Handwriting: A Marginal Issue

Margins not only create a person’s ‘universe’ as encapsulated on a piece of paper, but they create a frame around the writing. Margins also represent the writer’s area for communicating. For example, just as some people crowd their lives with activities, they crowd their page without any room to spare. Others leave space around their page, analogous to time left for reflecting upon their thoughts.

The person who has no discernible margin around their paper, but who uses every inch of space wants to live life fully. His sense of boundaries may not be developed, and they may believe that because they’re interested, everyone is interested. Someone who writes with a fairly even, broad margin all around is someone who makes sure there is plenty of space in their lives for everything to be done. People like this are not inclined to extend themselves beyond comfortable limits. Those with average margins have a good overall sense of control, neither being over-involved or distant with others.

A left margin that drifts righward is usually characteristic of someone who is enthusiastic and wishes to move to their future. This writer is so excited by what they are doing, they don’t want to take the extra time to go all the way back to the left margin. The writer whose left margin drifts leftward is someone who prefers to opt for the tried and true and established methods rather than ‘taking a risk’. In a sense, this person is ‘backing up’ from taking risks.

Should a page have a concave margin to the left, the person likely starts a project quite enthusiastically; as they realize they are overly far from a familiar ‘comfort zone’, they’ll likely move back toward the familiar (similar to the way their margin steadily drifts back to the left). The writer whose right margin is concave has readily sailed into a new project only to back away mid-page in the right margin pulling back toward the left when they’ve had a chance to re-consider their initial action. After such introspection and with renewed feelings of security that things will work out very well, their right margin is free to drift back from the left and back into the rightward area of the page.


Be sure to view my 5-minute “Power of the Pen” DVD on my Home Page at www.elainecharal.com!