Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Department of English Studies

University: Faculty of letter and human sciences Master Program: Applied Language
Dhar Al Mahraz, Fes. And Research of Higher Education

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A Thesis Submitted in the Partial Fulfilment of the MA Degree in Applied Studies. Applied
Language and Research of higher education

Submitted by: Supervised by:

Lahrech Lamiae Dr. Sandy Kebir

CNE: 1210938372

Academic Year: (2017/2018)

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To my beloved father and mother and brother and sister.

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Acknowledgement

Foremost, I thank Allah the Almighty, the most merciful who has led me to

the completion of this research project, and gave me courage and energy to do my

work accordingly.

Secondly i owe my deepest gratitude to those who had helped me complete

this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to give my genuine thanks to my thesis

supervisor, Dr Sandy Kebir for his valuable suggestions and deep interest , and to

university professors and students who participated in this research paper

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Table of contents

Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………1
Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... 2
Table of contents ............................................................................................................................ 3
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter one .................................................................................................................................... 8
1. Handwriting & Personality: ............................................................................................................. 8
1.1. The Origin of Bad Handwriting............................................................................................... 8
2. Types of handwriting......................................................................................................................... 21
2.1. Graphology ................................................................................................................................. 21
3 . Evaluation & handwriting ................................................................................................................ 44
3.1. The effect of handwriting on evaluation..................................................................................... 44
Chapter two .................................................................................................................................. 50
1. Methodology: ................................................................................................................................ 50
2. Findings: .......................................................................................................................................... 54
3. Analysis of the Findings: ................................................................................................................... 72
4. Implications & Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 92
5. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................. 93
6. Limitations of the study .................................................................................................................... 93
Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................... 94
Appendix 2 ................................................................................................................................... 97
References .................................................................................................................................. 100
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Abstract

This project involves discovering the factors that affect students’ handwritings and the

causes for students’ low academic achievement in the Moroccan university. The goal is to show

students the different factors affecting their handwritings and to make students aware of the

importance of handwriting in the university level. Then, to know if handwriting is the only

factor that causes professors to give low grades to students. This has been done by examining

the awareness of students concerning the importance of handwriting, and investigating the

factors affecting students’ academic achievements. Then, it is done also by investigating

whether handwriting is the only factors affecting students’ academic achievement and whether

accuracy of grammar is also taken into account in professors’ examinations. Upon examinations

of these questions, it has been clear that handwriting is not that important for professors as long

as the content of the essay is clear to the reader, even if the handwriting is not readable. Then,

students turned out to be aware of the importance of handwriting from the past experience they

have been through before. Then, after the examination, students revealed that stress is the most

likely factor to affect their handwritings compared to the other personality disturbances.
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Introduction

In this research paper, I will introduce an issue that many professors and students

overlook, this issue is handwriting. In many universities, especially English major, some

professors get really angry at the handwriting of their students. That is why, they end up giving

them just the average at best or failing them at worst.

Thus, outside university or the academic context, people have different personalities that

eventually affect their handwritings. In other words, our unconscious mind affects the way we

write because different personalities mean different wiring systems of the brain. Therefore, our

unconscious mind reflects our personality traits or the type of handwriting we have, either

rounded or sharp or spaced letters handwriting…etc.

The issue of handwriting it is highly debatable because as many people noticed, even if

students are taught how to write by the same teacher, they still have different scripts of

handwritings which is mysterious. Usman Kazmi (2013)

Graphology is used to analyse personality through handwriting, it is primarily used to

label types of personality traits that each person has. In other words, as Usman Kazmi puts it

(2013) “Handwriting serves as a diagnostic tool here. It measures patterns of emotional

response, conscious behaviour and cognitive functioning as determined by the brain that finds

expression in the handwriting and can be analysed and understood”(n,p). Therefore,

Graphology, is also used to analyse the personality traits of criminals from their handwriting.

Moreover, handwriting does not only reflect the psychological state of mind but also the

physiological state that going to be a platform for assessing psychological diagnoses, for

example, introverted or extroverted personality, depressed personality, ADHD, Dyslexia…etc.

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In other words, handwriting facilitates the process of analysing personality traits into looking

just at the handwriting scripts of people. Usman Kazmi (2013)

By the same token, handwriting has also attracted scholars like Jung and Freud. Though

these scholars were not really interested in the depth of how each letter is written, they were

interested in handwriting as a whole. That is, how it is shaped in general. Usman Kazmi (2013)

Thus the purpose of this study is to know the reason why teachers give bad grades to

students with bad handwriting and the factors that push students to write in a bad way. Also, to

explore if bad handwriting is the only factor behind getting bad marks.

This chapter provides the reader with background knowledge on the impact of

handwriting on professors’ evaluation. Thus, this research will start with discussing the way

personality affects the way we write this is by giving a background knowledge of what is

personality, and the process that each personality goes through to develop and then an

information about the personality disturbances and their effects on handwriting. This will

provide the reading will a full image about the relationship between personality and

handwriting, and how can personality be reflected in the way people write. The next step, there

will be a background knowledge about graphology, in which the reader will explore what is

graphology and what it is used for and the advantage of it. After that, there will be given

samples of the different types of handwritings that exist and the analysis of each type that will

provide the reader with an idea about the different handwritings that exist which going to allow

the reader to identify his/her handwriting with one of the types existed and know the analysis of

it. The third part going to be about the effect of handwriting on the evaluation in which there

will be an exploration of the academic effect that handwriting has on the academic evaluation of

the corrector and the psychological effect that these academic evaluations have on the students.

Therefore, this research will add an idea to university professors and students about what

makes our handwritings different and the effect of personality on handwriting. Then, this study
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will also raise awareness of students to the importance of handwriting and do more efforts to

improve their handwritings.

Thus, this dissertation focuses on the reasons why university professors give low grades

and whether students’ handwriting is the only factor behind having bad marks and whether

students are aware of the importance of handwriting.

The following questions will be answered by examining the current literature and by

analysing the data collected from both university professors and students.

1. What are the profiles of students who may have problems in their handwriting?

2. What are the profiles of professors of evaluate university students?

3. Are students aware of the importance of handwriting in the university?

4. What are the factors that affect students’ handwriting?

5. The consequences of a negative handwriting for students?

6. What is the frequency of the effect of students’ handwriting on professors’

evaluation ?

7. Is the accuracy of grammar taken into consideration in professors’ evaluation?

8. What are the factors that negatively affect professors’ evaluation other than

handwriting?

9. What are the strategies that professors may suggest for a better handwriting?
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Chapter one

In this Chapter, i will be dealing with the origin of having bad handwriting in which I

will introduce personality as the first important factor behind the unpleasant handwriting. Then,

i will move into dealing with the personality development and the stages that different

personalities go through to have an idea how personality changes through time. Then, I will

move into dealing with personality disturbances in which I will deal with neurotic personality

and inferior personality and know the effect they can have the handwriting. The next part, I will

be dealing with the meaning of graphology and its advantages, then, I will give samples of the

different types of handwritings and the analysis of every type. The last part, will be about the

effect of handwriting on the academic achievement of the students and the psychological effects

that these academic achievements have on students.

1. Handwriting & Personality:

1.1. The Origin of Bad Handwriting

a. Personality

a.1 Definition

Everyone of us has his/her own personality that controls the way we talk and behave.

Therefore, our handwriting is also a representation of our personality that reflects our character,

state of mind, emotional state…etc. For this reason, personality is considered the most likely to

have a cause behind having bad handwriting. Hence, before I proceed, let’s first give some

definitions of what might the term personality means, and some theories concerning what are

the factors responsible for having a particular personality.

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The first definition I will be dealing with is given by (Larsen & Buss, 2005). Hence,

personality according to these two scholars is a set of as it is mentioned “Psychological traits”

and “Mechanisms” that are responsible for the way we interpret the world around us. That is,

these mechanisms and psychological traits may interfere in our interaction with the external

world, either people or simply the physical environment. ( as cited in Mayer, 2007)

Another definition is given by ( Adams, 2006) in which he defined it from a scientific

perspective. In this case, Adams didn’t define personality only, he rather gave a definition of

“personality psychology”. Therefore, (Adams, 2006) defines personality psychology “as a

scientific study of the whole person…”. He relates personality with psychology as a component

of the person that reflects “cognition and memory, neurons and brain circuitry…” ( as cited in

Mayer, 2007)

Thus, according to (Adams, 2006) in order to understand the personality of a person,

then, his/her cognitive ability, the wiring system of the brain, even the type of neuro_chemicals

that get released in the brain have to be investigated as well. That is to say, people’s personality

is complicated and can’t be understood from one setting. It is rather deep and goes further to the

psychology of the person.

Based on these two definitions, it is obvious that every individual has a unique

characteristic that distinguishes him/her from another individual. But the most important thing is

to work hard on this personality to become strong and healthy because this latter can be

sensitive to some issues that are going to be discovered later.

Moreover, Personality has been studied from different perspectives and each perspective

is based on a theory. Thus, there are four theories in which we are going to explore different

meanings of personality and later on, how it is developed.

The first theory I am going to deal with is the “psychoanalytic perspective”, in which

Freud (n,d) raised the idea that the unconscious mind has a great impact on who we are and how
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we act and react. According to Freud, everything related to personality is hidden in the

unconscious mind and can come out accidently either in dreaming, and a slip of a tongue or a

pen…etc. Therefore, this can lead us to deduce that one of the best ways to explain personality

is by going back to childhood, because in this period, children are most of the time in their

unconscious mind that makes them vulnerable to anything. That is why, Freud insists on

childhood because it is at this time when the individual starts to build his/her personality. For

this exact reason, it is important to take a good care of children. (as cited in Cherry 2017)

The second theory I will be dealing with is called the “humanistic perspective” in which

there is emphasis on human “psychological growth” and “free will” as well as “personal

awareness”. In this theory, we have different theorists and one of them is called Rogers (n,d).

Thus, Rogers raises the importance of the free will of the person and the personal awareness,

and he added that the tendency that each individual has is the cause behind the way we act and

react. Another theorist contributed in this theory called Maslow (n,d), this latter claims that

people are driven by their own needs, so each individual has his/her own needs and as we grow,

the level of needs changes. As it is mentioned by Maslow, at first hand, human beings used to

have basic needs like food and shelter, and after that, the needs start to change into becoming

abstract, like self confidence and appreciation…etc. (as cited in Cherry, 2017)

The third theory I will be dealing with is the “trait perspective of personality”, this

theory focuses on the traits that each person has, and it’s main concern is to study, investigate

and identify traits that make an individual different from another. Thus, one of the theorists

called Raymond Cottel said that there are 16 personality traits that we can base on in order to

distinguish each person from another. Then, another theorist called Hans Eysenck said that there

are three dimensions of personality traits, the first one, is introversion or extroversion, the

second is emotional stability and neuroticism. Then, the third one, is the psychoticism. By the

same token, two theorists called Robert McCrae and Paul Costa claim that there are five
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dimensions of personality which are “1) extraversion, 2) neuroticism, 3) openness to experience,

4) conscientiousness and 5) agreeableness” (as cited in Cherry, 2017)

The fourth theory i am going to deal with is social cognitive theory, this theory

emphasises the “social learning”, “self-efficacy”, “situational influences” and “cognitive

processes”. Albert Bandura one of the major theorists focused on the importance of social

learning, he also focused on the importance of cognitive abilities and the importance of self

efficacy which is the belief of an individual that he or she going to succeed on a certain task

they are asked to accomplish. (as cited in Cherry, 2017)

After dealing with these four theories, we can tell that personality has been studied and

investigated in different ways, some theorists related it to the tendency that each person has.

Then, some related it to mechanisms, others to the brain circuitry…etc. Another important idea

we can deduce from these four theories is that personality can also be developed either

negatively or positively and this is based on different factors. Thus, in next part we are going to

explore what is the meaning of a personality development.

a.2. Personality Development

As we dealt with the meaning of personality and the different theories regarding what

contributes in shaping our personality, now we will discover the development of personality and

the stages that each personality goes through. Thus, let us first know what is the meaning of

personality development and its manifestation in handwriting.

Cherry (2017) considers personality development as the different internal and external

challenges, or as Cherry named it “factors” that the personality goes through and how each

person gets affected. That is, as we grow and as we meet different people and go to different

places, our personality gets adapted to new situations that shows its development. But this is not
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the case for everyone, some people are resilient and have no problem to engage in new

situations while others may have hard time to cope.

Cherry (2017) in the same article, introduces some key theories of personality

development with the help of some theorists. One of these theorists, there is Freud that is

known by his controversial ideas concerning personality development. In this respect, Freud

(n,d) introduces a theory called the “psychosexual development”. Therefrom, Freud claims that

personality development goes through some stages and any failure in one of these stages will

make a problem in the personality of the person in the adulthood. (As cited in Cherry 2017)

Freud (n,d) in his theory, didn’t only focus on the development of personality, he also

elaborated on how a personality is structured. Thus, Freud claims that one of the driving acts of

personality is known as “Libido” which is the sexual desire that awakes all parts of personality.

