Here's the Wikipedia article on left handedness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_handed

Check out the links on left-handed handwriting at:

http://jp29.org/itbasics.htm

Nobody is ambidextrous?

That is an interesting question, Bill -- I have not encountered anyone who could write proficiently with either hand (I have met a few individuals who were forced to write with their "un-natural" hand temporarily due to injury).

I'm a lefty

Dawn

My sister is ambidextrous, beautiful handwriting with either hand, I can't tell the difference.

I was curious about how FP users compare with the general population. Ambidextrous writers are a rare breed.

Well, almost......

I'm pretty sure I was born left handed (My oldest son is a lefty), but as soon as my mom thought I should learn to write, she stuck a piece of chalk in my right hand......

So, I write and throw right-handed.

I pour liquids and I brush my teeth with a left-hand preference.

*shrug*

-Bruce

I'm a lefty.

Think it's a bit strange that that wiki link says they are medical causes for lefthandedness. As if, just because more people are righthanded, there's automatically something wrong with lefthandedness. To me handedness is like eyecolour. I'd guess that there are more brown eyed people in the world than green eyed. And no one is looking for the medical cause of green eyedness!

Well, try to write with your left. Then see how well others who do everything best with one hand can write with their other hand. If your lefthanded writing is better then you're probably right.

EGADS! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE ASKING! hahahhahahahhahaha

In general, I have never attempted to do so. A couple times when my right hand was full, I did, but it was a disaster. Like anything else, I would have to practice it, since I would essentiallyi be learning from scratch.

It's like playing the accordion. While my right hand is able to play on a piano, my left hand is lost because the accordion is not a chromatic layout for the left hand.

-Bruce

Apparently not.

I thought you would be better at it if your lefthand is naturally better in motorical skills.
My sister is righthanded but must have some lefthanded genes. She writes with right but if you ask her to write with left she can do that almost just as pretty.

Although Wikipedia contains a great deal of useful information, you shouldn't ascribe a lot of weight to it -- it is, after all, a collaborative effort with input from the WWW community at large.

looks like the number of lefties over here is 1/4 of the number of righties.

Right handed, here.

According to my mother, I did nearly everything with my left hand for the first 4-5 years of my life: eating, picking things up, etc. My parents figured I would be left-handed. But when I learned to write, I did it with my right hand and it's been that way ever since.

And before you all jump in, exclaiming that my teachers must have "forced" me to write with my right hand, that practice was long dead at my elementary school by the time I started kindergarten. So there.

I wonder if anyone knows the method the military uses for retraining soldiers who have lost the use of their dominant hand. I can remember growing up with a WW II vet who lost his right arm and was retrained with the left. Remarkable for what he could do, including striking matches and lighting cigarettes with one hand! They're bound to have a method.

I've read somewhere that handedness of kids change till the age 8.

I can write almost as well with my left hand as with my right, but the poll didn't give any choices but an either/or "write right-handed" or "write left-handed."

Still, the reported 25% incidence of lefties here contrasts interestingly with the general population's reported incidence of 10% - 15% left-handedness.

I tried to find out what method the Armed Services use for re-training amputated righties to write left-handed (or the reverse, for that matter — training amputated lefties to write right-handed), but they wouldn't talk to me.

When I was in elementary school in the 1950's we had "left hand" desks in California for those studends requiring same. Then about 1960 they started purchasing the wide table desks.

Dang.... I went throught school in the 60's ... and we had wide desk.....But I kinda remember some of them still having ink wells in them............

I’m right-handed, but I actually was left-handed.

I’ve broken my left wrist three times, so eventually I just learned to write with my right hand. I can still somewhat write with my left hand, yet it’s certainly out of practise. I may try to master left-handed writing again one day though.

I'm a lefty and I usually write with a hook, above the line and the paper tilted to the left. But recently I've been trying to use a flexy nib and the only way to do that is to hold my hand below the line and tilt the paper to the right. I feel like a third grader! Shaky and slow. But, very slowly improving.

It's really interesting to watch myself to see which hand does what. I brush my teeth with my left hand. I pull weeds in the garden with my right hand. I use scissors with my right. I switched my computer mouse from the right after many years to the left. Drives people crazy when they sit at my desk, 'cause they can't use my mouse!

I posted some of this in another thread....

But about three years ago, I decided to re-learn how to write with my hand under the lines instead of "crab hand".....

But part of the fun, is you get to figure out exactly how you want to write..... Hey... if you'r going to re-learn something... re-learn it the way you want.........



And copperplate/Spencurian/ Roundhand..... HEY.... they are perfect for an underwritting lefty.... COOL.... we push and pull the pen exactly the right way to write it............ Happy happy joy Joy....... (Sorry... in a kinda silly mood tonight......)

Mentioned elsewhere (like my intro) I am a lefty, but in the first few years of school I was taught right handed writing... Until it changed in the UK... Psychologists discovered forcing the wrong hand on people caused psychological damage which AFAIK is still being evaluated. I cheated anyway, and wrote with my left when the teacher wasn't watching
I am a complete lefty except in one thing - computers - I use a mouse & keyboard as a righty. I found the left handed settings wierd.

The wiki reference fails to mention Badminton (which I play a lot) - for service, leftys have the advantage in singles and doubles, as we can hide the serve and place shots better, but for play, leftys only have the advantage on singles... In doubles, a lefty and righty can be ata disadvantage. I digress

Most pens/writing paraphernalia is not a problem... but handwriting is. I (and my mum) have a tendency to slope backwards, making cursive or italic very difficult. Any lefty's also have this difficulty?

Sorry about the use of lefty/righty, but it's the way I call myself. I am a lefty and proud!

I asked the question to get an idea of how FP users compared to the overall population. There are enough responses now to say that we (FP users), don't follow the general trend, given a ~ 25%/75% split between lefties and righties. The general poplulation splits at the 10%-15% point.

I don't know what that means, but it is kind of interesting.

I knew a guy that could write normally with his right hand, and write backward with his left hand at the same time!

In other words, starting in the middle, and write out both ways, one regular, one mirror image. Always wondered how he was wired to be able to do that!

Add me to the ambidextrous crowd. I write left handed until I get tired and then I switch to my right hand. It's a nice cycle, much less down time for fatigue. I can draw with both hands too. Not at the same time though, but I'm trying to work on that one.

I don't know the US Army's method for re-training amputees to use the other hand/side (the Army won't talk to me, either), but I've successfully re-trained a few people who needed to change their writing hand because of injury or whatever. Part of my "method" (if you wanted to call it a method) involves thorough experimentation with various pen-positions, paper-positions, etc., which usually helps overcome the difficulties with particular writing tools/slants/styles.

I'm a lefty, gone through the usual attempts in school to change me, especially where FPs concerned. You had to prove you were a neat writer before you were allowed to "graduate" to a real pen, and even though there was nothing wrong with my writing I sometimes smudged through it, and I turned my paper. Regarded as something of a freak. Not to be beaten however I have stayed as a lefty, apart from:
1) working as a checkout girl in the 80s, when tills still had keys not scanners, the set up was for right-handed use.
2) I learnt to type properly when I was 16 so that is evenly spread left and right and in my job as a journalist I still type a lot.
3) I am an archer and when I started the choice of left or right-handed was dictated by the dominant eye, not the hand. Left eye, rubbish, so I shoot right-handed.
But I do have a theory - as this is a right-handed world and we have to adapt to it, we are more likely to be slightly ambidextrous, because we have had to be. Right-handers have never really had to so are totally out of their depth if the unexpected happens.
And going back to the ratios of left to right on FPN, a few years ago I did a survey in my department at work, and out of nine of us sub editors on my desk, five of us were lefties! It's changed a bit now as staff have moved on but including me there are still 3 out of 9. A correlation between left/right choice and career?

Ann

PS, anyone ever found a left-handed dessert fork?

I identify myself as right-handed because I write with my right hand most of the time. I can write with my left. Years ago when I extended invoices for a department store I ran the 10 key with my right hand and wrote cost over sell on all the invoices using my left. My figures were neater than most of the other employees in accounting and nobody had any difficulty deciphering them.

My mother was right handed and could do little with her left hand. My father and both of my grandfathers were left handed. As a child the hand I used for a task seemed to depend more on which adult taught me to perform the task than anything else.

I'm the one who can be seated next to any family member at a gathering and adapt my eating so that our elbows don't knock.

