HI all Lefties,
Im a left underwriter.
According to the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, underwriters are not true lefties and will often do many other things with their right hand. This is true for me - I write left handed but sew and knit right handed. I turn book pages with my right hand etc
The book says that hookers or overwriters are true 100% lefties in that their brain halves are completely reversed (or something like that. Its been a while since I read it), and they do everything left-handed.
What are your experiences?
Tawanda

I am also an under the line writer. I hold a cricket bat right handed, kick a soccer ball with my right foot and I had a couple of bouts when I was 14 and I boxed conventionally. (I was well beaten in both, so maybe I should have fought southpaw).

I am a left-handed overwriter. Given the choice, I do everything left-handed (using scissors, ice cream scoops, learning to play the guitar, kitchen utensils, writing instruments, etc.). As a kid, I was taught to swing a bat right-handed, and that has continued to this day.

OK, it seems the thoery is bearing out!
I'd forgotten scissors, I use those right handed but I stir saucepans with my left! And shadows, nice to seee another cricket fan. Just watched the 20/twenty match at Old Trafford last month between Eng and NZ. Hoping to get tickets for the Ashes next year! Its taken me nearly 18 yrs of marriage but I've finally got my husband and my best friend Sarah, hooked on the sport too. I'm a Notts Outlaws fan at county level, how about you? (Sorry to all for going off-topic but meeting another cricket fan is a rare occurance)
T

I'm a lefty overwriter and I do everything left-handed (left-footed too). My right hand is pretty much completely useless.

Last year, I read a book called The Left Stuff, which caught me up in more recent changes in thinking about left-handers. As I understand it, there's a whole range of people who can be considered left handed, and brain scans show that left-handed people's brains do not actually conform to the old and popularized left brain/right brain theory. I think I remember that the book, which is a light survey of various studies about left-handedness, states that, while right-handed people's brains do fire up in more predictable places when engaged in specific tasks, every lefthander's brain is mapped differently.

Anyway, I was a lefthanded overwriter all my life until a couple years ago, when I switched to writing underhanded. No more smudges on the writing hand! I use scissors, used to play tennis, and use a mouse with my right hand, as well as use utensils with either hand. I've always put that down to socialization, since most instructors are right handed, bumping elbows when eating was awkward, and tools that are made with a hand preference -- well, it's not going to be for the left.

An underwriter mirrors the hold while an overwriter basically has the same hold with a funny hand position. An underwriters nib aims right, an overwriters nib aims left.
I am an underwriter.
I hate scissors,I can't operate them. I finally gave up trying and began using a box cutter.I do everything left handed

I can see why leftys would be unpredictable as to what part of the brain fired during activity. We do not usually have the luxury of watching the person before us and simply copying what they do. We solve problems individually. Take the scissors example, some just switch hands,some test fifty pairs until they find a pair that works,some create companys that make left handed scissors,some just choose other cutting tools. I can't imagine those solutions would use the same nueral pathways.
.

Thanks guys, you've given me loads to chew over. I find it a fascinating study.
All my children and grandchildren a right handed but here's a strange thing - my daughter has always eaten with her knife in her left hand and fork in her right, which is basically left handed. I eat right handed so she didnt get it copying me. (Hubbie is right hander too). We tried everything to get her to eat "properly" when she was young, mainly bercause wherever you go that is how tables are set, and we didnt want her to feel concious. But, no, she stuck to the left approach. She is now 24 and if we go somewhere very posh for a meal, where there are several courses, and several sets of cutlery, she spends a few minutes as soon as she sits down, swapping them all round!

Left-handed underwriter who can use scissors in either hand, unless they have those horrible moulded plastic finger-grips that never fit anyone properly, either hand.

Knife and fork conventional, but spoon and fork southpaw - no, I don't undestand it either! But when carving a chicken or filletting a fish, the knife goes in the left hand, even when I need a fork in the right hand to stop the chicken sliding away.

And the computer mouse is on the left but the left and right click buttons stay unchanged.

Chris

And this is true for me, also--virtually everything done left-handed except batting--not that I've ever swung a bat very much!

Best, Ann

fully ambidextrous here overwriter with the left and right hand. I can use scissors, knives, guns, bat and other tools either with right or the left hand.

I'm an overwriter and my handedness switches based on the type of task I'm doing. All fine motor control (writing, brushing teeth, eating, using scissors if I can find a left-handed pair) is done in the left hand. Anything requiring more strength (any sport, opening jars) is done with my right hand.

I have allways been an overwriter. But am right-handed and footed for most other things except racket sports. Which is a irritating because my right arm is stronger.

I'm an overwriter and do everything with my left hand except us scissors, cut with knives and play bass guitar.

Left handers are the most discriminated against minority in the world!

From telephones to can openers to notebooks to power tools most of the small implements of society are designed for "rightie". The most dangerous hand tool you can purchase without a license is a chain saw. So what if 40,000 people in the U.S. are injured or killed by them each year, you still cannot buy a left-handed chain saw! Rightie is out to kill us! Lefties of the world, unite! As several have already pointed out, left handers are socialized, programmed, coerced, intimidated, and worse to conform to the will of the majority. We will have to build our left-handed devices in secret as we prepare for the revolution.

Leftie tip #32: Keep a pair of left-handed scissors in your desk. You will have many moments of amusement and the occasional flash of payback.

For your research:
I'm a former LH overwriter who converted to underwriter because of a prejudiced high school teacher
Throws: L
Bats: Both
Eats: L
Shoots: Both
Fishes: L
Guitars: R
Kicks: L
Operates cameras and computers: R (fully socialized by 'da man )

Bill

Leftie underwriter here although I have dallied with overwriting in the dim and distant past.

But - I'm only a leftie for writing. Everything else I do right-handed.

My sister (who is now 61) was a leftie when she first went to school, but was forced to change by her teachers....... Imagine trying that now......

Viva la revolution!