Handwriting

[In My Memory]

(Hopefully, this thread on differences between male and female handwriting is in the right forum.)

 

I admire beautiful handwriting, and I often think to myself things like "she has such elegant handwriting" (secretly I am incredibly envious!). Those kinds of thoughts make me wonder how we form gender preconceptions about authors handwriting, especially when papers are written anonymously or contains no gender-revealing personal detail at all.

 

I find most people can correctly guess an authors gender based on handwriting with success rate greater than chance - so, my first question is, if gender can be guessed so easily from handwriting then which properties make handwriting masculine or feminine?

 

 

Something which makes me very curious also is a small program online called the Gender Genie, which claims to correctly identify an authors gender based on various grammatical cues. The program doesnt seem to be terribly accurate, at least based on samples from various ScienceForums posters - in fact, there are many female posters with 5 - 10x as many masculine cues than feminine cues per post, and almost all of the women were incorrectly identified as men. Either that, or 95% of the allegedly female posters on SF are actually men incognito .

 

Regardless, I find the idea behind the program to be quite interesting, but is it really sound? After all, most people have enough experience with the anonymity of the internet and gender-neutral usernames that sometimes the gender of even prolific posters is less than obvious.

 

My second question is, which grammatical cues give away masculine or feminine writing?

 

(Oh, and be sure not to confuse this thread topic with pseudoscientific endeavors like graphology.)

[coquina]

I wonder if it has anything to do with fine motor skills. As far as I know, there is no scientific data to back this up, but my dad supervised machinists during WWII, when women, a la "Rosie the Riveter" did men's jobs. Dad said the women he supervised were better at making tiny parts - he deduced it was because their hands were smaller. I'm not sure that it is really the smallness of hands, but historically, women have done jobs that require a "lighter touch", ie embroidery and hand stitching. I wonder if they have genetically finer motor skills which enable them to do more exacting tasks - which in turn leads to more elegant handwriting.

 

Of course - it could be that women just care more about perception, and think that sloppy handwriting connotates sloppy everthingelse.

[ydoaPs]

i have wierd handwriteing. when i print, you'd swear a girl wrote it. when i write, it is almost as sloppy as schrodingers'. wait, i take that last part back: it isn't anywhere near as messy as his, but it is fairly messy. my "writing" is messy, but not so much as to be illegible.

[Glider]

There is quite a bit of research on this topic. As far as I remember, females tend to consider their handwriting an extension of themselves; an extension of their personality, as opposed to males who consider it a means of transferring information. As such, females will experiment with their handriting and in many cases, will change it completely several times, usually according to the degree to which they consider it an accurate reflection of the way in which they see themselves.

 

As for grammar, females have a general advantage over males when it comes to the use of language. They develop their language skills earlier, and their lexicon grows faster. This advantage would logically extend to grammar, insofar as famales would be likely to make fewer grammatical errors, having practiced more. However, depending upon need (i.e. occupation after school etc.), these differences tend to reduce in adulthood.

[reverse]

The study of handwriting as a scientific tool is a sort of well known pseudo science.

think it's called Graphology or something like that.

it was pretty popular in the Victorian era.

and Phrenology.

I had a good look into it some years back.

 

Personally I have many handwriting styles,

and swap between them continually.

Its just a skill anyone can learn.

I was taught the traditional styles as a child by a professional calligrapher.

it's a sort of rhythmic instinctive thing that you don't forget...kind of like swimming?

First had to learn the Roman styles by copying the Trajan column inscriptions.

 

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Trajans_Column/inscription.html

 

I have taught under fives perfect calligraphic style. A flat nib helps.

They seem to take to it naturally.

 

If you want fantastic handwriting,

enrol in a calligraphy class and swap that ballpoint for a higher quality pen.

 

http://www.sanders-garrett.com/weddings/envelopes/spencerian.gif

 

[atinymonkey]

I wonder if they have genetically finer motor skills which enable them to do more exacting tasks - which in turn leads to more elegant handwriting.