That is, the Id, Ego and the superego. ( as cited in Cherry 2017)

Moreover, the psychologist Erikson (n,d) introduces the stages of Psychosocial

development, he based his theory on Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, but Erikson

dealt with it in another way. Thus, instead of the sexual dimension that Freud used, Erikson

rather focuses on the social relationships of the individual and its effect on personality

development. What is special about this theory, is that it goes beyond childhood to how the

individual interacts with the external world. In addition, this theory show-cases the challenges

that each individual faces when learning something new. Thus, the development of person is

related on how well a person performed on a task and how fast he or she learned to do a certain

task. Then, in case there is difficulty in any of these aforementioned stages, it going to affect the

development of personality. Therefore, this theory focuses on the “a sense of mastery” and

“well- being”. ( as cited in Cherry 2017)

Another theory known as the “cognitive development” introduced by Piaget (n,d), in this

theory, Piaget focuses on the childhood period. Thus, according to Piaget, in this period,

children start to develop their personality and this is based on how they think of themselves and
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the world around them. That is, people that talk to them, the environment, even the city where

they lived, all this contribute in the formation of personality. Thus according to Piaget,

childhood is period where children get easily affected by what they see. Therefore, it is in this

period where children start to gather some knowledge and accumulate what they see with the

knowledge they already internalised. ( as cited in Cherry 2017)

In addition, the psychologist Kohlberg (n,d) develops the theory that focuses on “the

growth of moral thoughts”. This theory is built upon the Jean Piaget’s theory, it has to do with

the Moral development of children. Thus, in this theory, Kohlberg introduces six stages

explained in three levels of the moral development of the child compared to Piaget who

introduced only two stages concerning the moral development of children. Therefore, according

to Kohlberg, the first level of moral development is called “preconventional morality”, in this

level, as it is explained by Kohlberg, forms the early stages of morality development, known by

feelings of obedience, punishment and also reward. This is the case for most children. This type

of reasoning also exist among adults, but processed in a different way because they are able to

express themselves. Concerning children, they tend to take it seriously, that is why, obeying the

rules is indispensible for them because it is the only way to escape punishment. Also, Kohlberg

adds that at this stage, children focus on how actions serve people. That is why, in this period of

childhood, it is important to reciprocate. ( as cited in Cherry, 2017)

The second level of moral development is called “Conventional Morality”, based on this

level, the emphasis becomes wider than the previous one since it embodies the society as a

whole. Thus, in this level, the question that imposes is to what extent the individual can conform

to the requirements of the society. That is, the individual becomes responsible for his or her own

choices, duties and rules that needs to be obeyed by the individual, because in this case, every

individual represents the whole society. ( Cherry, 2017)

The third level on moral development is called “postconventional development”, in this

level, people start to conflict the rules and standards that work for the good of the society by
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following other principles that are ethical and may confront the rules and standards of the

society. ( Cherry, 2017)

Therefore, as we have noticed, the personal development of the individual goes from

many stages. This emphasises that our personality is to an extent flexible, and it is affected by

the environment and it does affect us as we grow. The next stage, we are going to deal with the

manifestation of personality development on handwriting.

Thus, as we have different minds, we move differently. This implies our body language.

Hence, People’s body language can tell a lot about their personality and there mood whether

they are happy or sad. Body language therefore shows how we move, walk, talk and even how

we take the pen to write. For this reason, we are going to explore the manifestation of body

language on handwriting

In 1933, the psychologist Gordon Allport along with his co author Phillip Vernon,

claimed that body language is a manifestation of people’s personality. That is, just from the

body language we can distinguish an individual from another concerning their personality. (as

cited in Riggio, 2014).

In the same article, both Allport & Vernon (1933) gave an example of people with

extroverted personality compared with their introverted people counterpart, they claimed that

these two types of personality traits differ in their body language in the sense that extroverted

people tend to have some gestures that show their openness to people around them. While

introverted are the opposite, they are rather calm and less talkative. ( as cited in Riggio, 2014)

By the same token, Allport (1933) claims that there is relationship between the

personality of the individual and his/her body language. So he gave examples of body language

like “length of stride while walking; posture; and even handwriting”. Hence, as we can notice

here, Allport mentioned handwriting as a sign that can tell us about a person’s personality trait

which is our concern in this research. Therefore, Allport added that this is confirmed by
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handwriting experts in “graphoanalysis” or as it is mentioned by Allport “handwriting analysis”,

that analysing personality is enough to know the personality of the writer. (as cited in Riggio, E.

R. 2014)

The idea that we can deduce, is that handwriting is also consider a body language of the

person. Thus, as it is mentioned earlier, handwriting is a manifestation of the personality we

have, this is obvious in the fact that we can tell the kind of personality we have from the way we

write. This emphasises that our personality does affect our handwriting.

Therefore, so far, we learned that people around the world experience personality

development, but, not everyone develops the same personality trait since we have raised in

different environment and we talked to different people. Thus, some people might be confident

and strong and assertive, while others might be less confident and not strong. By the same

token, in extreme cases, some people can experience very painful life at an early age that leads

them unfortunately to develop some personality disturbances that we are going to explore later.

b. Personality Disturbances

b.1. Neurotic Personality

In this part, we are going to discover the first personality disturbance that most people

are likely to have which is neuroticism. We all go through good and bad experiences and what

makes us different, is the way we react to these experiences. Thus, people with neurotic

personality, tend to react more negatively to bad experience compared to their average

personality traits counterparts. Hence, in this research paper, we will discover more about what

is this personality trait, what causes it, and how it can have an effect on our handwriting.

Before I move into defining what is neuroticism, let’s start with defining neurosis

because people may confuse the two terms, “neuroticism” and “neurosis”. Thus, in an article by

Felman reviewed by Timothy J. Legg (2018) claims that the word “neurosis” was used among
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psychologists and psychiatrists to describe different psychological conditions, it can be anxiety

disorder, or any disturbance that can accompany a certain personality disorder. Felman added

that this term is even used by both Freud and Carl Jung to refer to the process of thinking.

Concerning Neuroticism, for (Felman, 2018 ) it is a part of the five known personality

traits “consciousness, agreeability, extraversion and openness” . Thus, the term neuroticism is

also considered one of these personality traits that are mentioned above and it is used to

diagnose the type of personality trait that a person can have. Therefore, (Felman, 2018) adds

that a neurotic personality is referred to a person who has tendency to worry about things more

than anybody else would. Then, one of the things that distinguishes a neurotic person from other

people is their sensitivity and their negativity over what goes around them. That is, a person

with neurotic personality is more likely to get on his/ her anger quickly, be stressed at times that

other people won’t, have feeling of guilt and many other negative feelings.

(Weston,& Jackson, 2014) Introduced the difference between consciousness and

neuroticism under a title “The relationship of consciousness and neuroticism with physical

health” (p. 1). Thus, people with high levels of consciousness appear to have healthier life since

they have the ability to engage in activities that are beneficial for them (Bogg & Roberts, 2004;

Hill & Roberts, 2011). In contrast, people with high neuroticism, have hard time to cope with

life and are more likely to suffer from anxiety or stress compared with their people with high

consciousness counterpart (Bloger & schilling, 1991). (as cited in Weston & Jackson, 2014).

By the same token, it is discovered that the theory of self-discrepancies introduced by the

psychologist (Higgins,1987) have an effect on personality traits among which neuroticism is the

major concern. Thus, in this regard, (Higgins, 1987) claims that every person has his/her own

standards that they compare themselves to, as Higgins named is “self guide”. Therefore, the

closer the person is from this self guide the happier he/she gets, then, the more distant he/she is

from this standard, the more sad he/she gets. (as cited in Encyclopedia.com. 2008). Thereupon,

people with high level of neuroticism have more sensitive reaction to self discrepancy, they are
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more likely to have feeling of depression and anxiety whenever they feel that they didn’t reach

their self guide or standard they wanted. (Wasylkiw& Leandre et al, 2010).

Moreover, it is discovered that people with high neuroticism experience negative affect

compared to other personality with low neuroticism. Thus, Neurotic people are more likely to

experience sadness than less neurotic people. ( Charles Reynold, & Gatz et al, 2001 ) In the

same article there is a comparison between extroverted people and neurotic people, it is

discovered that extroverted people experience happiness rather than sadness and have positive

affect compared to neurotic people counterpart. (as cited in McNiel & Fleeson, 2006)

In addition, in a study conducted on psychological distress, it is claimed that people who

score high in neuroticism have more distress than those with low neuroticism. (McLennan &

Bates, 1993). In the same research it is discovered that individuals with high distress, reported to

experience failure in work, pressure because of work. In addition to stress in family. As a result

of all this, they lost their job, or they were forced to change it, and change the place where they

live as reported by subjects who contributed in this research. (McLennan &Bates, 1993).

The idea that we can deduce from this is that neuroticism has in a way or another a

negative effect on the person that makes the situation worse. This is evident in the difference

between extroverted people and neurotic people and their different affects they have. Thus, the

more extroverted the person is, the more likely that he /she be positive whatever the situation

was. Then, the more neurotic the person gets, the more he/she will experience negative

outcomes.

The question that imposes here is the cause of this neuroticism, what causes it, is it

innate or learned. These questions are maybe still debatable among psychologists because no

one has confirmed or said anything about this issue. But for now, let us discover to what extent

can this neuroticism can affect handwriting.

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A study was conducted by Taft (1967) on the expressive behaviours of both neurotic

personality and extroverted personality under the title of “Extroversion, neuroticism, and

expressive behavior: an application of Waliach's moderator effect to handwriting analysis”.

Thus, it dealt also with the effect that these two can have on handwriting. Hence, In this study,

extroversion was referred to as E, so people who are extroverted score high in E letter.

Therefore, in this study, extroversion referred to “liveliness”, being active, open and tendency to

engage with the external world compared to people who scored low in E. In regard to

graphology or handwriting analysis, was intended to see the extent to which subjects will show

this energy or this activity in their handwritings. Thereupon, they found a direct effect of

extroversion on handwriting that was clearly shown in the size and the speed of the handwriting.

Concerning neurotic personality, Taft (1967) claims that it was linked to all negative

feelings like, guilt, worry, depression..etc. Thus, neuroticism doesn’t seem to have energy like

extroversion does. But based on this study, Taft (1967) claims that people who scored high in N

(neuroticism), maybe energetic but on the negative way because of the negative triggers it has

like anxiety. Then, concerning the manifestation of this energy, it is claimed that it is not

performed as that of extroversion because not all energies are openly expressed.

Regarding the effect of neuroticism on handwriting, (Wemberg,1961) discovered that

there is no direct reaction of this personality on handwriting. This is evident in many studies

conducted on comparing the personality traits of both extroversion and neuroticism and

handwriting analysis but none of these studies succeeded to find a direct relationship of these

personality traits. That is, there is no clear indication of extroversion or neuroticism in

handwriting neither in the size nor in the speed of handwriting. But rather, what was concluded

after several studies, is that feelings like anxiety and impulsiveness can be easily detected in a

handwriting, but when it comes to look for a direct relationship with the handwriting, the link

was not very strong. (as cited in Taft, 1967)

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b.2. Inferiority complex

The second personality disturbance I am going to deal with is inferiority complex. Thus,

in this part we are going to explore this personality disturbance by understanding its meaning,

where it comes from. Then, discover whether it has a direct effect on handwriting.

The first definition is taken from AlleyDog.com (2018) states that a person with

inferiority complex is an individual who tries his/her best to fit in because of the inferiority.

Thus, their coping mechanism they use to overcome it, is by acting like they are superior and

don’t need help so that they can feel that they are valued and less inferior. This act is often

named by psychologists and different scholars as “overcompensation”.

Another definition of the inferiority complex is given in a study that compares between

inferiority and frustration in adolescence. Thus, Adler (1907) claims that inferiority complex is

when a person is put in a situation in which he/she feels rejected or ignored by people. Then,

Ansbacher & Ansbacher (1964), describe the feeling of inferiority as the feeling that every

individual has whenever he/she fails to overcome a deficiency especially when this brings about

having bad critics from others people.( Kenchappanavar, 2012).

Moreover, another scholar linked inferiority with adolescence period. We all know that

in this period of time, the individual goes through many psychological issues because of the

sensitivity of this age. Hence, Murray (1938) claims that inferiority is when an adolescent

experiences a failure in school. For instance, repeats a class, or fails in the exam…etc. Then,

Murry (1938) claims that inferiority complex starts from school period whenever a student fails

or repeats a class. (As cited in Kenchappanavar, 2012)

By the same token, Moritz ; Werner &Collami (2006) claim that inferiority complex or

as they also named it “low self esteem” gives raise to aggressive behaviours with people

because they discovered that there is a clear relationship between low self esteem and aggressive
 20

behaviours. Then, one of these risky behaviours they mentioned are substance abuse and low

school achievement. This is what is referred to by other scholars as overcompensation.

Moreover, Kirk & (2001) add that low self-esteem leads to frustration that also signify

“emotional stress, confusion and anger. Stagner (1961). In addition, Freud (1993) states that

Frustration is the cause of aggression as a result of failure to achieve a certain goal. (as cited in

Kenchappanavar, 2012).

Thereupon, based on the above mentioned, adolescence is a period where the individual

is very likely to experience not only inferiority, but many other issues and depression is one of

these issues that a lot of people suffer from. Thus, in school, there is the problem of competition

among peers and when one of the students fails, he/she takes it personally which makes the

problem worse. For this reasons, one of the questions that may raise is whether this inferiority

can appear in students handwriting or no.

In one of the websites on the internet called Quora.com, I asked people whether

inferiority complex can affect our handwriting. Thus, a member of this website called Somnk

Mox answered, said that people’s handwriting is a subconscious issue that makes our inner

feelings very likely to be expressed in our handwriting. Therefore, someone welling to gain

attention of people is likely to write bigger letters compared to another person who is shy…etc.

(Quora.com. 2018)

Based on what is mentioned so far, people with inferiority complex may have tendency

to show aggressiveness in order to compensate for the deficiency they feel. In addition to that

this aggressiveness can be noticeable in their behaviours with people, body language and even

their handwriting. This is evident in what Young (2010) said that individuals’ aggressiveness or

passiveness is reflected in the handwriting because this latter is considered a body language too

and we all know that our body language transmits our personality trait. That is why, a person

can know a lot about other people from their body language. Thus, in our case here concerning

people having inferiority, usually have tendency to be aggressive as some scholars said.
 21

Therefore, Young (2010) said that people who have this aggressiveness have tendency to

express it unconsciously even in their handwriting, it is clearly shown in letters like “y”, “g”,

“j”…etc. These letters that have lower loops, an aggressive person will rather give them a very

sharp one to the extent that a “g” will appear like a “q”.

Based on what is mentioned above, people with inferiority complex, are not all the time

aggressive, but some of them can be aggressive in order to draw attention of people. That is,

other people may not use the same way to compensate for this inferiority. Therefore, not anyone

with this type of handwriting have inferiority. Hence, this handwriting is just for people who are

labelled as aggressive people. Concerning the manifestation of inferiority complex in

handwriting, is not mentioned and not clearly confirmed by any scholars. But people with

inferiority complex, as far as I am concerned, may also use this handwriting unconsciously in

order to compensate for their inferiority complex.

