Talk:Mirror writing

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[edit] Mirror Writing is not only a gift its a Mirrorcle

Mirror Writing is a completely innate ability-- at least in my experience as a mirror writer it is--I was able to mirror write fluently and naturally the very first time I attempted the artform. Over the years I have developed my mirror writing in an artful manner similar to calligraphy. I have worked at perfecting the astetic balence of the script and incorporating it into original art and apparrel designs-- (see more at www.mirror-graphics.com) I am not dyslexic however dyslexia runs in my family. I suppose I was fortunate to have gotten the intriquing ability out of the gene. I am left handed like most mirror writers. Initially I had difficulty reading my own mirror writing without the aid of a mirror--with practice I have developed the skill. The writing came naturally involving hardly a thought yet I found it took a different kind of focus to read the script. I beleive that reading mirror writing is a skill that can be developed but I am unsure if one can develope the skill to mirror write. Some people I find are able to easily read the text yet cannot mirror write themselves. Another interesting point is that my mirror writting penmanship is exactly the same as my normal script when reflected in the mirror--my signatures are identical. This 'mirrorcool' gift has amazed many an onlooker at many a party and many recipients of my 'mirrorcle' notes have delighted at the 'secret' message inside. I celebrate the artform because it invites people to look at the world a little differently--perhaps a bit backwards even-- or else they face themselves in the mirror in order to 'get the message'. User:Mirror Writer

[edit] Not Stupid

OK, so Da Vinci believed the church was too stupid to use a mirror to look at his writings? --Abdull 08:43, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Well... apparently people had quite some trouble deciphering his mirrored notes. At least thats what I read somewhere.
The thing is, how many people do you think would be able to decipher the little Post-It Notes you write to yourself, for example? Leonardo's writing was itself abbreviated and personalized, and it would be difficult to understand the intent of what he was trying to put across in any case due to his rather eclectic style of note-taking (from what I have read, he had a tendency to break up long words, run short words together, misspell difficult words - he never recieved the best education as far as writing was concerned - and generally just try to get as much stuff as possible down on that paper. I mean, how would you feel trying to take down the stream of consciousness of a genius like that? That's essentially what his notebooks are - records of anything at all he thought might relate to the given information and assist.

A science notbook written today has many gramical errors and short cuts. It's good writting as-long as someone in the field can understand it. [[User:ErikR] 16:44, 06 Dec 2005]

[edit] Some links to back up Da Vinci's Dyslexia

Courtesy of the internet, I found these links to back up theories of Da Vinci's Dyslexia

It's naturally debatable (isn't everything?), however, to believe Da Vinci being dyslexic isn't much of a stretch of the imagination

http://www.dyslexiaonline.com/famous/famous.htm

http://www.dyslexia.com/leonardo.htm

[edit] Add the information from ABC online

[1] The ability to mirror write is a genetic trait linked to synaesthesia.

[edit] Little Survery about Mirror Writiing

Source says 1 in 6500 has the ability of mirror writing, but I wonder if it is really that rare.....can anyone who has this ability ( without the need of tracing the text as described in the article, of course) kindly drop a line here?


Hi there,

I have a daughter who is 5 years old and she can Mirror Write. I coudn't believe it at first. I asked my husband if there was something wrong with her. But he doesn't think so. She is a very bright child. She has no trouble learning anything. She is actually a very quick learner. Do you think that Mirror Writing is a gift????

Hmmm... I didn't realize I could mirror write until I read this article and attempted it. I think I may be dislexic, but not sure as it was never diagnosed as such. One thing I noticed, is that unless I think about it, I can't tell the difference between mirror letters and non mirrored ones. I am surprised that I wouldn't have noticed this ability sooner, but honestly I never tried. I am right handed by the way. I can also write mirror letters in backwards order with my left hand. That is the only way I can write relatively neatly with my left hand. odd.


