# Handedness and right-to-left writing styles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624 "2005-04-28T21:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/1 "2005-04-28T21:31:36Z")
An office discussion of the ink-smeariness and wrist cramping suffered by left-handed people led to the question: Does the right-handed majority in countries that use typically right-to-left writing systems, like Hebrew and Arabic, suffer the same way lefties do here? ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/2 "2005-04-28T22:29:47Z")
Lefties have different writing styles. I hold my hand and wrist straight, so they are below the line of writing. Maybe people who write from right to left do that. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/3 "2005-04-29T04:28:11Z")
I can assure you that left-handed Arabic writers ‘hook’ their hands just like writers do in left-to-right languages. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/4 "2005-04-29T05:11:45Z")
> [@tiltypig](#): > > … suffer the same way lefties do here? Why do you assume Lefties suffer? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/5 "2005-04-29T05:49:36Z")
Back in the days before ball point pens were introduced (ca. 1941), when fountain pens held fluid ink, being left-handed was a constant liability, with smeared writing and ink-stained hands and cuffs as the left hand moved over still wet ink. No wonder teachers tried to switch the writing orientation of lefties. Even I remember how dirty the side of my left hand would get when we used those fat #3 pencils with the soft lead in the lower grades of school. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/6 "2005-04-29T05:52:48Z")
Correction: #1 lead pencils. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/7 "2005-04-29T08:25:46Z")
Using the hook-style method of holding your pen will cause smear even if you’re a righty, as the side of your hand will smudge the line above the one you are currently writing. And just in general, more of your hand is in contact with the paper, so if you’re drawing, there is a greater chance that you will get pencil clouds and such as your hand migrates carbon powder about the page. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/8 "2005-04-29T14:07:58Z")
I’m a non-hooker lefty. When I see the hooker lefties, it kind of makes me nervous. It doesn’t look very comfortable. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/9 "2005-04-29T14:22:01Z")
[Straight Dope Classic](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_395.html): > [@](#): > > A few years ago a couple researchers at the University of Pennsylvania claimed to be able to detect two distinct kinds of left-handed writers — those who mirror the way right-handers hold their pencils, and those who “hook” when they write, i.e., curl their hands around so the pencil points toward the bottom of the page. The latter group, which is thought to comprise **about 60 percent of all left-handed writers** , is considered the hard-core element, in the sense that their neurological organization (according to the theory, at least) is substantially different from that of the general run of mankind. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/10 "2005-04-29T15:10:57Z")
My lefty mother had a teacher who taught her to write all over again – it’s so obvious it probably never occurs to a lot of people, but she simply turns the paper the other way and writes like the rest of us righties. My ex was a hooking leftie and it looked horribly uncomfortable to me. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/11 "2005-04-29T15:39:44Z")
I hook my hand, and I’m a rightie. It’s annoying, cause when I do right more than one line, sometimes it does smear. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handedness-and-right-to-left-writing-styles/301624/12 "2005-04-29T15:54:06Z")
As other hooking lefties can assure you, there is nothing uncomfortable about writing that way. Hookers move the pen using the knuckle joints of the fingers, while non-hookers move the pen using the wrist. The fist is more closed for hookers, but that is actually a more natural position than open — flexor muscles are needed to open the fist. Close your fist all the way. See, that’s not uncomfortable.