 

I've wondered about this too. Women can and do display finer motor skills, and yet there are only a handful of great artists who are female. It cannot be because of a lack of artistic ability or opportunity, literature sets the great writers and poets on an equal footing despite gender and both sexes produce comparative qualities and amounts of work.

 

Maybe it's just men prefer more practical and large application of talents, to show off what they can acheive, so it's good old male ego that drives the great painters and sculptors.

[In My Memory]

Glider,

 

There is quite a bit of research on this topic. As far as I remember, females tend to consider their handwriting an extension of themselves; an extension of their personality, as opposed to males who consider it a means of transferring information. As such, females will experiment with their handriting and in many cases, will change it completely several times, usually according to the degree to which they consider it an accurate reflection of the way in which they see themselves.

I had no idea how common that was

 

Before I created this thread, I was sorting through very old things I'd kept from highschool, and I remembered all the different handwriting styles I had used - at least 4 or 5 distinct styles. I would fill up sheets of paper which read like:

 

"This is what my handwriting looks like right now...

Now I've added a sharp slant - do I like I like it like this or like this...

Should I write my a's like this?

Should I write everything in cursive?"

 

And so on like that until I had perfected the style I liked. I'd even use different styles depending on who I was recieving my notes ( ).

[coquina]

I've wondered about this too. Women can and do display finer motor skills' date=' and yet there are only a handful of great artists who are female. It cannot be because of a lack of artistic ability or opportunity, literature sets the great writers and poets on an equal footing despite gender and both sexes produce comparative qualities and amounts of work.

 

Maybe it's just men prefer more practical and large application of talents, to show off what they can acheive, so it's good old male ego that drives the great painters and sculptors.[/quote']

 

It doesn't take fine motor skills to be a great artist. As a matter of fact, too much detail can detract from what you are trying to convey. If a customer is interested in detail, they can take a photograph. An artist seeks to convey more than a replication of what the eye sees.

[reverse]

Wasn’t the roll of women in Art one of inspiration?.

 

I seem to recall many artists having a female muse.

[atinymonkey]

It doesn't take fine motor skills to be a great artist. As a matter of fact, too much detail can detract from what you are trying to convey. If a customer is interested in detail, they can take a photograph. An artist seeks to convey more than a replication of what the eye sees.

That makes sense, and explains why the great photographers are male and female equally. However, I was thinking more of fine art and sculpture when I referred to motor skills.

 

Wasn’t the roll of women in Art one of inspiration?.

 

I seem to recall many artists having a female muse.

That's simply indicative of the dominance of men in the arts. Female artists would have male muses, and male muses would be more prolific if female artists were prevalent in the arts.

[reverse]

Glider' date='

Before I created this thread, I was sorting through very old things I'd kept from highschool, and I remembered all the different handwriting styles I had used - at least 4 or 5 distinct styles.

And so on like that until I had perfected the style I liked. I'd even use different styles depending on who I was recieving my notes ( ).[/quote']

 

So have you settled on one distinct style now?

Does it change with your mood?

[aswokei]

There is quite a bit of research on this topic. As far as I remember, females tend to consider their handwriting an extension of themselves; an extension of their personality, as opposed to males who consider it a means of transferring information. As such, females will experiment with their handriting and in many cases, will change it completely several times, usually according to the degree to which they consider it an accurate reflection of the way in which they see themselves.

 

That's interesting glider, and from my experience with women, it seems to be true. It definitely seems true that women devote more brain bandwidth to encoding emotion into communication. After all, emotions can communicate a LOT of information if encoded and interpreted properly. That's why so many of those geniuses with Asperger's Syndrome often fail in life. They cannot read subtle cues.

 

I have a more simple proposition, however, and maybe it's just part of an explanation: females write more.

 

I'm a guy and I have fairly masculine handwriting. Small, jagged, unkempt loops and pulls. However, if I find myself writing for an extended amount of time, something remarkable happens. I write bigger, loosen my wrist and let a broader motion carry the work as this technique involves less exertion, and well, better pennmanship. The result is big, beautiful, easy to read and voluptuous letters. For a fleeting instant, I know what it's like to be a woman.

 

Do any guys experience this?

 

As for grammar? I dunno. I like what Glider said.