hen you’re 12, small, trivial details mean the world to you. Take the question of who gets to play the lead character in the annual school play. Or the weighty problem of what your mother packed for lunch and how you’re going to get rid of it. Or maybe even the persistent deliberation of how your handwriting compares with that of the kid sitting next to you.

However, like many relatively insignificant issues that we lose sleep over as a child and continue to hold dear as we age for their contribution to our personal happiness, a person’s handwriting is more than just a birthmark, and those fickle childish moments of fussing over its unseemly and uncontrollable course are evidently not without grounds.

The science (or art) of graphology has, in theory, existed since the 16th century and claims to accomplish a most astonishing feat — identifying one’s personality and character traits by analysing of the handwriting.

Endorsed by Aristotle’s own words, “Handwriting is the visible form of speech. Somewhere in handwriting is the expression of emotions underlying the writer’s thoughts, ideas and desires.”

Some of the earliest references to handwriting analysis included Camillo Baldi, who graduated in 1572 in philosophy and medicine. His treaty De Signis Ex Epistoles, which translates to something in the line of Symptoms out of a Letter, was published in 1622 and remains his best known work.

In 1904, Alfred Binnet, the psychologist who was later to develop the first IQ test, published a study affirming the reliability of handwriting analysis. Edgar Allan Poe published his work on graphology, using the word ‘autography’ to describe his research. It is interesting to note that the wisest and brightest of their age did not receive their due share of attention or encouragement from the authorities, and graphology books remained in the libraries’ superficial ‘Occult’ category until 1979.

Perhaps the most widespread use of graphological analysis is the use of ‘signature’ as a means of identifying ourselves. I’ve known all but children to underestimate the importance of a well-drafted signature, whereas it is crucial to protect you from identity theft or forgery. While detectives couldn’t be less concerned about what your handwriting has to say about your personality, they do make it their business to make sure that it remains constant on the signature line.

Your characteristics speak through your cursive loops, and that is why forgers find it hardest to copy a joined, flowing hand, compared to an abrupt, spaced one. Graphology can ultimately act as a lie detector too. Research done in the Handwriting University International (yes, there is such a place), proves that a person lying is liable to betray it by superfluous scrawling like a double loop on an O. Daunting, isn’t it?

Apparently, when we lie, we are extra attentive to every stroke of the pen, causing a fake and phoney hand. Like your facial expressions and your gestures, your handwriting is another facet for emotions of fear or excitement. Ever noticed that when you’re under pressure in an examination room, your handwriting is quirky and uncontrollable? Or is that just me?

M. N. Bunker, the founding father of graphoanalogy as it is practised today, categorised specific signs of the written hand as they correlate with the writer’s personality. For instance, a left slant on your words is usually an indicator of introversion, while the right slant is generally the trait of extroverts. However, my own experience with left-slanters tells a slightly different story, and while they may usually be antisocial, they are rarely introvert up till sixth grade. That and the fact that final introversion or extroversion doesn’t sink in till the late teens for most of us, should be enough to comfort themisinterpreted.

Mr Bunker also characterised pride to be evident in long 'd's and ‘t' stems not vertical. Similarly, there are many other notable contributors to this study, such as Peter Ferrara, Klara Roman, Werner Wolf and others, who extended character analysis by researching and discovering several other traits inherent in those treacherous loops, and paving the way for a standardised reference text that makes graphology a science no less wondrous than palm-reading or astronomy.

There are now several qualities by which a sample may be analysed. These include:

Size: Nobody likes a big, bloated scrawl; just as nobody likes a big bloated boaster. But a bigger hand is not necessarily conceited. It just yells out, ‘I want to be noticed.’

Structure: If your hand is a perfect fit in those two narrow red lines in elementary school notebooks, you have a good sense of proportion. Congratulations! You could be an artist.

T-bars: I’ll be honest with you, I like the t-bar to be high on the stem, and a little to the left. Let’s see what that says… ‘I have distant and visionary goals, but also impatience and an explosive temper!’ In contrast, if your t-bars are lower down, you’re more realistic, and if they’re way ahead of the stem, you’re a procrastinator.

Stroke pressure: Some people break their leads on their notebooks, and leave a distinct impression of their scrawl for pages to come. Stroke pressure represents your ‘intellectual vitality and emotional intensity’.

Imposed written structure: Here’s something you don’t think about everyday: who decides how long your ‘p’s and ‘q’s and ‘t’s must be? What if they could reach the sky, or not be seen at all? What if they were wide as ‘o’s and crooked as ‘r’s? This form of written structure is imposed on us from the day we learn to write, just as so many other conventional orders that we learn to live with without ever noticing they’re there.

Slant: Every kid loves a slant. It’s so grown up. It is interesting to note that grown ups rarely take the trouble to slant their words. They don’t have long, systematic pages and pages of essays to turn in, so they ‘let their writing go’. Well, a slant is representative of your reaction or inner feelings toward immediate circumstances.

But isn’t the whole point of graphology lost when you can, with dedication and practice, change the way you write? In the past, a good hand was a sure sign of an educated, respectable family and in Colonial America, home-schooled kids had to devote part of their time every day to doing ‘lines’, not as a punishment, but so as to improve and beautify their writing.

This superstition is not local to a particular culture or age; even today in Pakistan you come across many conservatives who believe that purity of mind and heart, and general accomplishment is portrayed in the way you put words on paper. Yes, writings are influenced deliberately by devoted practice, but the fact remains that you cannot erase the imprint of your identity from your handwriting, however hard you try.

A writing can be superfluous, back-slanted, spiky or bloated, and still be done to perfection. And even if you model your handwriting on the pattern of a beloved sample, it is sure to revert one day to the same annoying and predictable formations as the jot on your primary school exam. Take it from someone who knows.