Tirupati: Ever wondered why only a pharmacist can understand a doctor's prescription? However, in one specific case in the US, the pharmacist too failed to figure it out and gave a wrong medicine that resulted in the a patient's death. It was then decided to slap a 5 per cent fine on doctors scribbling illegible prescriptions.

Not just this, a flight crash was attributed to the illegible writing of the co-pilot, while a mission failed in Pentagon supposedly due to the unclear scribbling of an engineer. So says a website of a leading handwriting expert in the US.

But, is poor handwriting a trait or a habit? Many handwriting experts, neuro-linguistic programmers and worried parents are trying to get to the root of the issue.

S.V. Bhaskara Raju, a Tirupati-based neuro-linguistic programmer feels that the handwriting should not only be attractive, but be tuned as per graphotherapy, a scientific way of improving personality by altering the strokes and loops in the alphabets written. From January 23, which is observed as `National Handwriting Day', he plans to hold special sessions for schoolchildren.

While 85 per cent of examinations in India are in written form, students with poor handwriting tend to lose up to 20 per cent marks. Further, as most teachers tend to identify better writers as skilled, those with a poor handwriting suffer from low esteem and hence again lose marks.

A misnomer

Mr.Raju, who conducted several classes across the State and gave several TV and radio programmes, terms the word `handwriting' a misnomer. Some blame the paper, the pen or even their own fingers for the poor writing. But it's all in the brain as the hand moves as dictated by the former.

"We can bring about change in a student's mind on the manner in which an alphabet has to be written. By making him practice it for 10 minutes a day for 21 days, the new handwriting would definitely set in. It is `brain writing', he says.

While parents think that handwriting cannot be changed, Mr. Raju claims to have proved it wrong.

The advent of Tablet PCs (which have no keyboards and hence users have to write on the screen) will definitely generate gibberish out of incomprehensible input.

As the IT-savvy know, Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO). Many of the Fortune 500 companies have reportedly engaged graphologists in their Human Resources department to check the handwriting of a prospective employee before hiring him.

Is the writing on the wall clear. And legible ?

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail