-Contributed by Michelle Breckon.
Do you remember when you were little, and you were learning how to write? Your teacher taught you how to properly form each letter, to cross every “t” and to dot every “i.” When did all of those proper rules for writing fall away? Somehow, almost every person I know has begun to write sloppily.
I remember being told to pay attention to how I wrote, because only doctors have really bad handwriting. Or, what if someday I did something really important but no one could tell what I did because they couldn’t read my handwriting?
Well, I’m here to tell you: it happened.
Okay, not with me, but with many psychologists. I came across a series of images where the only identifier I had for the person in the picture was their signature on the bottom. However, these men have some of the worst handwriting I have ever come across and I’m not sure who they are!
I began to ask people that walked by the computer I was working at. Do you know who this is? Can you read their handwriting? Let’s see how good you are at deciphering bad handwriting. Look at the photograph below, can you figure out who it is?
Fine, I’ll tell you. That is Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, but I had to ask at least five people before one of them could read the handwriting.
Let’s try another one, one that I haven’t been able to decipher.
Can you read this man’s name? If you can, let us know! Otherwise he will forever be listed as unidentified in this photograph because we can’t read his handwriting!
Is this one any better? Who the heck is this man?
In the future, pay attention to your handwriting, or someday, years from now, no one will know who you were because they couldn’t read your handwriting!