I really couldn’t figure out where this should go, so I decided MPSIMS is as good a place as any.
I’m wondering if there are any Dopers knowledgeable about handwriting analysis. There is one aspect of my handwriting (certain uppercase letters) that I’d like to see analyzed, but when I’ve read bits here and there on the topic, I don’t see this mentioned. I realize that a full analysis can’t be made without a complete writing sample, but the tests I’ve seen always provide a paragraph I’m supposed to copy in my own handwriting and the supplied text doesn’t include the specific uppercase letters for me to copy.
Specifically, I use the block-letter versions of the uppercase letters “G”, “Q” and “Z”. I’ve written this way as long as I can remember, though I certainly remember learning the cursive versions of these letters. I just don’t remember when or why I started writing these letters the way I do, though it may have been around the time I took a drafting class in high school. I notice that with each of these letters, the cursive version bears little resemblance to the block-letter version, compared to other cursive letters. But then neither do the letters “A”, “J”, “N” or “S”, but I use the standard cursive forms of those letters. My lowercase letters are also standard cursive. However, I rarely use cursive anymore - I’ve found that printing is just as fast and usually more legible.
So, what does the way I write these particular letters (G, Q and Z) say about me? Or is it impossible to tell?
Thanks - I’ve never heard one way or the other how valid and accurate graphology is. Still, it would be fun to learn what it says, if anything, about my little handwriting quirks. Kind of the same way it’s fun to look at your horoscope now and then, even if you don’t believe in astrology.
I used to do handwriting analysis in college, and it seems I was pretty accurate (at least thats what everyone told me). AFAIK, how you write a particular letter does not show much about your personality. Rather, its the entire text tht is considered.
I you want, I can have a shot at it.
The problem with that is that, as I understand it, there is no general agreement among graphologists as to how handwriting analysis works. You could take your writing sample to ten different graphologists and get ten different answers as to what your quirks mean. Astrology, of course, is the same way. There’s no generally accepted universal method.
If that doesn’t bother you, just take a writing sample to any old graphologist, such as noname here. (If I may make a suggestion, copy a page from a novel for your writing sample. Many skeptics say that graphologists use the subject matter and style of free-written samples, perhaps unconsiously, to help them assign personality caracteristcs.)
There was a very long discussion in Comments on Cecil’s Columns after the stuff linked by Loopus appeared. One person, don’t remember who, claimed to be able to do it, and much debate followed about establishing a reliable test of those abilities. Nothing ever came of it, as far as I’m aware.