2. Types of handwriting

2.1. Graphology

a. Definition

In this part we are going to discover the meaning of graphology, Then whether it can be

considered a science. The first definition of graphology that I will start with, is taken from

Encyclopedia Britanica.com (2018) which says that graphology is a representation of

personality so that when a graphologist analyses someone’s handwriting, he/she can infer the

personality trait of this person. Therefore, graphologist while analysing an individual’s

handwriting, they take into consideration, the slant of handwriting, the spacing, even the

smoothness of handwriting because each one of these characteristics hides many information

about personality trait.

 22

Another definition of handwriting, is taken from Handwriting & Graphology (2016) says

that graphology is a technique or a style, a mechanism through which graphologists get to know

some personality traits. Some people name it as “psychology of writing”. Then, from this

source, graphologists consider handwriting as signals that are sent from the brain to our hands

without being conscious of it. That is why, in their analysis, they focus on different strokes of

handwriting to figure out the type of personality traits of the person responsible of this

handwriting.

Then , Richard (2017), claims that graphology is used to analyse handwriting to know

more about the character of a certain person. Then, according to Richard (2017) taken from the

creek words of “writing” and “study”. Moreover, graphology is used exactly like personality

tests to know the character of an individual like the Myers –Brigg type of personality tests.

Then, as Imberman & Rifkin (2003) claims, graphology is not only used to determine which

personality you have it also used to assess and examine your personality. In addition to that

graphology is used in business jobs to know the personality of the new employee. What is

beneficial about handwriting analysis is that it goes beyond knowing the individual’s personality

trait into having an idea about the state of mind, both in the past and the present, in addition to

the mental abilities that this person has. (as cited in Richard, 2017)

Also, Faul (2015) says that handwriting analysis was used since 3000 years ago, used by

Chinese, and Russians as well used to rely on handwriting analysis to know about the

personality of people. Then, based on what Faul (2015) mentioned, handwriting does translate

our feelings as well.

By the same token, Amend& Ruiz (1980). claim that handwriting depicts how people

perceive life, experience life around them. Handwriting is also considered a body language of

the individual. Thus, when a person writes in a certain way, it does reflect the personality trait

that is responsible for writing either using large letters or small letters. Also, Amend adds that

handwriting is comprised from three zones, the upper, the middle and the lower zone. Thus, the
 23
upper zone represents the future the middle represents the present and then the lower represents

the past. Thus, based on what Amend said, handwriting pictures strictly the body language or as

it is mentioned by Amend et al (1980) “the physical characteristics” of the person. That is, the

upper part of the writing refers to the head which represents the intellect of the individual and

his/her perception even the imagination. In addition to that the upper part reflect the how self

aware the person is. Therefore, in case the person has some abnormalities or some problems

within his/her personality, it will be apparent in the upper part of letters, the way they are

written will reveal a lot about these abnormalities that only graphologists can feel it. The same

of the other zones the middle and the lower part that is related the flow of letters.

This therefore will lead us to question the possibility to consider graphology as a science

or not. In this case, Trubek (2017) claims that graphology or handwriting analysis has been

always considered a pseudo-science, it was discovered in the eighteenth century. Then, it won

its attraction with the emergence of psychology that made people more interested in the types of

personality traits and character. At this time, graphology seems to answer a lot of people’s

questions concerning personality traits as it goes beyond the surface to what is deep in the

character and emotions, this happened exactly in the West during the romantic era. But the idea

of graphology wasn’t formally used or recognised until a French clergyman named Abbé Jean-

Hippolyte Michon gave raise to free handwriting analysis by offering it to a journal subscribers.

Thus, he started travelling and telling people about graphology as his new science. In the same

article, one of the things that Michon the French man said to defend his cause concerning

graphology, he said that graphology is a means for the world’s morals. Moreover, Trubek

(2017) adds that Michel dedicated his efforts to analyse Napoleon’s handwriting and he used to

recommend people to learn graphology scientifically. Thus, according to Michon, achieving the

soul is easier because for him, connecting to one’s own soul is from his/her handwriting,

because for Michon, writing goes beyond what is conscious to something that is deep and has to

do with inner feelings. Therefore, handwriting is the only way to get to these feelings and study

them.
 24

Moreover, Trubek (2017) claims that in Germany in 1890s, the main proponent of

graphology is the physiologist called Wilhelm Preyer who is a physiologist considers the

handwriting as “brain writing”, he says that there is mind (ego) and soul (Id) that we usually

have no control over. Then, the only way that we can easily interpret them together is through

handwriting since when we write we use both out mind and soul.

Thus, as we can see, based on this article, it seems that graphology is not yet a science so

far, but it is a pseudo-science as it is claimed by Trubek (2017).

b. Advantage

In this part we are going to discover the advantage of using graphology as a means to

analyse people’s personality traits. Thus, in the same article, Trubek (2017) said that Andrea

McNichol’s 1991 Handwriting analysis: putting it to work for you claims that handwriting

analysis or graphology helps to know more about a person if he/ she trust worthy because

actually through handwriting, we can know if a person tells the truth or not. Hence, McNichol

(1991) has worked in many areas as a consultant in “the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice,

Scotland Yard, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Fortune 500 companies,”. This explains

that graphology has gained its importance in an attractive way as it helps in widely different

domains regardless of their interest. Moreover, Trubek (2017) adds that people who don’t dot

their “i”, are considered not tidy or classy or neat and people who cross the letter “t” in the

middle means that they are stable, steady. Even the slant of writing has a meaning. Thus,

according to Trubek (2017), people who slant their handwriting to the right are “forward

looking” and I assume that they are positive thinkers too, then, for those who slant it to the left

side are backwardly oriented and I think they are pessimistic thinkers too.

By the same token, Ben-Shakhar.et al. (1986). In their article entitled Can Graphology

Predict Occupational Success? Two Empirical Studies and Some Methodological Ruminations ,

they claim that in many domains especially related to business, people get more interested in the
 25

personal values of the new employees. Thus, business men often look for an employee whose

character is honest, independent and trustworthy…etc. Therefore, they used to be based on some

tests of to know more about the character of that employee, but these tests turn out to be not

very sufficient as they fail to know the right person with the required characteristics. In case,

graphology was there to fill in the gap of all the previous tests that were used. This is evident in

what Levy, (1979) said, in Europe, 85% of companies use graphology to hire workers. Then,

Rafaeli & Klimoski (1983) said that three thousand of companies in America is using

graphology to look for employees and the number of firms using it, is still growing. Moreover,

graphology is mostly used in Israel, because it is widely spread in there. (as cited in Ben-

Shakhar, et al. 1986).

In addition, Shammas (2018), mentioned in an article that a graphologist called

Weinberger uses handwriting analysis to discover the way people think and the way they feel as

well. Thus, she developed her skill in a way that allows her to help even business man to choose

some employees and also, she helped teachers to know more about their students from their

handwriting. Therefore, Weinberger helped other people by giving lectures on how to analyse

handwriting on their own. Hence, as Shammas (2018) said, that graphology took place since

1600s in US. Thus, graphologists worked in different places not only with businesses and in

classrooms, but they also worked in courtrooms and boardrooms as they helped in choosing new

workers in different domains that eventually made of them experts at that time.

This emphasises that graphology actually sums up the character and the state of mind of

the individual in a way that people can easily do without face to face conversation, not only in

the professional life but also for people welling to get married. As far as I am concerned, with

the emergence of graphology, parents can know more about their kids and their psychological

health way before anything bad can happen to them. Moreover, graphology can tell a lot about a

student who gets low grades and even a student who does troubles in classroom. Then, as we

already seen with some scholars, handwriting is directly linked to the mind, meaning that from
 26

handwriting we can get to what is in someone’s head. Thus, handwriting analysis is maybe more

likely to make us know the early signs of depression or a disorder …etc and help many people

reach out for help before it is too late. The question that raises is whether handwriting analysis

can really help to detect pathological signs. This is what we are going to discovered later in this

research.

In this regard, Mahé, et al. (2007). In a book entitled Graphology for the diagnosis of

suicide attempts: a blind proof of principle controlled study, they claim that it is not clear that

graphology can really determine the personality traits of individuals especially as Hazelzet

(1997) said when it is related to the “psychoses, psychosomatic symptoms and extraversion”.

Then, as Lewinson (1992) because of the very basic methodology that graphology has, makes it

unlikely to figure out clearly the personality traits of patients. ( as cited in Mahé, et al. 2007)

By the same token, Super (1992) claims that graphologists say that they are able to rather

detect the “pathological behaviours” of patients like “hysteria” and “depression” and this is by

referring to their handwriting. Moreover, Mahé, et al (2007) say that graphologists claim that

they are able to discover the behaviours of suicidal people and this by analysing the handwriting

of people who already attempted to commit a suicide and failed. Thus, in doing so,

graphologists will be able to pin point the suicidal behaviours and characteristics that makes

these patients different from average people based on their handwriting. Then, if their

experiment went successfully, graphology will eventually become one of the “clinical

evaluation” of suicide attempts. ( as cited in Mahé, et al. 2007).

In addition, Ünlü & Krakow (2006) in a book entitled Handwriting Analysis for

Diagnosis and Prognosis of Parkinson's Disease they introduced a pathological condition called

Parkinson disease. Thus, people who suffer from Parkinson, have difficulty to move their

muscles as a result of trouble in muscle contraction, and in severe cases, there is lack of

movement because of low amount of dopamine release in the body that is responsible for

enhancing body movements. Therefore, based on the pathological observation to this condition,
 27

there are some methods used in order to detect the Parkinson type I from Parkinson type II. In

Parkinson disease type I, movement or tremor of the skin is of 4-7 Hz, which requires the skin

to be stable to detect the tremor. Then, concerning the Parkinson type II, that is of 5-12 Hz,

requires that the skin or the body to be moving, that is, in movement to be able to detect the

tremor. In regard to the methods used to detect these tremors, they used to rely upon the

electrodes or needles to be pinned inside the skin to feel the tremor happening, but this method

appeared to be not efficient as it is not accurate and seemed to be not that practical, that is why,

it was not used very often, even in normal cases.

Another method Is pioneered by Marquardt (1994), this method or procedure relies upon

handwriting of patients that is based on recording their handwritings in a “graphical tablet” to

facilitate the process of analysing characteristics of each handwriting especially loops like in “l”.

This is done because tremors are easily detected in loops while writing that is eventually used as

a methodology to diagnose patients. (as cited in Ünlü & Krakow2006)

c. Types of Handwriting

In this part we are going to explore types of handwriting that exist and what each

handwriting signifies. Thus, Amend & Ruiz (1980). In their book entitled Handwriting analysis

they claim that there are three zones of balance in graphology, the upper zone, the middle zone

and the lower zone. Thus, in analysing a handwriting, these zones are taken into consideration.

Hence, the upper represents the future of the person, how this person thinks and perceives life in

addition to the cultural orientation that this person has. In this regard, graphologist focus mainly

on letters with upper loops like “l”, “f”, “b”, “h”. Concerning the middle zone refers to the way

the person acts and reacts. That is, the persons emotions, then, it focuses in how people express

their ego in particular, in this regard the graphologist focuses his/her attention in middle letters

like “m”, “a”, “c”, “e”, “i”. According to the lower zone, refers to the past of the person, his/her

desires and all emotional drives, then, the unconscious part of the person in addition to the
 28

memory of that person. Therefore, in the analysis part, graphologist get more interested in the

letters with lower loops like in “f”, “g”, “j”, “y”, “z”.

Thereupon, graphologists are more concerned with the balance of these three zones

mentioned above, thus, a person whose handwriting has balanced zones, means that this person

has balanced personality. This is evident in what is mentioned in this book, as Amend & Ruiz,

(1980) claim, a balanced and flexible handwriting means that the individual has stable

personality and ready to contribute in different activities. That is, the person is able to integrate

in society in a smooth way, in addition to the ability to have full control of his/her thoughts and

emotions. Moreover, a balanced handwriting signifies the balanced ego that this person has.

As there are handwritings with balanced zones there are also other handwritings who

lack that balance. Thus, as it is mentioned in the same book, in the case of having no balance in

the handwriting on the expense of the upper or the lower zone, it is referred to by Amend &

Ruiz (1980) as “overdevelopment” in which there is a complex handwriting in one of the three

zones, on the expense on the other two zones, but, based on what is mentioned in the book, the

upper and lower zones are more likely to be tangled that refers to having problems with figuring

out some thoughts. Also, that particular zone that is dominating in the handwriting can refer to a

problem in the body part that represents that particular zone. Thus, there are three cases of over

development, there is the dominant upper zone, the dominant middle zone and, the dominant

lower zone.
 29

Each handwriting has its own characteristic that imply many hidden meanings. Thus, all

the three zones, the upper, the middle and the lower zone have its own characteristic that

distinguish each writer from another based on which characteristic a certain zone has, and what

it implies. Therefore, the first zone we are going to explore is the upper zone.

Specific characteristics of the Upper Zone

Thus, concerning the upper zone, Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim that in its normal state,

graphologists consider the upper zone of handwriting as the field of mind and the intellect of the

person which is the most important. Then, this zone has to do with the power that the person

wants to achieve, consciousness in addition to how the person perceives himself. Also, in this

zone, graphologists would make sure if the “I” is doted and “t” is bared, if so, this will indicate

that the person is reliable and pays attention.

Normal Upper Zone

The second characteristic is the “Overtly Extended UZ” on the expense of both the

middle zone and the lower zone, as Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim, this implies that the person

responsible of this handwriting is highly intelligent, then, this means that this individual have
 30

difficulty to take decisions on their own as the emotional development of the writer is not fully

seasoned. Moreover, overtly extended upper zone means that this person has dreams that he/

she wants to achieve, also it reveals the idealism of that person that has many theories but this

latter didn’t have chance to actually experience them. In brief, a handwriting with this condition

signify that he/she is a bit far from experiencing the daily life like a normal person would.

