While quality of instruction is of greater importance than the time of transition from printing to cursive writing, some research supports the idea that second and third graders make a smoother transition than do older children. In addition, there is little evidence to support the thesis that poor printers will necessarily become poor writers. In fact, they probably will not. The confounding problem is the tendency to confuse neatness of handwriting and printing with legibility. This is due in part to the fact that teachers do not commonly use handwriting evaluation scales because they are cumbersome.
Teachers prefer, instead, to judge the quality of manuscript and handwriting subjectively.
Legibility is marked by appropriate letter formation, size, slant, spacing, and staying on the line. A child's writing may be sloppy or messy, but still legible. Holding a child back because he or she writes messily but legibly may not be productive, since more practice with manuscript does not necessarily make a child's handwriting more legible. It seems reasonable to use wide-lined paper when children are being introduced to both printing and cursive handwriting. Several studies have shown that children's beginning performance improves when special paper is used.