I cannot tell you the number of times my mother, sister or husband laughed at me and said "Your other right". To this day I have to cross myself to be sure which hand is my right. As a result of this confusions, I became proficient at giving driving directions by compass point. I may not know my right from left but I can alwys point North.

Hey lefties: Have you tried to write BACKWARDS, I mean, from right to left? I think that should be the right way for a leftie to write. The reason is simple, if you are left handed, and you write from left to right, you cannot see what you are writing unless you do a kind of arc with your hand, which looks not so nice, not to mention the mess with the wet ink!

Yes I can write backwards in mirror image but not very neatly. It would need a lot of practise to get it to look good.
With me ink doesn't smudge, I write with my hand under the text. I don't have a problem seeing what I write, why would I not see what I write? The letter that I'm writing is always ever so slightly in front of my hand. And being an underwriter the text is always viewable to me.

For writing I am a lefty. For hand tools, including fairly fine work, I can switch hands easily. For most sports things, I am hard core right handed, although for kicking I favor the left. For rifle and pistol shooting I can switch easily.

I can sign and write with both hands with no probs , so I am ambidextrous. I started to be ambidextrous at the age of 10 and it is indeed very useful. Besides that I have learnt how to write quick with my left hand during courses in class, the result is very good. I can aslo shoot wether with the left hand or the right with a rifle/gun but in this case I am a better shooter with my left hand because my directory eye is my left eye.

Well I started out life as a lefty. I can not remeber how I held the pen - then in my mid-twenties I was in an accident that severeky damaged the nerves in my left forearm and hand. So I was forced to switch to the right hand. The in my early 40's I had a stroke - related to the earlier accident, it effected the right side of my body. Long story short I Was still better with my right hand. Though really deficient.

I spent a few years retraining and now I am better than I ever was. (Yeah for italic handwriting courses!) I still shoot a rifle, swing a golf club etc. left-handed.

But when writing I am always "aware" that I am writing with what I still consider to be my off hand.

What a set of experiences!
What you have gone through should encourage others.

You know, I'd really love to see samples (covering as many years as possible) of your writing before/during/after your injuries/stroke, and before/during/after your Italic handwriting courses. Do you think you can post some samples!

I imagine that your Italic-course teachers must prize any testimonial letters you may have written to them. When it comes to handwriting, you have certainly gone through more than most people.

In this connection — I wonder whether you know about the Society for Italic Handwriting's (SIH) annual contest for "Most Improved Handwriting," which awards a prize for the winner (usually money, gift-certificate, or pen[s]).
Unlike other handwriting contests, this requires submitting *two* samples: one of your worst handwriting done at any time, and one of your current handwriting. (The current-handwriting sample has to use Italic; the style of the worst-handwriting sample depends on whatever you wrote at the time, weeks or months or years or even decades earlier.) This allows the SIH judges to evaluate improvement by comparing the two & taking into account the time-lapse between them: as I recall, the contest-judges also take into account any special circumstances that you make known in your current-writing submission (such as having survived an injury/illness that affects handwriting).

I don't recall whether the Society accepts contest-entries from non-members, but if they do ... well, anyone who survived a writing-arm injury AND a stroke affecting the other arm (and now writes better than ever, thank to Italic, even though compelled by the stroke to use his "off" arm) would seem to stand an excellent chance of winning an Italic organization's contest for "Most Improved."
May I suggest that you contact the Secretary of the SIH (my friend Nicholas Caulkin at nickthenibs@endwood.freeserve.co.uk ) to find out whether you can enter the contest without belonging to the SIH? (Or perhaps, for all I know to the contrary, you have *already* joined the SIH ... ?)

If you mean mirror writing, then yes. As a child I wrote this way all the time and was constantly in trouble for it. I could calculate okay in arithmetic but I would then write the figures the wrong way round - until my mother showed my teachers how to hold my work up to a mirror they were really worried.

Lost the ability a bit but in college could still do the ole Da Vinci thing to disguise my notes. Now find it almost impossible.

I still tend to read magazines from the back, though....

I think that a higher proportion of leftys use a fountain pen than one might expect because writing is just more difficult - and with a fountain pen you have to slow down and take more care.

