Please comment on my penmanship. Many of my grade school teachers already have, and the F they gave me did not stand for "fine"! Hopefully I have improved over the years. 99% of my work is done on a computer, but I still enjoy pen and ink.

Punch

I, too, failed to impress elementary school teachers with the quality of my penmanship. In the summer of my 8th grade year did I not only realize that my penmanship was lousy but it couldn't even be read by my self. Your penmanship while being far from being considered a calligraphy style, is in fact readable which is the whole point of penmanship.

A favor, if you will, how does one get a scan into this form such as your handwriting sample.

Best Regards

Ken

PS I am a Fuente fan myself.

punch :
I like your writing - it is strong, personal and legible (in spite of the faint reproduction).

You've asked for comments - The width and spacing are fine - nice and consistent. I would try to increase the height of the minuscule letters just a bit, as some of your lettering is tending to close up. You could also try writing with a fine instead of a medium nib.

These are just personal observations - others may well disagree.

It looks pretty good to me.

caliken

Hi, you want honest comments and here the are....

(1) You need a better FP, I have not seen good work from ST Dupont "yet"
(2) Your writing is eligible, not bad, but seems to be in a hurry, slow down and pay more attention to each stroke
(3) www.nibs.com...testimonial sections have a lot of scripting to view... I think when you find yourself reading up and down a lot more than left to right...you have improved in penmanship..
(4) and by the way electronic words are cheap by comparison

just my 2cents

2cents

I have an HP Deskjet F380 printer / scanner / copier that I use to scan the work. This website as probably one of the best uploading sequences that I have seen on a forum.

I have to agree with caliken. I'd give it a "B", at least. There is some stiff competition with some folks here on FPN, so that would be grading on a curve.
It's very easy to read and it has some character. Those qualities are what is important to me, rather than fitting a standard.
You asked for opinions and that's mine!
Cedar

punch...

The only word I had trouble reading was the first word on the 8th line. Can't tell if it's "where" or "when"--but in this case the sentence makes sense either way.
Thus, I'd have to say that your writing looks pretty good I agree that it may be beneficial to make your lower case letters a bit larger.

Best, Ann

Based on all of your comments, I gave it a second try. I usually write very quickly, and I find it very difficult to write slowly. I reloaded my pen with a darker ink. I thought about switching pens, but I find that I have a very hard time controlling some of my other pens when I slow down. This is particularly true with my fine points (which I usually use in my journals, BTW). The Dupont, while perhaps not the best pen manufactured, is the easiest of my pens to control when I am writing deliberately. The only other pen that I have that feels this way is a Chinese copy of the Olympio with a fine nib that writes very well, other than its nasty tendency to splotch ink all over the place at random intervals!

I'm a pharmacist and a part of my job is deciphering people's handwriting. Believe me, your handwriting is not bad at all. It's pretty legible and I had no trouble reading

I found the original sample quite easily readable although, as was mentioned, the minuscules seemed to close up a lot. The 2nd sample is much cleaner and slightly easier to read.

Click to view attachment
Hi,

There are two things I noticed

(1) When scripting it should be continuous, I noticed discontinuity in your words
(2) Conistency is also important, have you noticed you write the "t" in two different ways, depending on where the "t" is

I tried to upload a nice version from the internet, not sure if it is successful



2cents

Hi Punch

I have forgotten much of the graphology theory I learnt about 30 years ago, and disposed-of most of the reference books, but a few things stand-out from a graphologist's POV, but not knowing how you were taught:

1. Size & Proportion: average overall, with relatively high upper-zone and small centre-zone
2. Slope and Slant: a clear right slant andlines which 'droop slightly in the middle, then rise at the ends
3. Spacing: very clear and well defined, between words and lines, and a quite even left margin
4. Strokes & Pressure: hard to assess from a scan, but looks mostly quite firm, but not heavy
5. Unusual letters, Ts & Is: some looped Ts, cross-bar f low, normally dotted Is. some g loops a bit unusual
6. Connectedness: a mixture..some letter joined in groups, but quite a lot of 'breaks'
7. Signature: similar to the rest, just a little larger, not underlined, and D is different
8. Capitals: slightly unusual capital D, except in signature
9. Speed: fairly quick
10. Personal pronoun "I": normal and in keeping with other script

Now, as I'm sure you can imagine, I couldn't put that all together in just a few minutes to give a 'professional' analysis of this writer (even if I would, in a public forum!). Fortunately nothing 'sinister leaps-out at me...quite the contrary!

Suffice it to say that, boring as it usually is to most people, this appears to be the writing of a 'normal person', a quick, clear and well-organised thinker, who gets on pretty well well with others, without allowing them too close.
His way of thinking/reasoning is a mixture of logic and intuition, and he is neither prodigal nor mean with his money.
He's pretty much a WYSIWYG, possibly a bit of an idealist (or is it a dreamer?), and quite modest.

I would not think he has more than average artisitic ability, but is more of a problem solver.

If he occasionally has 'bad days', he appears able to cope with them and to end with a smile on his face.

Although I wouldn't say if I did, I see no evidence of medical problems

Bearing in mind that it's 20+ years since I tried this, from a real sample...how did I do?

Just a bit of fun and an amusing 'parlour trick', but with a bit more scientific basis than,say, astrology

How I was taught . . . Hmmm. I was taught English in grade school. This was not my first language as I was born in Germany and spoke mostly German in my childhood. They evidentially did a reasonable job teaching me English since I can no longer speak German while I am awake (I do occasionally dream in German and it amazes me that I can understand in my dreams what I cannot when I am awake). Penmanship was quite difficult for me. I was one of those kids that could not color within the lines and who's artistic ability was limited to stick figures. My interest in art and ornamentation came later. I have an appreciation for beauty, but not the ability to create it. I do not envy those that can because we each have our gifts. However, I greatly respect their ability!