Then, Amend & Ruiz (1980) adds that this handwriting means that this writer has

tendency to space out and fantasise, which implies that people with the same handwriting are far

away from reality, they are rather caught up with their inner thoughts. This type of handwriting

can be consider as an early sign for graphologist that this person has a mental illness. In

addition, a dominant UZ shows that this person has some thoughts that are incorporated in

his/her consciousness which makes it difficult to process and seem to make life harder for them

to cope. As a result, this individual uses daydreaming and fantasy as an escapism from this

painful reality

Overtly Extended Upper Zone

 31
The third characteristic is the smaller UZ compared to middle zone and lower zone,

Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim that this person is not very good at creativity and imagination, that

is, this handwriting implies that the writer doesn’t have the pleasure to engage in intellectual

activities or anything that needs imagination and creativity. This implies that people with similar

handwriting have limited capacity for this. But on the other hand a person who has the same

handwriting signifies that he/she is realistic and sociable in a limited way, because a smaller

upper zone shows that he/she has have no control over the consciousness. Therefore, this person

ends up to be greedy and materialistic. Since the upper zone depicts the level of self awareness

we have and our consciousness, people with lower part of UZ end up being unable to figure out

their goals and take decisions in their lives, they are more likely to get lost and unable to

understand their own desires.

Small Upper Zone

The fourth characteristic is the “Inflated and Swollen UZ Loops”, Amend & Ruiz

(1980) claim that it implies the “overcompensation” from inferiority that this person is

experiencing. Thus, people who have inferiority have tendency to be a bit aggressive to let out

all the negative feelings they have. Therefore, the writer tends to express this through thickening

the upper loops of letters to depict this overcompensation they have and low self esteem they

have about themselves. These swollen loops are referred to in this book as “boasts” to

compensate. In addition, people who have the same handwriting, use fantasy as well as a way to

compensate.

Inflated and Swollen UZ Loops

 32

The fifth characteristic of UZ is “Stick Figure UZ Formation”. Thus, Amend & Ruiz

(1980) claim that a person with this handwriting implies that he/she is realistic and “independent

thinker” that has the desire to investigate reality and question anything that comes on the way,

especially facts. Also, this handwriting, implies that this person has tendency to spend more

time at home with his/her thoughts and avoid anyone who thinks subjectively.

Stick Figure UZ Formation

The sixth characteristic of UZ is “Retraced UZ Formation”. Therefore, Amend & Ruiz,

(1980) claim that people who have this handwriting, suffer from inhibition of intellectual, this is
 33
evident in their handwriting because in this type of handwriting, in letters that suppose to have

loops, don’t have them at all. Since loops are representations of emotions, retraced UZ

formation is a clear signs for graphologists that the writer has inhibition in his/her emotions

because of having painful experience.

Retraced UZ Formation

The seventh characteristic of UZ is “Thrusts into UZ”. Hence, Amend & Ruiz (1980)

state that a thrust into UZ is when the writer slip his/her hand while writing to link two zones,

but still doesn’t affect the legibility of this handwriting. That is, even though we have these

thrusts, it is still legible for others. Concerning the significance of it, a handwriting with an

upward thrust; a thrust that links the middle zone with the upper zone, emphasises that this

person uses his/her mind in a creative and innovative way. That is, for graphologists, these

people are good at using their thinking actively. This type of handwriting often refers to brilliant

authors and musicians that are successful and need attention of others.

Thrusts into UZ

The eighth characteristic of UZ is “Tangling”. Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim that this

tangling is usually found in the lower zone, because it is easily enlarged, then, in case it is found
 34

in the UZ or MZ, means that there is distraction in the life of the writer. This is a sign of lack of

responsibility of the person, in addition to clear indication for his/her messy thinking and maybe

lack of seriousness in taking decisions. However, as it is mentioned in this book, graphologists

always get surprised by the creativity and charm that can be found in these people.

Tangling

The ninth characteristic of UZ zone is the “Points at the Top of Loops”. Thus, Amend &

Ruiz (1980) claims that people with this handwriting are intelligent and have tendency to be

lonely because he/she thinks that they are different from others and go to different way. Also,

these people tend to spend more of their time thinking emotionally to the extent that this person

would think that he/she is possessed by certain thoughts. In addition, this type of handwriting

indicates that this person is against ideas of authority.

Points at the Top of Loops

The tenth characteristic of UZ is the “Little Balloons as UZ Loops”. Amend & Ruiz

(1980) claim that people who have the same type of handwriting are characterized by original

thinking and they also have a sense of humour. But in this type of handwriting, these round
 35
loops should be close to the middle zone in a natural way and not isolated on their own to the

top, otherwise this for graphologists would mean that the writer is rather eccentric.

Little Balloons as UZ Loops

Specific characteristics of the Middle Zone

The first characteristic of the middle zone is the “Normal Middle Zone”. Thus, according

to Amend& Ruiz (1980), a person who has this type of handwriting is sociable and can cope

easily with the environment, because the normal middle zone emphasises his/ her self

confidence. In addition, the more letters are well formed the more they indicate that the write is

self confident and can engage in any social environment easily.

Normal Middle Zone

The second characteristic of the middle zone is “Middle Zone is strongly Developed”.

Amend, & Ruiz (1980) claim that the writer with the same handwriting is more concerned with

himself and the daily activities he/she has. In addition, a handwriting with a middle developed

zone, is a sign for graphologists of a conceit and presumptuous person for his/her self assurance.
 36

Then, the part that scares this writer is lack of freedom; confinement of the external world that is

characterised with self centeredness. Moreover, in case there is any swing or a sign of hesitation

in the middle zone that may leave a space between letters, is a clear sign for graphologists that

this writer is sensitive to have a certain feeling or an experience.

Then Amend & Ruiz (1980) adds, the larger the MZ gets, the harder for this writer to

postpone pleasure, this style of handwriting if often found with “leaders” and “self reliant”

people that usually have difficulty to have normal life without a touch of wisdom and maturity

in addition to philosophical attitudes in their lives. As for a small sized middle zone, is an

indication for a perfectionist and undefeatable writer.

Middle Zone is strongly Developed

The third characteristic of the MZ is the “Middle Zone is Dwarfed”, Amend & Ruiz

(1980) claim that this type of handwriting in which MZ gets smaller compared to the lower and

the upper zone, means that this writer suffers from inferiority because the middle zone is a

depiction of the self image that a person has. Then, for graphologists, this type of handwriting is

an indication that the writer has little concern with the external world and coping with its

problems. But, in case we have the two other zones extend in a balanced way so that the lower

and upper zone will be about the same size, this implies that the writer is creative person and has

equilibrium in life.
 37

Middle Zone is Dwarfed

The fourth characteristic of MZ is the “A Very Small MZ”, Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim

that a person with a very small MZ, in well sized letters indicates that this person is independent

and can get rid of his/her ego desires and be with full concentration for long time. Therefore,

this types of handwritings is a sign for graphologists that this writer is genius, and as it is

mentioned in this book, Albert Einstein has the same handwriting.

Very Small MZ

The fifth characteristic of MZ is “Fluctuation in MZ letter size”, according to Amend &

Ruiz (1980), This type of handwriting is characterized by having different sizes of letters in the

same word. For graphologists, it is a sign of fluctuation of mood, the writer who has similar

handwriting has lack of stability in the mood and feelings, and usually difficult to be understood
 38

by others. In addition, people who have excessive fluctuation of letters in this zone, are unable

to tolerate with the “emotional stimuli”.

Fluctuation in MZ Letter Size

The sixth characteristic that MZ has is the “Jerks and Breaks in MZ Letters”, Amend &

Ruiz (1980) claims that, in this type of handwriting, the writer has a very hard time to write

smoothly because of his shaking hand while writing. This type of handwriting is an indication of

anxiety and fear especially if the writer already got a bad comment before that makes his

handwriting full of breaks and jerks. In addition, this is a sign of constant blaming the self for

what happened that causes the person to be tensed and anxious that will eventually cause the

muscles to spasm and flutter.

Jerks and Breaks in MZ Letters

The seventh characteristic of MZ is the “Tangling in the MZ”. Thus, Amend & Ruiz

(1980) claim that this type of handwriting has a lot of interrelated strokes in the MZ that may

make it difficult for people to read. Thus, the MZ is an ego area, then, a tangling in this area

shows that there is a lot going on in the ego of the writer. That is, this handwriting is a clear

indication for handwriting analysts that this writer carries a lot of things more than he/she can

handle. In addition, this handwriting signifies the inability of the writer to manage his work
 39
properly and has lack of control over what is going on around him or her because this person is

unstable internally in addition to dishonesty.

Tangling in the MZ

Specific characteristic of the Lower Zone

The first characteristic of the lower zone is the “Normal lower zone”. Therefore, Amend

& Ruiz (1980) claim that the lower zone depicts the unconsciousness, and it refers to the id

which means that, the lower zone is a zone of all the urges that human beings experience

throughout life. Thus, in this type of handwriting, it is normal to have the lower zone longer

than the upper zone. Then, it is very likely to come across other forms of the lower zone that is

readable and flexible as long as it balances with the other zones.

Normal lower zone

 40

The second characteristic of the lower zone is the “Dominated Lower Zone”. Hence,

Amend & Ruiz (1980) claim that in this handwriting, the lower zone is the dominating part

compared to other zones, the lower and the upper zone. Therefore, this type of handwriting

signifies that the writer is highly driven by his/her inner needs that can be sexual or material. In

addition, the larger the lower zone gets the more it shows the restlessness of the writer and

his/her constant desire for alternatives. Also, this handwriting means that this writer devotes all

his time on trying his/her best to satisfy the inner desires. However, people with similar

handwriting have creativity and physical energy that needs a little bit of help.

Dominated Lower Zone

The third characteristic of lower zone the “ Tangled LZ”. Thus, Amend & Ruiz (1980)

claim that in this type of handwriting that has bigger loops is more likely to overlap and tangle.

For graphologists, this type of handwriting, is a sign that the writer has too much that he/she

wants to achieve and doesn’t know which of the desires he/she has is more important. As a

result, the writer becomes overwhelmed by all these needs. Moreover, this handwriting can be

as a result of a physical problem that prevents the writer from having a full control on his hand

while writing that eventually ends up having all these loops tangled.

Tangled LZ
 41

The fourth characteristic of the lower zone is the “ Stunted Lower Zone” . Amend &

Ruiz (1980) claim that in this handwriting, the lower zone gets shorter compared to the middle

zone and the upper zone. Thus, stunted lower zone, indicates that the writer has little concern in

life or having a successful life. In addition, this handwriting may also have a sign that the writer

has a fear or a trauma.

Stunted Lower Zone

The fifth characteristic that the lower zone has is the “Retraced LZ”. Thereupon, Amend

& Ruiz (1980) claim that this handwriting is characterized by lack of loops in letters that

suppose to have them. Since the lower zone depicts the unconscious part of the person. A writer

who has the same handwriting indicates that he went through a difficult childhood where this

person used to repress all his/her bad emotions as a way of coping mechanism. But later on,

these hidden feelings that are in the unconscious mind, become acknowledgeable by the

conscious mind from the handwriting. This is evident in the way these loops are repressed by
 42

the writer to make them unseen, so that the line doubles as the writer turns up to make the loop,

he/she rather goes carefully from the same line of the down stroke.

Retraced LZ

The sixth characteristic of the lower zone is the “Short Stick Figure Lower Zone”.

Amend & Ruiz (1980) state that in this type of handwriting, the down stroke is short. Thus, this

handwriting implies independence, then, for graphologists, it is a sign that this person is reliable

and can be independent in addition to that people with the same handwriting have tendency to

let go of all the desires that lower zone depicts. Moreover, in case the down stroke is long but

ends in a “pool of ink” means that the write still have more energy to give but he/she does not

have chance for it.

Short Stick Figure Lower Zone

The seventh characteristic of the lower zone is “ Long Stick Figure in the LZ”. Thus,

Amend & Ruiz (1980) claims that this type of handwriting implies that the writer is insecure

and always afraid to get affected by all the inner desires of the Id. Therefore, to protect

her/himself, the writer makes these sticks long enough to protect himself from getting indulged

with the flood of desires. In addition, in case the writer stops at a point after drawing the stick, it

signifies that the latter gets weaker in front of other basic desires.
 43

Long Stick Figure in the LZ

The eighth characteristic of LZ is the “Triangles in the LZ”. Amend & Ruiz (1980)

claim that handwriting that has a triangle in the down stroke, means that the writer has some

obligations that he/she needs to stick to. Thus, for females, this type of handwriting signifies

that this writer is highly shy; “prudish” especially in sexual matters. Then, for males, this type of

handwriting indicates that the writer considers sexual relationship as unclean and the women

with whom he will enjoy the relationship as bad. Thus, for this person, this latter is nothing but a

prostitute, he would rather marry the woman he admires and considers her a good.

Triangles in the LZ

The ninth characteristic of lower zone is the “Great Variety in LZ Forms”. Amend &

Ruiz (1980) claim that people with the same handwriting, have unsettled personality especially

when it comes to sexual matters. Normally the variety of handwriting is a positive thing as it is

claimed by Amend et al, but when it goes to the extent that the lower zone would take different

forms, this makes it clear that the writer has hard time to determine his/her focus in sexual

orientations.
 44

Great Variety in LZ Forms

3 . Evaluation & handwriting

3.1. The effect of handwriting on evaluation

a. Academic effects

In this part, we are going to explore whether there is an effect of the legibility of

handwriting on the academic evaluation or not. In a study conducted by Huck & Bounds (1972)

entitled “Essay Grades: An Interaction Between Graders' Handwriting Clarity and the Neatness

of Examination Papers”, Starch & Elliott (1912, 1913a, 1913b), claim that we cannot rely on the

grades that are given to students’ essays because these grades are given not only to evaluate the

content of the essay, but rather, teachers evaluate other things. Then, in the same research,

another study by Scannell & Marshall (1966), claim that they discovered that grades are also

affected by the accuracy of grammar in these essays even though they were supposed to be

evaluating the content only. Moreover, (Marshall & Powers, 1969) have confirmed that students

who have good handwriting, have more chance to get good marks compared to students who

have bad handwriting. ( as cited in Huck & Bounds, 1972).

