HANDWRITING & GRAPHOLOGY
Letter A handwriting analysis
The lowercase a combines an oval body with a short finishing stem. Compare the oval opening, the stem’s height and its join to the next letter.
Compare a letter forms
The oval closes before the finishing stem. Look for where the first and last strokes meet; an overlapping join can make the closure heavier.
A small gap remains near the upper-right side. Distinguish a repeated opening from pale ink or a break in the photograph.
In a capital A, compare the apex, crossbar height and two legs. Its height is a separate observation from the lowercase oval.
These original diagrams isolate oval and finishing stem. Compare their shapes with several occurrences in your own handwriting; the dashed guides show the body band.
What to look for
- Where does the oval close?
- Is the finishing stem taller than the oval?
- Does the same opening recur inside several words?
Begin with the ordinary lowercase body, then follow the opening and finishing strokes. Record where the letter joins its neighbors and whether the same form appears at the beginning, middle and end of a word.
Read a within words
Use words such as after and paper as starting points for a sample comparison. Write them in your ordinary hand, then compare the a forms with examples already present in a note.
A neighboring stroke can close an oval, extend a shoulder or hide a return. Trace the visible boundary before naming the feature. Compare letter shape separately from the word’s slant and the line’s direction.
Connect the letter to a whole-page reading
One letter supplies a local observation. Repeated forms show whether that observation belongs to the wider writing rhythm. Use the linked feature guides to compare its proportions, turns and connections with the rest of the sample.
Compare an enlarged capital or a signature initial with ordinary letters on the same page. A decorative opening may occupy a different height and shape from the body letters that follow it.