Use a mouse with my right hand though and play the guitar right handed - could never be bothered to turn the strings round.

I am right-handed and I must be terminally so. I would love to be ambidextrous. While on active duty, I had a bad injury to my right hand. While I recovered, I saw the opportunity to achieve my goal of being ambidextrous so I tried using my left hand to write. The experience was awful. I never learned.

The folks on active duty in the Army who retrain amputees are few and far between. The trainers are vocational rehabilitation specialists, though some are physical therapists. I tend to think you might have more luck trying to consult Veterans Administration Vocational Rehab people as they tend to be more intigrated into the civilian community. I worked in clinical environments for my last five years on active duty, but I never saw this kind of training being done.

Those interested in teaching a left-hander to write (or to write better) —

and those interested in re-teaching a right-hander to write left-handed (because of injury/illness/etc rendering the right hand useless for writing) —

should look at LEFT HAND WRITING SKILLS at http://robinswoodpress.com/main/productseries.php?id=930 — for free downloadable pages and other info, click the blue-and-white links in the left margin.
I increasingly recommend this book to my left-handed students, and also to naturally right-handed folks who (for whatever reason) cannot use the right hand for writing. Also, I definitely recommend it to any parent, teacher, or other person who teaches/shows a left-hander how to write.
If you order LEFT HAND WRITING SKILLS, please tell the publisher (Christopher Marshall) that you learned about it from me You can reach Mr. Marshall at cm@robinswoodpress.com

It's strange; only 10% of the world's population is left handed, but the results of this poll don't match that figure...

The difference in handedness between the general population and the FPN population is fairly large. I wonder what all contributes to it?

I wonder if the results of the poll are skewed slightly by the fact that if you're lefthanded you're more likely to notice the poll and actually give a flying fig what people think about you and your writing habits? A righty might not pay it a second thought, but if most lefties are like me they will jump at the chance to talk about their "specialness"! Righties won't.
Therefore more of us sign up, but the ratios do not truly reflect the handedness of the membership. Though deep down I like the idea of us being a growing force in at least one little world!
Just a thought.
And I'm still looking for lefthanded dessert forks.

That is a valid source of error. Self reporting will nearly always be biased. Actually I started the poll because I'm a lefty. I tell people we're the best 10% of the population.

Some of the "skew" may arise from this:

/1/ people with handwriting-problems have higher-than-average odds of getting "into" fountain-pens (seeking for something that will help them), and ...

/2/ left-handers tend to have more handwriting-problems than right-handers do. (About 40%-50% of my Handwriting Repair [tm] clientele — but only 10%-15% of the general population — writes left-handed.)

Biologists have located the handedness gene. (See below for references.)

In humans/chimpanzees/other great apes, it inhabits chromosome 12 —
specifically, a location called 2p12-q11.

This gene works in a rather unusual way:
although getting one or two copies of the gene's dominant allele ("R")
produces right-handedness, getting two copies of the gene's recessive
allele ("r") does NOT produce left-handedness —
instead, getting two recessives ("rr") causes random assignment of handedness.

"RR" —> a righty
"Rr" —> a righty
"rR" —> a righty
"rr" —> equal odds of becoming a righty or a lefty.

Article on the discovery —
http://tinyurl.com/yqtz42

Page about some human genes, including this one (first on the page) —
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim/getmap.cgi?l139900

Gene map for the region of chromosome 12 that contains this gene —
http://tinyurl.com/ypc5lg

I just thought you might like to know.

anniemac


Easy! I used to visit their shop in Soho years ago - but try this link...

anything left handed

anniemac

QUOTE
And I'm still looking for lefthanded dessert forks



Easy! I used to visit their shop in Soho years ago - but try this link...


I will hit the website immediately! And waitresses across the land will breathe a sigh of relief knowing they will no longer be harangued for their employers' inadequacies!

I'm a leftie - but years ago when I worked in the Probation Service in UK, I had a female boss who was ambidextrous and could also write mirror writing with both hands at the same time.............made note taking in Court a doddle!!! Boy, was she smart!

And "doddle" means ... ?

Doddle - making something an easy task.

Did you fix the car? Yes, it was a doddle.

I really don't know the origins of the word, but I got it from my parents, and if I remember rightly, my grandfather used to say it.

HTH