 45

Therefore, the findings of this study reveal that there is a remarkable effect of the

neatness of handwriting on evaluation. This is evident in the experiment that is done on subjects

that participated in the study without their knowledge. Thus, after comparing the grades of

subjects with neat handwriting to subjects with messy handwriting, it was clear that teachers got

easily affected by the neatness of handwriting that eventually affected their evaluation to the

essays, and led teachers to give them high grades, while subjects with messy handwriting got

lower grades. The reason is that these teachers who evaluated messy handwritings were more

concentrated on the content of the essay, because there is nothing that can disturb their attention

other than the content. (Huck & Bounds, 1972).

By the same token, this issue does not seem to affect literary students in particular, but

also, handwriting appears to be surprisingly, a real issue for students of mathematics too. In a

study conducted by Oche, (2014) entitled “The Influence of Poor Handwriting on Students'

Score Reliability in Mathematics”, claims that handwriting can be a real problem for students of

mathematics because, this latter is very essential for them when it comes to taking notes. Then,

Oche, (2014) adds that handwriting can be problematic because it may hinder the student form

expressing himself or herself clearly, that is, in a readable way in case it was written. In

addition, for Oche, (2014) the less we write, the lower our attention gets that makes our

concentration of the content weak .

Moreover, in the same article, Oche. (2014) claims that many students have hard time to

cope in their studies especially in mathematics because of their poor handwriting that prevents

them from expressing themselves legibly. In addition, Oche. (2014) confirms that even with the

emergence of technology, handwriting still an important concern for teachers in various

subjects. While in the past, as (Ediger, 2002) claims, handwriting used to be given great

importance for the fact that it was the only means of communication compared to our age where

we have various ways of communication especially with the emergence of technology. (as cited

in Oche, 2014).
 46

The conclusion that we can draw from this is that handwriting does have an effect on the

corrector regarding the legibility or the eligibility of handwriting that eventually affects the

academic achievement of the students. Therefore, the student as well can also be affected

especially if he/she has an eligible handwriting. Thus, the question that raises is whether

students’ academic achievements may affect their psychological feelings..

b. Psychological effect

In any learning process, students are more likely to get feedback from their professors to

have an idea about their academic performance. In this regard, there is a study conducted on

types of assessment and its effect on students’ performance entitled “Response to Assessment

Feedback: The Effects of Grades, Praise, and Source of Information”. Thus, Lipnevich &

Smith. (2008) claim that a teacher can give different types of feedback all depends on the reason

behind it, for instance, “Intentional feedback” as mentioned in the article, is usually used for

academic purposes, it is used in order to keep track on whether students are doing well in their

performance and also to check on the effectiveness of the learning process of the student. On the

other hand, Lipnevich. & Smith. (2008) claim that “ Unintentional feedback” is the one that we

experience throughout life, for example, when we find out that something we bought is of low

quality after the first usage.

On the other hand, (Bangert-Drowns & Morgan, 1991) claim that unintentional

feedback, in case it is used in instructional context, it is usually used among peers. Also,

(Bangert-Drowns et al. 1991) add that a direct feedback is given by a teacher or a peer student in

an interactional communication, and sometime the feedback can be mediated using one of new

ways of communication.

Another form of feedback that is given by teachers is grades which is the most used

among teachers Marzano (2000) &Oosterhof (2001). Thus, grades enable to have an overall
 47

idea about the performance of students. In this regard, (Airasian, 1994) mentions five functions

of the use of grades, for example, the first function of grades has to do with the administration

staff that are in charge of giving the matriculation and decide on college retention. The second

function of grades is used as a consultant to direct student and know what decision to take. The

third function is to provide the teacher with necessary information about each student that

enables “instructional planning” for the teacher. The fourth function is to give student

information about the process of their learning to know how well they are doing. The last but

not least function, is used to encourage student to do more effort and do better. ( as cited in

Lipnevich & Smith, 2008)

Regarding the effect that grades may have on students’ feelings, there is a study

conducted on the course enjoyment in relation to the academic evaluation of the student entitled

“The effects of grades on course enjoyment: Did you get the grade you wanted?”. Thus, in this

article, (Remedios & Benton, 2000). In in this article it is mentioned a study done by Holmes

(1972) in which students are given a task that going to be graded, and by the end they were

supposed to evaluate how positive that grade was for them. Thus, based on the experiment, it is

discovered that when the grade that is given surpasses students’ first expectation, the students

will label it as positive to them even if it is not very high. However, this study has been rejected

by scholars Marsh & Roche (1997) for the fact that it is not reliable. Another study conducted

by Greenwald & Gillmore (1997a) supports what Holmes came up with in his experiment, they

claim that it is students’ expectations which is responsible of the effect that students have from

their grades. That is, it is the expectations they have that determines whether they got good or

bad grade for them. (as cited in Remedios, et al (2000)

The conclusion we can have here is that grades are not a criterion to decide on whether

students are satisfied or not, it is actually much deeper and goes back to their first expectations.

Thus, as we dealt with the cause for students’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the way they
 48

are evaluated. Now we are going to move on to discover to what extent can emotional disorders

affect the academic achievement of students.

In this regard, there is a study conducted on the effect of emotional disturbances on

academic achievements entitled “Differences in Psychological Problems between Low and High

Achieving Students” by (Yasin & Dzulkifli, 2009). Thus, in this article a study conducted by

(Fine & Carlson, 1992) claims that academic achievements of students has been discovered that

it is caused by different symptoms of depression like low level of concentration and

“motivation” in addition to absence of interest and scarcity of attendance. Then, these findings

are also confirmed by Stark & Brookman (1994) based on the experiment that aims at

measuring both the academic performance of students in parallel with the level of depression

they have. In addition to another study that also supports this conducted by Zaid, Chan, & Ho

(2007) claim that the more depressed students are, the lower grades they get. ( as cited in Yasin

& Dzulkifli, 2009)

Another emotional disturbance that affects students’ academic achievement is anxiety.

Thus one of the findings conducted by (Vogel & Collins, 2000) claim that students with high

levels of anxiety have low academic achievements compared to students with low anxiety level.

Moreover, it appears that even the perception of students to their academic achievements has to

do with their emotional disorders this is evident because Vogel & Collins (2000) claim that

when the student develop negative attitude towards the past academic experience he/she has

been through, he/she gets high level of anxiety that eventually leads them to be low achievers in

their academic performances. On the other hand, when the student experiences positive attitude

concerning the past academic experience, he/she has low level of anxiety that leads them to be

high academic achievers. (as cited in Yasin & Dzulkifli, 2009)

Moreover, stressed students are claimed to be more likely to experience dissatisfaction

concerning their academic performances. This is evident in a study conducted by Demakis &

McAdams (1994) which emphasises stressful students are actually having physical problems
 49

that do affect their perception of their academic achievements. By the same token, Wintre &

Yaffe (2000) claim that students with high level of stress have hard time to adjust to new social

or psychological situations that appear to have a bad effect on students academic performance,

that is, in their final grades. (as cited in Yasin & Dzulkifli, 2009)

The conclusion we can draw from the above mentioned is that emotional health is an

important factor for a good academic achievement and any emotional disturbance or disorder

can have a huge impact on students’ academic performance.

 50

Chapter two

In this part we are going to explore the actions that were taken to collect data. In the

methodology part, we are going to know the hypothesis and the objective of this study. Then,

research questions, research variables, sample population, research approach and data collection

procedure. Concerning the findings, we are going to know the results that are collected of this

study. In addition, we will move to the analysis of these findings in which there will be an

analysis of the results that are collected. Then, we will end up by implications and some

recommendations.

1. Methodology:

1.1 Research hypothesis and objective

It is hypothesised that students with bad handwriting are more likely to get bad grades

compared to students who have readable handwriting.

The objective of this study is to know the reason why teachers give bad grades to

students with bad handwriting and the factors that push students to write in a bad way. Also, to

explore if bad handwriting is the only factor behind getting bad marks.

1.2. Research Questions

10. What are the profiles of students who may have problems in their handwriting?

11. What are the profiles of professors of evaluate university students?

12. Are students aware of the importance of handwriting in the university?

13. What are the factors that affect students’ handwriting?

 51

14. The consequences of a negative handwriting for students?

15. What is the frequency of the effect of students’ handwriting on professors’

evaluation ?

16. Is the accuracy of grammar taken into consideration in professors’ evaluation?

17. What are the factors that negatively affect professors’ evaluation other than

handwriting?

18. What are the strategies that professors may suggest for a better handwriting?

1.3. Research variables

There are two variables in the study, the independent variable which is students

handwriting, and the dependent variable that is professors’ evaluation.

1.4. Sample Population

In this study, the sample population that is chosen is Moroccan students and professors at

two universities, Moulay Ismail university of Meknes and Dhar lmahraz university of Fes. This

population was chosen because it contains students with problems of handwriting and professors

who are more likely to have problems with students’ bad handwriting that eventually may affect

their evaluation.

Random sampling is the technique that is used so that to choose a representative

population of university students as well as professors. This random sampling is used because it

is more objective and also to gives chance for everyone to participate in the study. The total

number of students is 100 students and for professors is 14.

1.5. Research approach

 52

For students, both the qualitative and quantitative approaches are used. The qualitative

approach is numeric, it is used to know the quantity of students who have problems in their

handwriting and to know the relationship between personality and handwriting of a student.

Also, it is used to rank the psychological disturbances that may affect students’ handwriting.

Concerning the qualitative approach which is descriptive, is used to elicit the reason behind

students eligible handwriting and what they think of the importance of handwriting in the

university.

Concerning professors, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used too. Thus,

the quantitative approach was utilised to know the profiles of professors evaluating university

students and the extent to which eligible handwriting affects their evaluation and whether

beautiful handwriting can positively affect professors’ impression of the content. Regarding the

qualitative approach, it is used to go in depth of what are other factors that may affect

professors’ evaluation other than students’ handwriting and to elicit why would a beautiful

handwriting worth a good grade and why not. In addition, qualitative approach is used to

elaborate on possible strategies that a student can consider to better his/her handwriting.

In mixing these two approaches will increase the reliability and the credibility of the

study and thus the quality of the findings.

1.6. Data collection procedure

For students, the data collection procedure that is used is the questionnaire. It is a

quantitative data collection instrument used to measure the quantity, amount and the frequency

of something. In this study, the questionnaire is used to measure the quantity of students who

have had problems with their handwritings and the quantity of students who have taught to write

before. The questionnaire is also used for qualitative purposes and this is by asking open ended

questions for more explanation and elaboration on students’ thoughts concerning the important

of handwriting in the university and concerning whether a personality has an impact on

handwriting.
 53
For professors, the data collection procedure that is used is also the questionnaire which

is used to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was used to know the

profiles of professors who evaluate university students and to know the extent to which the

eligibility or the legibility of handwriting has an impact on their evaluation. Then, this

questionnaire is also used for qualitative data collection to go in depth on the possible factors

that may affect their evaluation other than handwriting and the possible strategies to be used to

solve the problem of students’ eligible handwriting.

 54

2. Findings:

Statistical Findings and qualitative findings

 Statistical findings

1. Profiles of students who may have problems in their handwritings.

Gender
54%

52%

50%

48%

46%

44%
Female Male
Datenreihen1 47% 53%

Age
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
18-23 24-28 29-40
Datenreihen1 66% 27% 7%
 55

Level of study
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
S1-S2 S3-S4 S5-S6 Master S1-S2 Master S3-S4
Datenreihen1 5 4 47 30 14

2. Profiles of professors who evaluate university students.

Gender
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Male Female
percent 64,30% 35,70%

How long you have been teaching ?

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
7-12 years 13-20 years 20 years or above 5 years
Percent 0% 21,40% 71,40% 7,10%

3. The awareness of the importance of handwriting for students.

 56

Are you aware of the importance of HW?

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes No
Datenreihen1 93% 7%

 Qualitative findings

After asking students whether they are aware of the importance of handwriting, students

were asked to justify their responses. Thus, a male student answered by no and justified by

saying.

Male student 1: “Because for me understanding my own handwriting is very enough”

other male students answered by yes, said.

Male student 2: “Because it facilitates reading process for the teacher”

Male student 3: “because it improves the writing skills”

Male student 4: “so the paper can be readable”

Male student 5: “Because I have bad handwriting and I don’t get good marks”

Other female students answered to this question by yes and they said.

Female student 1: “Because it helps us express our ideas clearly and of course it is useful

especially in exams”
 57

Female student 2: “When handwriting is good, it can encourage professors to read what

was written by the students and it can also help them understand the intended meaning”

Female student 3: “Handwriting is something very important in classroom it reflects

your personality, whether you are organized or not”

4. Students’ thoughts concerning the importance of handwriting.

 Qualitative findings.

After asking students why they think that handwriting is important in the university, their

answers were as follows.

Female student 4: “Teachers have so many students and little time, so they won’t take

long time to understand each student, so in the end, they can give you bad marks”

Female student 5: “From my own experience, handwriting helps me improving my

ability in learning English and develop my writing skills”

Female student 6: “It is important because it gives a clear image to the teacher”

Female student 7: “It is important. Once, I failed an exam because my handwriting was

not clear to the professor”

Female student 3: “students who have bad handwriting, they suffer a lot at university

because they got bad marks”

By the same token, male students answered like this.

Male student 5: “I see that there are a lot of students who are very smart but they have

bad handwriting so they don’t do well at their exams”

Male student 4: “The teacher should have an easy time correcting the students’ papers”

Male student 16: “A student writing is its mirror .. s/he needs to work on the

development of their handwriting in parallel to their knowledge”

 58

Male student 26: “It is important for the reason that it gives and overview about your

level in language and how professional your writing is”

Male student 38: “its role is losing importance more and more”

5. The factors that affect students’ handwriting.

Do you think that personality has an impact

on handwriting?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes No
Datenreihen1 50% 50%

 Qualitative findings

After asking students whether they think that personality has an impact on handwriting,

they were asked to justify they responses. Some male students answered by yes and said.