As part of my job, I had to take a battery of tests (Myers - Briggs, KAI and Conflict Resolution, MMPI), and your graphology skills came at least as close as all of this scientific testing! Personally, I put far more weight in graphology than I do most of the other tests out there. The art seems to be practiced more in Europe than in the U.S. Too bad actually. I believe if more people used this as a pre-employment screen, we would have fewer problems at work. And this is coming from a Union Steward!

very interesting, imagine you have to write your resume in ink, and not electronic words....wonder if Albert Einstein would got hired??

2cents

Probably not for what I do. His talents were of more use where he was, and I am thankful for it! Perhaps someone from across the big pond can chime in. I believe that some firms will have you write a paragraph, using a fountain pen, and they will send that in for analysis. They are looking for violent tendencies, dishonesty, deception and other less than desirable traits. They are not looking for the ability to create illuminated manuscripts. From what I have been told, graphology is used in some places overseas much like the MMPI is used in the States.

I have applied for jobs which required at least a handwritten covering letter....presumably they wanted to check-out one's legibility, although there have certainly been some companies who employ(ed) graphologists.

I can't recall what Einstein's writing was like but it probably refleected, to some extent, his 'creative genius'..... graphologists learnt to see past the 'superficialities'.

I have seen it suggested that FDR's illness might have been diagnosed sooner if there had been a graphologist 'in the house'!

Certainly many forms of mental illness(and some physical ones) are indicated in handwriting.

One just has to be cautious about 'reading too much' into graphological analysis....as one should, IMO, with any form of psychometric testing.

Yes, all of these are simply tools.

Thanks for the feedback, Punch...it was quite gratifying to find how much I remembered after so long....the old grey cells have not completely atrophied.... and also that you found it reasonably accurate

I was really wondering what handwriting style you were taught, as it is useful to see how far one has departed from the 'copybook style' one was taught to follow.

German schools tend, IIRC, to teach a much more 'angular' style than N America...or used to, anyway.

'Forensic graphology' is (or was) quite widely practised in Europe.....its use in personnel slection is probably, like handwriting itself, on the wane.

I'm not really sure what style I was taught. It was whatever they were teaching in the Texas Public Schools in the late '60's and early '70's. Zaner - Bloser perhaps? I don't really remember what the books looked like, but I will probably have that alphabet chart burned in my memory forever. My punishment for getting "U" (Unsatisfactory, equivalent to F) in penmanship was to copy a page out of a book by hand each afternoon after school. From my old grade cards I can tell that "Writing" was a graded subject in Grade 1 - 5. My second grade year was my worst. I had moved to Illinois by my 6th Grade year, and my grade cards for Grade 6 and 7 show "Handwriting" as a graded subject. Sixth Grade scores were consistently "U". By Seventh Grade I had managed to score a "U+" :-)

High school did not have handwriting as a graded subject. Most teachers went on the principle that if they could read what you wrote, they were satisfied with the paper (provided the content was satisfactory). By my Sophomore year, I had given up writing by hand if a typewriter was available. I had picked up the use of a fountain pen (Sheaffer Cartridge Pen) in Fourth Grade and used this kind of a pen through most of the rest of my schooling, except where some Philistine teacher required the use of a ball point. During my Sophomore year, I was required to write out the entire US Constitution by hand, including all Amendments, as part of my American Government class. I did this with an old Sheaffer Cartridge Pen. All my notes through High School and Technical School were handwritten, but all my papers for grade were typed. It was in High School that I noticed a lot of kids develop particular handwriting forms. The girls tended to be "loopy" and the boys tended toward printing (if it had to be legible). That is perhaps where I developed my broken style. Also, my handwriting tends to be a cross between my Father's (very small minuscules) and my Mother's (groups of letters connected, with any letter ending to the left not connected to the following letter). My mother learned to write in German before the script changed to the "modern" script, and some of the early German that I learned to read was the old German script used in the turn of the century (1900's) German Bibles, and my mother's handwriting.

Does this help your analysis any?

I was interested by your reference to the change in German script. You see, when I really need to get down and study, I seclude myself in a nice quiet corner of the library near the German language books - so I won't be tempted to read them! Many of the books are late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and are written in an italic-looking font. Is this what you are talking about; is this the old script? Did the handwritten script look similar to the printed version? What sort of nib was used?

Thanks, just curious!

The Bible that I have readily at hand was published in 1901, so the writing should be similar if not identical to what you have seen. I don't know what nib would be used to do this, but my guess is some sort of italic. My mother wrote with whatever she could get her hands on. I know that when I was growing up, all of the "good" pens around the house were Parker Jotters. My father would have a cow if someone took one of his Parkers. The rest of use used Papermate pens or Bics. I was the only one to use a fountain pen, and that was an old Sheaffer Cartridge Pen. I still have one made in 1960 that I use just for nostalgia. Sure makes me appreciate every other pen I have!

Thanks, Punch...I'd never heard of Zaner-Bloser, but I recognise it as what my mother taught me!
It doesn't make any significant difference to what I previously wrote.

I do think that all those teachers who awarded you such low grades were sadly misguided....I find your writing (today) quite easy on the eye. It's well laid-out, legible and has 'character'!
I am quite a bit older than you and was, I believe, fortunate in not having such emphasis on 'formal penmanship' enforced in my early (English) education!