Introduction

andwriting is a human skill whereby a person generates character shapes with a writing instrument as a visual representation of language. It is a fundamental axiom of forensic document examination that the normal writings of any two people are distinguishable (given sufficient amounts).

Handwriting examinations generally involve the comparison of handwriting specimen (provable) against questioned (disputed) handwriting. When handwriting of disputed authorship is scientifically compared with a sample of handwriting of known authorship both similarities and differences are found. Similarities will be present even between the handwritings of different persons as character shapes must conform to accepted designs to be recognisable. Equally some differences will be present between handwritings produced by the same person because of natural variation, since the human body is not a machine capable of reproducing a character in exactly the same form every time it is written.

The Technique
The basis of a handwriting examination is a 'like with like' comparison; for example lower case a's with lower case a's, upper case A's with upper case A's. Each different character in the specimen and questioned handwritings are examined to determine their fundamental appearance (e.g. shape and construction) and their range of variation.

When this has been done an assessment of the similarities and differences is made. If two handwritings are sufficiently similar to one another in terms of personal characteristics, and there are no significant differences between them, then this constitutes evidence of common authorship. The strength of this evidence will depend upon several factors, such as the distinctiveness of the letter formations found, the amount of handwriting in dispute and the suitability of the handwriting of known authorship. Conversely if two handwritings are significantly different from one another then this constitutes evidence of differing authorship.