Male students 4: “ yes but not necessarily, people who are careless often have bad

handwriting”

Male student 3: “ Because it is a question of the willingness of the person”

Male student 5: “When I get nervous, I lose control, then I start writing in a very bad way”

Male student 1: “Because I notice that people who have quick handwriting have strong

personality”

Male student 6: “right hemisphere personalities are not good when it comes to

handwriting. They don’t pay attention to details and organization”

Male student 7: “ It is widely believed that those with eligible handwriting are the

smartest. This is just my claim, I might be wrong”

 59

Male student 8: “ Because if there is someone who does not care about education and

learning, he will not have a very good handwriting, he concentrates on something else”

Male student 15: “ Because the handwriting provides the reader with much of the writer

experience on writing and on how the writer is believing in himself / herself (self trust)”

Male student 14: “I think artistic and emotional individuals write better than rational and

scientific ones”

Male student 13: “Like if it you feel messy. Teachers complain about yourself all the

times”

By the same token some male students answered by no, and said.

Male student 10: “ It is just has to do with practice. For me, handwriting has to do with the

students’ passion to improve his/her handwriting”.

Male student 2: “I think there is no relation between handwriting and personality”

Male student 11 : “ Personality has nothing to do with handwriting ! I can’t see the

relationship !”

Concerning female students, Those who said yes answered by saying.

Female student 3: “ We can say that the personality of student appears through his

behaviors and actions if the student well organized and careful so he tends to have good

handwriting too”

Female student 2: “It can reflect one side of people’s personality, especially when it

comes into their psyche”

Female student 1: “ Personality has a big influence on how we write; if a person has been

disturbed psychologically especially during exams, his handwriting is most of the time

unreadable”
 60

Female student 9: “yes, because it reflects one’s own characteristics and its awareness of

providing a more proper paper to the professor”

Female student 10: “ it shows sometimes confidence, IQ, shyness, like using small

handwriting or quick one”

Female student 11: “It is believed that people with negative handwriting are considered

to be intelligent”

Female student 12: “Yes, it has, sometimes when I feel anger or stressed. I attempt to

write quickly, like in exams when I am short of time, I don’t really care if any handwriting is

good or not, especially if I am under pressure”

By the same token, some female students answered by no, they said.

Female student 6: “It has nothing to do with personality”

Female student 5: “ For me I don’t think so, personality cannot show an impact on our

handwriting”

Female student 4: “ I don’t think so, because it has to do with how good you draw, if a

person is good at drawing he has good handwriting”

Female student 8: “ handwriting has nothing to do with the personality”

Female student 13: “because I think that teachers and school in general who impact on our

handwriting especially when we were in primary and secondary school”

 61

Have you ever taught how to write?

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
yes no
Datenreihen1 78% 22%

In which educational level you learned to write?

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Secondary Senior high
Kindergarten primary school never taught
school school
Datenreihen1 28% 11% 34% 7% 20%

Rank the psychological disturbances from the most to the least likely
to have impact on HW.
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
The most The second The third The fourth The fifth The sixth The least
likely choice choice choice choice choice likely
Stress 42% 23% 7% 4% 11% 4% 9%
Anxiety 17% 38% 18% 10% 5% 6% 6%
Sadness 10% 8% 26% 22% 11% 10% 13%
Anger 7% 13% 19% 32% 14% 9% 6%
Worry 4% 9% 20% 17% 30% 15% 5%
Pessimism 4% 5% 6% 11% 18% 35% 21%
Indifference 16% 4% 4% 4% 11% 21% 40%
 62

Do you think the absence of writing on the black board

affects your handwriting?
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
yes No
Datenreihen1 16% 84%

 Qualitative findings

After asking student if the absence of writing on the blackboard affects their

handwriting, they were asked to justify.

Male student 20: “students lack practice, lack feedback from teachers”

Male student 3: “ Because it improves the abilities to learn more from your mistakes”

Male student 5: “Because people who have a good handwriting, they used to write on the

blackboard when they were in high school..”

Concerning female students. One of them, answered by no and justified.

Female student5: “It is no need to write in the black board to improve my handwriting,

in my opinion it doesn’t affect”

Other students answered by yes and said.

Female student 12: “ From my own experience, my handwriting on the blackboard is a

way much better than my handwriting on the paper. I pay more attention to my handwriting

when in front of people or when I am being looked at”

 63

Female student 10: “We get used to write on small papers and we face a problem once

we have to write on the blackboard”

Female student 8: “ I feel anxious why I sometimes I can’t write in the black board”

Female student 3: “of course when there is writing on the blackboard, the student pays

attention and learn how to write correctly”

Some students answered by no and justified.

Male student 8: “We can only write on papers than our handwriting becomes good”

Male student 6: “I can’t see the relationship”

6. The consequence of a bad handwriting for students.

Have you ever have a problem with your teacher

because of your handwriting?
100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
yes No
Datenreihen1 22% 78%

 Qualitative findings

After asking students if ever they have problem with their teacher because of their

handwriting they were asked to provide when and where.

Female students 17: “in high school”

Female student 16: “ primary school”

Female student 15: “In high school at history and geography class”
 64

Female student 14: “The first year in master program, in the classroom directly after

submitting my exam paper”

Female student 3: “ When I was in high school, in an exam, the subject of Arabic”

Female student 5: “ Almost from my high school until now, in high school and

university”

For male students.

Male student 5: “In S1, in guided reading course”

Male student 1: “In primary school third grade, in the class”

Male student 19: “primary school”

Male student 18: “ In secondary school”

Male student 15: “ secondary school(2nd year) 2010”

Male student 13: “ primary school”

Male student 11: “ In the university, during an exam”

Male student 17: “ in 2015, in my second semester”

How can you qualify your handwriting?

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
readable not readable neat beautiful messy
Datenreihen1 52% 2% 18% 23% 5%
 65

What are the criteria that you based on to qualify your

handwriting?
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
a friend told me a teacher told me just my personal opinion
Datenreihen1 19% 35% 46%

7. The frequency of the effect of students’ handwriting on professors’ evaluation.

Frequency of the effect of HW on the

evaluation
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Extent that a The extent that
beautiful HW Extent that professors'
The extent to which
positively affect eligibility of HW has evaluation
HW can affect
teachers' an effect on subjective when
students'
impression towards students' evaluating an essay
evaluation
the content of evaluation? with a beautiful HW
paper ?
Very often 35,70% 21,40% 28,60% 7,10%
Often 14,30% 21,40% 35,70% 14,30%
Usually 42,90% 50% 28,60% 28,60%
Rarely 7,10% 7,00% 7,10% 28,60%
Never 0,00% 0,00% 0,00% 21,40%
 66

8. The extent to which students’ handwriting affects professors’ evaluation.

Do you focus on content or HW while evaluating?

90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Handwriting content Both
Percent 7,10% 85,70% 7,10%

 Qualitative findings

After asking professors whether they focus more on the content or handwriting, they

were asked to justify their responses as well.

Thus for professors who picked the content said.

Professor 14: “I always focus on content but sometimes, it is difficult to understand what

students wrote”

Professor 2: “ when the examiner is designing the test, he decides on the evaluation

structure, the major of which is the content”

Professor 1: “Because we evaluate mostly the ideas students came up with”

Professor 12: “Because content reflects the real level of achievement”

Professor 11: “because content is more important”

Professor 10: picked both the content and handwriting without providing a justification

Professor 9: “I focus on what is written including the norms and conventions of

academic writing”
 67

Professor 6: picked both the content and handwriting and said “because they are

interrelated”

Professor 5: “simply because the meaning of what is written is the most important.

Handwriting helps us to read, not to understand”

Professor 4: “ Although a beautiful handwriting is bound to have a positive impact on

the reader I try to focus on the content more than the handwriting itself. This is mainly because

the content to me, is more important. I gave good marks to students whose handwriting is

almost unintelligible (prescription style). But I could make sense of what they were saying, they

could have a good mark”

Professor 3: “I usually focus on content but to tell you the truth reading a good essay

with a bad handwriting makes the professor nervous, but when you feel the content is good, you

feel obliged, out of the sense of responsibility that you must reread the essay so that you will not

do injustice to her”

Do you think a beautiful HW is worth a high grade regardless of the

content?
100,00%
80,00%
60,00%
40,00%
20,00%
0,00%
Yes No
Percent 7,10% 92,90%

 Qualitative findings
 68

After asking professors whether a beautiful handwriting is worth a high grade, they were

asked to justify their responses. Thus professors who responded by no said.

Professor 13: “ handwriting is just one aspect, the other aspects are more important

(content and techniques)”

Professor 3: “At first sight, you may be misled by the good and beautiful handwriting,

but when you concentrate on the content, and you reread it, you pay attention that it does not

deserve a good mark”

Professor 5: “ Attractive handwriting helps the reader to read easily and appreciate the

aesthetic value of handwriting, but does not in any way enhance understanding”

Professor 6: “Because the content is the answer to the questions and not the

handwriting”

Professor 9: “ Academic writing has nothing to do with beautiful…”

Professor 2: “ handwriting is impressive, but not decisive for the evaluation grading”

Professor 14: “ it doesn’t matter how nice your handwriting is, if you can’t express your

thoughts clearly”

Professor 10: This professor picked handwriting and said “it helps to read the essay

easier”
 69

9. The importance of the accuracy of grammar in professors’ evaluation.

Is the accuracy of grammar taken into consideration besides the content

while evaluating an essay?
100,00%

80,00%

60,00%

40,00%

20,00%

0,00%
Yes No
Percent 92,90% 7,10%

10. The factors that affect professors’ evaluation negatively.

The possible causes of having bad HW?

40,00%
35,00%
30,00%
25,00%
20,00%
15,00%
10,00%
5,00%
0,00%
The overuse of Educational
Anxiety Others
technology background
Percent 35,70% 28,60% 21,40% 14,30%

 Qualitative findings

After asking professors to pick the possible causes of having bad handwriting, they were

asked to provide other factors, but only one professor has provided one. Thus, this professor

didn’t pick any of the suggestions given and this is what she said.

Professor 14: “When I write sloppy, it is usually because I am writing quickly because I

don’t have time (like now)”

 70

is HW the principle factors that cause students to have bad grades?

100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Yes no sometimes Others
Percent 0% 78,60% 7,10% 14,30%

 Qualitative Findings

After asking professors if handwriting is the principle factor for having a bad

handwriting, they were asked to give others if handwriting was not the only factor. Thus, only

three professors answered and said.

Professor 14: “not studying and doing work will result in bad grades”

Professor 2: “ It is important to write with a lot of clarity, clear handwriting helps, but

does not influence negatively grades”

Professor 11: “Not following instructions”

11. The strategies suggested by professors to have better handwriting.

 Qualitative findings

Professor 2: “ to have calligraphy classes”

Professors 12: “students’ handwriting should be taken into account while evaluating

their performance. Additionally, research papers need to be written using handwriting rather

than type writing”

Professor 9: “it remains students’ responsibility in the university level; they can improve

it if they have strong well, training, they can follow a model”

 71

Professor 6: “ Teacher of composition should focus on this factor, personal efforts (more

practice at home)”

Professor 5: “learn how to write at primary school, before it is too late. Point out to the

students that their handwriting can prevent the reader from reading and annoy him/her to the

extent that it may lead to negative evaluation of what they write”

Professor 4: “teachers should insist on its importance during classes. They should ask

their students to improve their handwriting through practice”

Professor3: “Handwriting can easily be improved especially at early age, but if the

person rise to improve his/her handwriting”

Professor 13: “take special classes on handwriting, workshops”

Professor 7: “practice handwriting as often as possible”

Professor 1: “Practice in writing, application, more attention on the part of primary

school teachers for guiding students to write well”

Professor 14: “Students can practice their writing more and take their time writing”

Professor 10: “ask students to rewrite the entire essay, students can improve if they

wish. We have to face compete them to rewrite if their handwriting is terrible”

 72

3. Analysis of the Findings:

This part analyses and discusses the quantitative and qualitative data. It is divided into

eight sections. The first one, will deal with the profiles of students who are more likely to have

eligible handwriting and the profiles of professors who evaluate university students with

problems of handwriting. The second section will deal with the awareness of the importance of

handwriting for students. The third section will deal with the factors that affect students’

handwriting. The fourth section will be about the consequences of a bad handwriting for

students. The fifth section will be about the frequency of the effect of students’ handwriting on

professors’ evaluation. The sixth section is about the importance of accuracy of grammar in

professors’ evaluation. The seventh will be about the factors that affect professors’ evaluation

negatively. The last but not least section will be about, the strategies suggested by professors for

students to have better handwriting.

1. The profiles of students who are more likely to have problems in their handwriting

and profiles of professors who evaluate university students with problems of

handwriting.

1.1. The profiles of students who are more likely to have problems in theor

handwriting.

Figure1: Students’ gender

Gender
54%
52%
50%
48%
46%
44%
Female Male
Datenreihen1 47% 53%
 73

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of respondents are

males.

Figure 2: Students’ age

Age
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
18-23 24-28 29-40
Datenreihen1 66% 27% 7%

A close analysis of the figure above shows that the majority of respondents are between

18 to 23 years old.

Figure 3: Students’ level of study

Level of study
50

40

30

20

10

0
S1-S2 S3-S4 S5-S6 Master S1-S2 Master S3-S4
Datenreihen1 5 4 47 30 14

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of respondents are

from S5-S6 level.

1.2. The profiles of professors who evaluate university students with possible

problems in their handwriting.

 74

Figure 1: Professors’ gender

Gender
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Male Female
percent 64,30% 35,70%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of respondents are

males.

Figure 2: Professors’ experience of teaching.

How long you have been teaching ?

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
7-12 years 13-20 years 20 years or above 5 years
Percent 0% 21,40% 71,40% 7,10%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of respondents taught

for more than 20 years.

2. The awareness of the importance of handwriting for students.

Figure1: Students’ awareness of the importance of handwriting.

 75

Are you aware of the importance of HW?

