The problem of this study was to compare the effects of Prose practice, Left-hand/right-hand Equal practice, and Left-hand/right-hand Prescribed practice on the development of stroking skills of students enrolled in beginning typewriting classes. In addition, the effects of the practices were examined for subjects with high and low initial straight-copy abilities. The 260 subjects in the study represented 12 classes from three high schools in rural, southeastern Minnesota during first semester, 1982-1983. Pretest and posttest measures of straight-copy, left-hand, and right-hand stroking skills were obtained by the administration of two different three-minute straight-copy, three different one-minute left-hand, and three different one-minute right-hand timed writings on each occasion. Following the pretest, subjects within each class were randomly assigned to the three treatments. The practice sessions involved five minutes of practice per day for fifteen days. Subjects in the Prose group practiced ordinary prose copy containing no special features or contrived words. Subjects in the Left-hand/right-hand Equal group practiced equal amounts of left-hand and right-hand lines. Subjects in the Prescribed group practiced a proportional number of left-hand and right-hand lines, depending on hand-weaknesses exhibited on the pretest. The statistical hypotheses were tested using analysis of covariance. Respective pretest measures of the dependent variable criteria were used as covariates. The findings of the study support the following conclusions: (1) practice using prose copy is more effective than practice using equal amounts of left-hand/right-hand copy in the development of straight-copy speed for students with initial straight-copy ability of 21.0. gwpm or higher, (2) left-hand/right-hand practice in equal or prescribed amounts is more effective than prose practice in the development of left-hand speed, (3) left-hand/right-hand practice in equal or prescribed amounts is more effective than prose practice in the development of right-hand speed, (4) left-hand/right-hand practice in prescribed amounts results in more errors per minute on right-hand copy than does practice using prose copy, and (5) significantly improving one-handed keystroking skill does not improve straight-copy stroking skill.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-1779 |
| Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Creators | Smith, Bonnie Sue |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds