Left-hand Writing vs. Right-hand Writing

Determining whether a questioned text was written by a right- or left-hand writer can provide useful investigative information. Especially early in an investigation, such information can be a useful tool for rapid screening and narrowing the pool of potential suspects. In this study the writings of 30 left-hand and 30 right-hand writers were analyzed in order to find out if there are diagnostic characteristics upon which the document examiner can rely to establish the handedness of the writer. Direction of certain horizontal strokes and, to a lesser extent, the direction in which circular structures were formed were found to be useful indicators.