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes No
Datenreihen1 93% 7%

A close analysis of the figure above, demonstrates that the majority of students are aware

of the importance of handwriting and only few students are not. In this respect, students who

claim to be aware of the importance of handwriting said Male student 2: “Because it facilitates

reading process for the teacher”, Male student 3: “because it improves the writing skills”, Male

student 4: “so the paper can be readable”. In addition, another student related it to his own

experience, so he mentioned Male student 5: “Because I have bad handwriting and I don’t get

good marks”. Based on the testimonies of male students that are mentioned, some said that

handwriting is beneficial for the writing skills, and some said that it facilitates the reading

process. Then, the most important thing, is the last testimony that seems to be aware of the

importance of handwriting because of the bad marks he got. This emphasizes the great

importance of handwriting that leads to affect even the academic achievements of students.

By the same token, female students have also provided their own justifications

regarding this issue. Therefore, Female student 1: “Because it helps us express our ideas clearly

and of course it is useful especially in exams”, Female student 2: “When handwriting is good, it

can encourage professors to read what was written by the students and it can also help them

understand the intended meaning”. Then, another student related in to the personality, she said

Female student 3: “Handwriting is something very important in classroom it reflects your

personality, whether you are organized or not”. Thus, as it is mentioned by female students, they
 76

related the importance of handwriting with the ability to express ideas and also to facilitate the

process of reading as male students have mentioned. In addition to the last female testimony that

related the importance of handwriting with the ability to know about the personality of the

writer. On the other hand, some students claim that they are not aware. In this regard, a male

student provided his justification and said Male student 1: “Because for me understanding my

own handwriting is very enough”. This emphases that some students, even if they seem to be

only few, are not careful of their handwriting and they don’t give much importance to the

reaction of the reader or the corrector of their paper unfortunately.

2.1. Students’ reasons why they consider handwriting as important.

The qualitative data emphasizes that students went through different challenges because

of their negative handwriting. Thus, in this regard, students responses were as follows, Female

student 4: “Teachers have so many students and little time, so they won’t take long time to

understand each student, so in the end, they can give you bad marks”, Female student 7: “It is

important. Once, I failed an exam because my handwriting was not clear to the professor”,

Female student 3: “students who have bad handwriting, they suffer a lot at university because

they got bad marks”. Based on these testimonies, students show the consequences of having

negative handwriting in the university that has a negative effect on the academic achievement of

the student, because of the shortage of time that professors suffer from and because of the

eligibility of students’ handwriting.

By the same token, male students also have provided their reasons for why they consider

handwriting as important. Therefore, Male student 5: “I see that there are a lot of students who

are very smart but they have bad handwriting so they don’t do well at their exams”, Male

student 26: “It is important for the reason that it gives and overview about your level in

language and how professional your writing is”. Based on what is mentioned by male students,

it is not enough if you are a studious, it is very important to be careful of our handwritings,

because eligible handwritings has destroyed the majority of brilliant students by having low
 77
grades. In addition to the other male student who related the importance of handwriting with the

fact that it is representative of our academic level. Therefore, handwriting is not only used as a

means of communication, it is rather used to have an idea about the character of the student as

well.

There from, what we can draw from here is that both male and female students agree on

the importance of handwriting and are aware of the consequences of an eligible handwriting

based on their experiences.

3. The factors that affect students’ handwriting.

Figure 1: Personality and Handwriting

Do you think that personality has an impact

on handwriting?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes No
Datenreihen1 50% 50%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that 50% of students say that

personality has an impact of handwriting and also 50% of other students say that personality

doesn’t have an impact on handwriting. In this regard, students who said yes, justified their

response and said Male students 4: “ yes but not necessarily, people who are careless often have

bad handwriting”, Male student 3: “ Because it is a question of the willingness of the person”.

Male student 6: “right hemisphere personalities are not good when it comes to handwriting.

They don’t pay attention to details and organization”, Male student 15: “ Because the

handwriting provides the reader with much of the writer experience on writing and on how the

writer is believing in himself / herself (self trust)”, Male student 14: “I think artistic and
 78

emotional individuals write better than rational and scientific ones”, Male student 13: “Like if it

you feel messy. Teachers complain about yourself all the times”. Some students related it to

their experience said Male student 5: “When I get nervous, I lose control, then I start writing in

a very bad way”, Male student 1: “Because I notice that people who have quick handwriting

have strong personality”

Thus based on the male students testimonies, as it is mentioned above, it is clear that the

majority of students confirmed the effect of personality on handwriting in many ways. Some

said that careless students tend to have bad handwriting, Then, another one said that right

hemisphere often tend to have bad handwriting compared to others. Also, one of the testimonies

has related handwriting with the art and confirmed that artistic people tend to have nice

handwriting compared to others (drawing for example). In addition, another student related it to

the mood, he said that when he gets nervous, his handwriting becomes bad and another

perceives the quick handwriting as a sign of strong personality. This emphasizes that the

interpretation of handwriting differs from one person to another. By the same token, Female

students have also provided their interpretations regarding this issue.

Female student 3: “ We can say that the personality of student appears through his

behaviors and actions if the student well organized and careful so he tends to have good

handwriting too”, Female student 1: “ Personality has a big influence on how we write; if a

person has been disturbed psychologically especially during exams, his handwriting is most of

the time unreadable”, Female student 10: “ it shows sometimes confidence, IQ, shyness, like

using small handwriting or quick one”, Female student 11: “It is believed that people with

negative handwriting are considered to be intelligent”. Another student related it to her

experience, she states Female student 12: “Yes, it has, sometimes when I feel anger or stressed.

I attempt to write quickly, like in exams when I am short of time, I don’t really care if any

handwriting is good or not, especially if I am under pressure”

 79

Thus, female students also confirmed the effect of personality on handwriting, this is

evident in their interpretations. Some related it to the behaviors of the person that represents

personality and considered handwriting as one of these behaviors. Others related it the

psychological disturbances that a person may go through and that affects handwriting. In

addition to confidence and shyness that can be deduced from handwriting. The last testimony

has considered the pressure of exam as another factor that affect personality and that all students

will agree with.

On the other hand, other students deny any effect of personality on handwriting, so they

said. Male student 10: “ It is just has to do with practice. For me, handwriting has to do with the

students’ passion to improve his/her handwriting”, Male student 11 : “ Personality has nothing

to do with handwriting ! I can’t see the relationship !”. Concerning female students they said,

Female student 5: “ For me I don’t think so, personality cannot show an impact on our

handwriting”, Female student 4: “ I don’t think so, because it has to do with how good you

draw, if a person is good at drawing he has good handwriting”, Female student 13: “because I

think that teachers and school in general who impact on our handwriting especially when we

were in primary and secondary school”.

From these testimonies we can see that these students are unaware of the other side of

handwriting, they consider handwriting as an activity that only needs practice and has nothing

to do with personality. In addition to the last testimony, it is clear that she blames it on primary

school teachers and secondary school teachers for all negative handwritings. Therefore, it is

clear that not all students know what handwriting is meant for and they are also unaware for the

other causes of eligible handwritings.

 80

Figure2: have students ever taught how to write.

Have you ever taught how to write?

100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
yes no
Datenreihen1 78% 22%

A close analysis of the figure above show that the majority taught how to write before

Figure3: Educational levels where students claim they’ve learned how to write.

In which educational level you learned to write?

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Secondary Senior high
Kindergarten primary school never taught
school school
Datenreihen1 28% 11% 34% 7% 20%

A close analysis of the chart above shows that the majority taught how to write in

primary school and kindergarten, and only few in the senior high school. But 20% of students

claim that they’ve never taught how to write. Thus, for students who claim that they never

taught how to write are more likely to have problems in their handwriting because the most

important period in which students need to learn handwriting is in primary or kindergarten level.

Figure4: Psychological disturbances that are more likely to affect students handwriting.
 81

Rank the psychological disturbances from the most to the least likely to
have impact on HW.
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
The most The second The third The fourth The fifth The sixth The least
likely choice choice choice choice choice likely
Stress 42% 23% 7% 4% 11% 4% 9%
Anxiety 17% 38% 18% 10% 5% 6% 6%
Sadness 10% 8% 26% 22% 11% 10% 13%
Anger 7% 13% 19% 32% 14% 9% 6%
Worry 4% 9% 20% 17% 30% 15% 5%
Pessimism 4% 5% 6% 11% 18% 35% 21%
Indifference 16% 4% 4% 4% 11% 21% 40%

A close analysis claim that stress is the psychological disturbance that is the most likely

to have an effect on handwriting. Usually, students tend to have stress when they are under

pressure. Thus exam period is the only time in which students experience stress. As far as I am

concerned, students who have eligible handwriting in the exam often have an overloaded stress

that makes their handwriting terrible and I am one of them. Then, the psychological disturbance

which is the least likely to affect students’ handwriting is indifference as the figure depicts.

Thus, the majority see that indifference has nothing to do with the eligible handwriting that a

person can have.

Figure 5: Writing on the blackboard and its effect on handwriting.

Do you think the absence of writing on the black board

affects your handwriting?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
yes No
Datenreihen1 16% 84%
 82

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority claim that the

absence of writing on the blackboard has nothing to do with the legibility of handwriting. In this

regard, students’ interpretation was as follows.

Male student 20: “students lack practice, lack feedback from teachers”, Male student 3: “

Because it improves the abilities to learn more from your mistakes”, Male student 5: “Because

people who have a good handwriting, they used to write on the blackboard when they were in

high school..”. Based on the above testimonies, male students show that the blackboard has an

effect on handwriting for the fact that writing in the blackboard opens chance to professors to

comment on students’ handwritings and maybe some mistakes. Thus, writing on the blackboard

makes students more likely to correct their mistakes and learn from them and do some efforts to

better their handwritings if necessary. By the same token, there two male students who denied

the relationship between writing on the blackboard and the legibility of students’ handwriting.

Thus, their justifications were as follows.

Male student 8: “We can only write on papers than our handwriting becomes good”,

Male student 6: “I can’t see the relationship”. Based on these two testimonies provided by male

students, it seems that the majority don’t see the relationship between writing on the blackboard

and handwriting, and from their justifications, shows that they value writing on the paper over

writing on the blackboard maybe because the majority of students are not given the chance to

write on the blackboard.

On the other hand, female students have also provided their opinion on this issue. Thus,

Female student 12: “ From my own experience, my handwriting on the blackboard is a way

much better than my handwriting on the paper. I pay more attention to my handwriting when in

front of people or when I am being looked at”, Female student 10: “We get used to write on

small papers and we face a problem once we have to write on the blackboard”, Female student

8: “ I feel anxious why I sometimes I can’t write in the black board”, Female student 3: “of
 83

course when there is writing on the blackboard, the student pays attention and learn how to write

correctly”.

Based on the testimonies provided by female students, shows that all justifications are

inspired from their own experience. Thus, for them, writing on the blackboard has an impact on

the handwriting because, the size of writing in the blackboard is different since students are used

to write on the paper. Then, other testimonies claim that writing on the blackboard cause them

to be anxious and affects their handwriting negatively while the first testimony has confirmed

that writing on blackboard does affect her handwriting, but in her case, it affects it positively

because of the fact that students and professor look at her while writing, which obliges her to

write in a good way. By the same token, a female student claim that there no relationship

between writing on the blackboard and handwriting. And her justification was as follows,

Female student5: “It is no need to write in the black board to improve my handwriting, in my

opinion it doesn’t affect”. Thus, based on this testimony, this female shows that writing on the

paper can also have an effect on students’ handwriting, as long as the student is willing to

change it that goes hand in hand with what male students have mentioned.

4. The consequences of bad handwriting for students.

Figure 1: Problems that students face because of their handwriting.

Have you ever have a problem with your teacher

because of your handwriting?
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
yes No
Datenreihen1 22% 78%
 84

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority claim that they didn’t

have a problem with their teacher before because of their handwriting. Concerning those who

said yes, even if they are few, have provided when and where. Thus, Female students 17: “in

high school”, Female student 16: “ primary school”, Female student 15: “In high school at

history and geography class”, Female student 14: “The first year in master program, in the

classroom directly after submitting my exam paper”, Female student 3: “ When I was in high

school, in an exam, the subject of Arabic”, Female student 5: “ Almost from my high school

until now, in high school and university”.

On the other hand, male students also provided their interpretation, so they said, Male

student 5: “In S1, in guided reading course”, Male student 1: “In primary school third grade, in

the class”, Male student 19: “primary school”, Male student 18: “ In secondary school”, Male

student 15: “ secondary school(2nd year) 2010”, Male student 13: “ primary school”, Male

student 11: “ In the university, during an exam”, Male student 17: “ in 2015, in my second

semester”.

A close analysis of the testimonies above, female students claim to have problem with

their teachers concerning their handwriting and the majority mention that this happened in high

school. While on the other hand, male students, the majority claim that they’ve faced this

problem and the primary school and only few in the university level, this emphasised that

students used to have problems of handwriting at an early age.

Figure 2: The way students qualify their handwriting.

 85

How can you qualify your handwriting?

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
readable not readable neat beautiful messy
Datenreihen1 52% 2% 18% 23% 5%

A close analysis of the figure above, demonstrates that the majority of students claim

that they have readable handwriting. In the data collection, questionnaires were administered

both online and directly. For the questionnaires that I distribute on person, I noticed that some

students have eligible handwriting that was difficult for me to read and they still consider their

handwritings as readable. Concerning the criteria that they used to qualify their handwriting,

that will be clearly shown in the following figure, they say, it is their opinion. As far as I am

concerned, the majority are not aware of the problem of handwriting they have that makes them

less likely to make an effort to improve their handwriting.

Figure 3: The criteria that students based on to qualify their handwritings.

What are the criteria that you based on to qualify your

handwriting?
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
a friend told me a teacher told me just my personal opinion
Datenreihen1 19% 35% 46%
 86

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that, the majority of students claim

that it is their opinion. This emphasises that the majority don’t base their qualification on

teachers, they rather base their opinion on their personal opinion.

5. The frequency of the effect of students’ handwriting on professors’ evaluation.

Figure1: The frequencies of the effect of students’ handwriting on professors’

evaluation.

Frequency of the effect of HW on the

evaluation
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Extent that a The extent that
beautiful HW Extent that professors'
The extent to which
positively affect eligibility of HW has evaluation
HW can affect
teachers' an effect on subjective when
students'
impression towards students' evaluating an essay
evaluation
the content of evaluation? with a beautiful HW
paper ?
Very often 35,70% 21,40% 28,60% 7,10%
Often 14,30% 21,40% 35,70% 14,30%
Usually 42,90% 50% 28,60% 28,60%
Rarely 7,10% 7,00% 7,10% 28,60%
Never 0,00% 0,00% 0,00% 21,40%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of university

professors say that handwriting usually affects students’ evaluation. Then, When professors

were asked whether a beautiful handwriting affects the impression they have towards students’

papers, the majority said usually. Regarding the eligibility of handwriting, the majority of

professors said that it often affects their evaluation and others said very often and usually. Then,

when professors were asked whether they are subjective in their evaluation to a beautiful

handwriting, the majority said usually and rarely and others said never.
 87

This emphasises that a beautiful handwriting doesn’t seem to affect professors’

evaluation while an eligible handwriting does affect their evaluation.

Figure2: The extent to which students’ handwriting affects professors’ evaluation.

Do you focus on content or HW while evaluating?

90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Handwriting content Both
Percent 7,10% 85,70% 7,10%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrate that the majority of professors focus on

the content. In this regard, they said Professor 14: “I always focus on content but sometimes, it

is difficult to understand what students wrote”, Professor 2: “ when the examiner is designing

the test, he decides on the evaluation structure, the major of which is the content”, Professor 1:

“Because we evaluate mostly the ideas students came up with”, Professor 12: “Because content

reflects the real level of achievement”, Professor 11: “because content is more important”,

Professor 6: picked both the content and handwriting and said “because they are interrelated”.

Then another professor mentioned Professor 4: “ Although a beautiful handwriting is bound to

have a positive impact on the reader I try to focus on the content more than the handwriting

itself. This is mainly because the content to me, is more important. I gave good marks to

students whose handwriting is almost unintelligible (prescription style). But I could make sense

of what they were saying, they could have a good mark”. In addition to a professor who made it

clear that bad handwriting affects the reading process she said Professor 3: “I usually focus on

content but to tell you the truth reading a good essay with a bad handwriting makes the
 88

professor nervous, but when you feel the content is good, you feel obliged, out of the sense of

responsibility that you must reread the essay so that you will not do injustice to her”.

A close analysis to the above testimonies, shows that the majority of professors focus on

the content which shows that almost all the university professors would do the same. Thus, as it

is mentioned by some professors, the content is the most important element for the examiner

while deciding on the structure of a certain test. Also, it is clearly shown from what professors

said, that it is the content that will draw the attention of professors to give you a good mark, as

the last testimony mentioned “…..you feel obliged, out of the sense of responsibility that you

must reread the essay so that you will not do injustice to her”. It is the content that obliges the

professors to do more effort to reread what is written even if the handwriting is unreadable. The

idea we can draw from this, is that the content is stronger than the handwriting of the student.

Figure 3: The extent to which a beautiful handwriting affects professors’ evaluation.

Do you think a beautiful HW is worth a high grade regardless of the

content?
100,00%

80,00%

60,00%

40,00%

20,00%

0,00%
Yes No
Percent 7,10% 92,90%

A close analysis of the figure above demonstrates that the majority of professors said

that beautiful handwriting doesn’t worth a good grade regardless of the content that goes hand in

hand with the responses they have already provided in the previous questions. Therefore in this

regard, professors have elaborated more in their reactions. Thus, Professor 13: “ handwriting is

just one aspect, the other aspects are more important (content and techniques)”, Professor 3: “At

first sight, you may be misled by the good and beautiful handwriting, but when you concentrate
 89

on the content, and you reread it, you pay attention that it does not deserve a good mark”,

Professor 5: “ Attractive handwriting helps the reader to read easily and appreciate the aesthetic

value of handwriting, but does not in any way enhance understanding”, Professor 6: “Because

the content is the answer to the questions and not the handwriting”, Professor 2: “ handwriting

is impressive, but not decisive for the evaluation grading”, Professor 14: “ it doesn’t matter how

nice your handwriting is, if you can’t express your thoughts clearly”, Professor 10: This

professor picked handwriting and said “it helps to read the essay easier”.

Based on the above testimonies it is clearly demonstrated that the majority of professors

don’t give a good mark for a good handwriting in case the content is not clear. This emphasised

that the purpose of evaluation for the majority of professors, is to evaluate the content and not

handwriting. That is why, having a good or bad handwriting will not affect their evaluation if

the content is worth a good grade.

6. The importance of the accuracy of grammar on professors’ evaluation.

Figure 1: The effect of the accuracy of grammar on professors’ evaluation.

Is the accuracy of grammar taken into consideration besides the

content while evaluating an essay?
100,00%
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
Yes No
Percent 92,90% 7,10%

A close analysis to the figure above demonstrates that the majority of professors take the

accuracy of grammar into consideration when evaluating an essay. This is going to be the

answer to many students who question why they get low grades for their essays. This
 90

emphasises that eligible handwriting is not the only factor that affects professors’ evaluation, the

accuracy of grammar is also responsible for the bad grades that many students have. But the

problem is that, the majority of students are not aware of it.

7. The factors that affect professors’ evaluation negatively.

Figure 1: professors’ thoughts for the causes of having negative handwriting.

The possible causes of having bad HW?

40,00%
35,00%
30,00%
25,00%
20,00%
15,00%
10,00%
5,00%
0,00%
The overuse of Educational
Anxiety Others
technology background
Percent 35,70% 28,60% 21,40% 14,30%

A close analysis of the figure above, the majority of professors claim that it is the

overuse of technology which is responsible for students’ negative handwritings. This obvious

because recently with the age of technology, youths spend most of the time with their cell

phones, that is why, they rarely use a pen to write only in the exams. The majority of students

type more than they write, that eventually cause them to have terrible handwritings. In this

regard, a professor has commented based on her own experience she said Professor 14: “When I

write sloppy, it is usually because I am writing quickly because I don’t have time (like now)”.

Figure 2: Investigation on whether handwriting is the only factor responsible for low

grades.
 91

is HW the principle factors that cause students to have bad grades?

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Yes no sometimes Others
Percent 0% 78,60% 7,10% 14,30%

A close analysis of the figure above, demonstrates that the majority of professors said

no, which emphasises that there are other factors responsible for students having low grades.

Therefore, professors were asked to provide some factors if they see that there are others. Thus,

only three professors were able to provide their interpretations, Professor 14: “not studying and

doing work will result in bad grades”, Professor 2: “ It is important to write with a lot of clarity,

clear handwriting helps, but does not influence negatively grades”, Professor 11: “Not

following instructions”. Based on the three testimonies, professors don’t give much importance

to handwriting if the students is not well prepared and not clear on his/her answers that also goes

hand in hand with what professors mentioned in the previous answers.

8. The strategies that professors suggested for students to have better handwriting.

In this part, professor were given an open question to provide some strategies that

students can use to better their handwriting. In this regard, professors have provided different

strategies which are. Professor 2: “ to have calligraphy classes”, Professors 12: “students’

handwriting should be taken into account while evaluating their performance. Additionally,

research papers need to be written using handwriting rather than type writing”, Professor 9: “it

remains students’ responsibility in the university level; they can improve it if they have strong

well, training, they can follow a model”, Professor 6: “ Teacher of composition should focus on

this factor, personal efforts (more practice at home)”, Professor 5: “learn how to write at
 92

primary school, before it is too late. Point out to the students that their handwriting can prevent

the reader from reading and annoy him/her to the extent that it may lead to negative evaluation

of what they write”, Professor 4: “teachers should insist on its importance during classes. They

should ask their students to improve their handwriting through practice”, Professor3:

“Handwriting can easily be improved especially at early age, but if the person rise to improve

his/her handwriting”, Professor 1: “Practice in writing, application, more attention on the part

of primary school teachers for guiding students to write well”, Professor 10: “ask students to

rewrite the entire essay, students can improve if they wish. We have to face compete them to

rewrite if their handwriting is terrible”.

A close look at the suggestions provided by professors, the majority insist on practicing

at home, others suggest to attend workshops or calligraphy classes for a better handwriting.

Unfortunately, with the age of technology, the majority of students prefer typing over using the

pen to write. This means that practicing handwriting is almost impossible for students especially

in these days. As far as I am concerned, I suggest to use computers as a means of instruction and

also I suggest that students use computers to type their answers, first to avoid any problem

concerning handwriting, and second, to save time.

4. Implications & Conclusions

Handwriting has always been a problem that students and professors have overlooked.

Students differ in the way they write because of different factors. But unfortunately, eligible

handwriting was always a threat to students’ academic achievements. Thus, handwriting is a

representation of personality that lies in the tendency that each person has or the wiring system

of his/her brain. In addition, personality is never stable, as time goes by, personality develops

either positively or negatively. Thanks to graphology, many types of handwritings have been

revealed and graphology becomes a way to know the personality of the writer easily. In

evaluation, handwriting has always had an effect on the corrector, either positively or negatively

that effects the academic achievements of students and their psychology. Therefore, as students,
 93

we are always prone to have eligible handwriting sometimes, and professors are always prone to

correct eligible papers. By raising awareness about the factors affecting the legibility of

handwriting and by doing more practice to improve it, students’ academic achievements will

improve and professors’ stressful evaluation to students’ essays will decrease.

Concerning the hypothesis that is mentioned in this research paper, it has been partially

proved, because, as the findings have shown, students with negative handwriting are more likely

to have low grades unless if the content of their essay is clear that they can have good grades.

Thus, all depends on the content which is stronger than handwriting.

5. Recommendations

Given the fact that professors and students are both affected by the eligibility of

handwriting. It is recommended that parents raise their children from the very beginning to train

themselves to have better handwriting. Then, it is important to take care of children’s’ psyche;

go to a therapist if their personality is not well. The person is not able to change his/her

personality, that is why, handwriting will stay the same. Thus, if the handwriting changes, it

means that personality has changed too.

6. Limitations of the study

Although the research has reached its aims, there were some unavoidable limitations.

First, because of the time limits, I couldn’t reach the number required for university professors.

Thus, to generalize the results for larger groups, the study should have involved at least 20

professors. Second, I found difficulty to find enough sources that show clearly the effect of

personality on handwriting, otherwise, I could have mentioned other personality disturbances

that may be responsible for the eligibility of handwriting.

 94

Appendix 1

Questionnaire
The purpose of this study is to know the reason why teachers give poor grades to students with
negative handwriting and the factors that push students to write in a negative way. Also, to
investigate if negative handwriting is the only factor behind getting bad marks.

Section 1

Instruction :

please tick √ in the box next to the answer of your choice.

Sex:

Male Female

Age:

18-23 24-28 29-40

Level of study:

 S1-S2
S3-S4
S5-S6
Master S1-S2
Master S3-S4

1. Are you aware of the importance of handwriting ?

1.1.Yes 1.2. No

Why?
 95

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Why do you think handwriting is important in the university ? Give your opinion from
your own experience.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Have you ever been taught how to write? If “yes” provide in what educational level by
ticking √ the box next to your answer.

3.1.Yes 3.2. No

Educational levels:

Kindergarten Primary school

Secondary school Senior high school

4. Do you think that personality has an impact on handwriting? In both answers, please
explain why.

4.1. Yes 4.2. No

Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

5. Please rank these psychological disturbances from the most to the least likely to have an
impact on handwriting and this is by numbering them from 1 to 7.

Stress Anxiety Sadness Anger Worry Pessimism Indifference

6. Have you ever had a problem with your teacher concerning your handwriting ? If yes,
please say when and where?.

6.1.Yes 6.2. No

When?
…………………………………………………………………………………………...
 96

Where?
…………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Do you think the absence of writing on the black board affects your handwriting?. If yes
please say why?

7.1.Yes 7.2. No

Why?

………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

8. How can you qualify your handwriting ?

8.1. Readable
8.2. Not readable
8.3. Neat
8.4. Beautiful
8.5. Messy

9. What are the criteria that you based on to qualify your handwriting? Please provide your
answer by ticking √ next to one of the choices bellow.

9.1. My friends told me

9.2. A teacher told me
9.3. Just my personal opinion

Thanks for your help 

 97

Appendix 2
Questionnaire
This research paper is meant for university professors to explore the reason why teachers give
poor grades to students with negative handwriting and the factors that push students to write
in a negative way. Also, to investigate if negative handwriting is the only factor behind getting
bad marks.

Instruction:

Please put a tick ( ) in the box that corresponds to your chosen answers:

1. Gender

1.2.

2. How long you have been teaching?

2.1. -12 years

-20years

3. To what extent can students’ handwriting affect their evaluation?

3.1. Very often

3.2.
3.3.
3.4.
3.5.

4. To what extent a beautiful handwriting positively affect teachers’ impression towards

the content of the paper?
4.1. often
4.2.
4.3.
4.4.
4.5.
 98

5. To what extent the eligibility of handwriting has an effect on students’ evaluation?

5.1. often
5.2.
5.3.
5.4.
5.5.

6. To what extent is your evaluation subjective when evaluating an essay with beautiful
handwriting ?

6.1. often
6.2.
6.3.
6.4.
6.5.

7. While evaluating an essay, do you focus more on handwriting or the content ?

7.1. Handwriting Content

Why?.................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
8. Do you think that a beautiful handwriting is worth a high grade regardless of
the content?

8.1. No

Why?.................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
9. Is the accuracy of grammar taken into consideration besides the content while
evaluating an essay ?

9.1. 9.2.

10. In your opinion, what are the possible causes of having a bad handwriting ? (if non
the bellow mentioned, you can mention others)

10.1. technology
10.2.
10.3.
 99

10.4.
Others…………………………………………………………………………………
…

11. Is handwriting the principle factor that causes students to have bad grades?

Yes No

If not, please mention others………………………………………………………

12. What are in your opinion, the possible strategies that can be taken in order to
have better handwriting ? (please elaborate)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………….
.

Thank you for your help  !

 100

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