Similar to your daughter, I wrote in mirror script when I was learning to write. I had to be "taught" the correct way but still reverse letters even today. All throughout high school, I would sign yearbooks in my trade mirror script and found that some people can read them without a mirror, but never met anyone who could write in mirror script. I have always been able to read mirror script well. Today I write in mirror script when I find creative inspiration. As a very math and science minded person, mirror script unlocks my creativity and enables poetry and art to flow freely from my mind. I also have writers block when writing normally, but never when I write mirror script. My left-handed mirror script is better and easier than my normal left-handed writing. I am not fully ambidextrous even though I play some sports left-handed. My sister, however, is ambidextrous. I am not dislexic although there is a family history. My younger brother also naturally writes in mirror script. Aside from him, I have never met anyone who writes mirror script. My mother has never tried, but I suspect that she may be able to. You suggest a correlation between intelligence and mirror writing. Intelligence is nearly impossible to fully measure, but my brother and I were both labeled "gifted and talented" in school. I am interested in the study finding the ability to mirror write to be dominant X linked. As an X linked trait, more women would have the ability than men since both mothers and fathers can pass the trait to a girl and only mothers can pass it to a boy. I also wonder about the epigenomics of the heritary trait. What external factors can inhibit the trait from being expressed? In researching this topic, we must increase the population sample and survey them in more depth.

Dear Reader,

I have only discovered the fact that I can do mirror writing a few week ago.In my family no one has dyslexia as far as I know.When I told my Mother about me able to do mirror writing she said that when I went to school and learned how to write I used to write half the numbers and most of the letters in mirror writing.My Mother who is a pediatrician also told me that it is very hard to mirror write a "S",but I did it it when I was just in 1st class.When I asked her if my older sister could do mirror writing,she told "your sister is a very bright child, seeing you do mirror writing ,I have seen her trying it countless times,but she never seem to be able to do it".I am right handed ,but can do mirror writing with both my hands.But my sister is left handed and could never do it.My mother nor father seem to be able to do mirror writing.

[edit] Mirror writing

17:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)Rept I'm right-handed, but ambidextrous in many ways. I mirror write easily and naturally with my left hand, but can't read it easily. I have difficulty mirror writing with my right hand, and it's even harder to write, going left to right with my left hand. I'm not sure what this indicates about left-right brain orientation, but I've done it all my life. I have never had difficulty reading, but do have trouble with left-right orientation for things such as manual transmissions in cars or piano playing. Is this common to anyone else?


hi,

I'm basically a mechanical engineering student i use to write my name in mirror image for past 2 years i just tried to write all my notes in mirror image it worked out and i'm writing and i can able to read that very clearly and my speed of writting is equal to my usual writing. iam doing all my problems in mirror image only. Basically i'm a right handed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.29.243 (talk) 11:15, 14 February 2008 (UTC)



[edit] I am a mirror writer

Hi I am a left-handed mirror writer. While my younger brother and I are both left handed, our parents are both right-handed, I am the only mirror writer. When I was being taught how ot write I would write things correctly but in the mirror writing form. I had to be taught how to write normal, or so others could read it. I am now twenty-three and still to this day if I do not sit and think about how I am writing I will write in mirror form.



hi I'm shamvi and i mirror write all the time..sometimes i send notes to my friend mirror writing with dark ink and they'll flip the page to read it. I tried it out after this guy did it on tv, and i was like what's so hard in that? I have not found anyone who can mirror write fast so far but i don't believe it's rare.

[edit] Some answers

1.Mirror writing is not a gift. It is a skill.
I found out that my grandma was ambidextrous. So maybe it is inherited but still one hast to start at some point doing.

2.Writing with left hand from right to left is much easier and faster.

3."This is explainable by the fact that it is easier to pull a quill pen than to push it; by using mirror-writing, the left-handed writer is able to pull the pen from right to left and also avoid smudging what has just been written." it's qoute frome page about da vinci in wikipedia and i think it should be included in this page.



