms of the same essay. The judges did not know that the typed essays were originally handwritten.

A total of 80 middle school students from Oregon (U.S.) participated; participants' average age was 15.1 years old. Seven students were receiving special education, and the remainder were not. Half of the students were male and the other half female. White students were 94% of the participants.

The writing portion of the Oregon Statewide Assessment was administered. The compositions were evaluated using a scoring guide that ranged from 1 to 6 in quality. Six traits were scored: Ideas-Content, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions.

Analysis showed that the original handwritten compositions were rated significantly higher than the typed composition on three of the six writing traits for the total group. Further, five of the six mean trait scores favored the handwritten essays.