I'm 22 and i recently started to mirror write. I wanted to be like da vinci. The more i write the more i think it is usefull skill
If i write with letter in all caps, kind of machine writing, then i can read myself. When i write handwriting style then i don't but i think i can overcome that. Sometimes(20% or more) i can't read what i wrote with right hand. i have unreadable style :) ).

So i think scientists theories: that mirror writing is inherited and that davinci mirror write to keep notes secret, are false. Any coments?

PS.I think that this kind of writing should be learned in schools. Why? becouse it can help develope both hemispheres, and that can lead to more creativity.
PS.2. Writing for me is so slow, i recently preffer to make a voice notes about ideas(on my pc), it is much faster.
PS.3.I'm probably dyslexic (doctor said so)
ChrisBatory 16:33, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Some questions; (little of topic but please leave this or suggest other page that this input would be useful,)
Did i mirror write becouse i wanted to, or i wanted to mirror write becouse i inherited gen? Fact is that i started to think about mirror writing when i read book about da vinci, but why i reached for book about davinci? Uhh I think its more related to genius page. ChrisBatory 16:33, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Example?

I think the Vitruvian Man is a rather poor example and does not serve a practical, informative, encyclopedic purpose. In my opinion it should be replaced with an example of mirror compared to the same example in standard writing, computer-made or not. -Kame2000 15:43, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mirror Writing Techniques

I think that are lame. It could be deleted.. --Dpbalazs 08:25, 11 February 2007 (UTC) I removed that stupid content, it was totally useless. No modifications ware made in the last 3 months! Every kid have so much fantasy like that was how to write backwards! It's not for an encyclopedia!

[edit] an error ?

Research suggests that the ability of mirror writing is probably inherited and caused [[by a typical language organisation]] in the brain [1]. Approximately 1 in 6500 people in the population inherited the ability of mirror writing and half of their children also inherited the ability. There are more left-handed mirror writers than right-handed ones, probably because left-handed people tend to have [[atypical language centres]] in their brain.

there a contradaction between the first and the last sentence, or am I wrong ?

I think the first sentence need to be corrected I'll do it soon unless someone thinks otherwise.ErnestC 00:29, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 1 in 6500

if that digit was calculated as stated on this page (there a link to that page on the article page):

[2]

then I think it should be added in the article that the digit must be seen a at least rough approximation for the readership is already a vague digit and the method seems to consider any person able to read the fable in less than a minutes will respond (what is not sure at all).

maybe we could add a sentence like "this digit is an maybe not so precise evaluation" and a note with a link to the page where the evaluation method is explained ?ErnestC 00:53, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


1 in 6500; & I've just participated in a mirror-writing study

I have seen those numbers repeated all over the web, as well as in a scientific article. Based on another article I found on the web, the Australian survey on which the ratio (1 mirror writer per 6500) is based should be considered quite suspect, in my opinion. An advertisement asking mirror writers to come forward and be tested was placed in a newspaper. From the people who came forward, only the real mirror writers were culled out, and compared to the circulation figures of the newspaper. This is preposterous! It presumes that every subscriber reads every word in the paper, and would be inclined to participate if he or she was a mirror writer. Conversely, it also doesn't account for two or three readers per subscription. The conclusion based on such shaky data is, in my opinion, wholly unreliable. Since it's the only survey ever done with respect to incidence of mirror writing in the population, this ratio is being bandied about as if it's fact. Certainly, the survey ought to be quoted as the source of the numbers, and perhaps a note questioning the validity of it should be added.

Also, in Aug. of 2007, I was studied, along with another mirror writer, by a professor/research scientist who is studying the brain, cognition, and aspects of orientation. The other mirror writer wrote with the left hand; I, however, am a right-handed mirror writer. I have not been able to determine whether this is a gift or the result of brain damage, however, studies seem to imply that some people with certain neurological damage are mirror writers, and other people just do so deliberately. Why a certain segment of the population can do it, while most can't, is not known.

I first attempted it in junior high school, wanting to create a sort of cipher for passing notes to my friends. With great enthusiasm, I mirror-wrote to several people with this great idea, and was surprised and discouraged by the fact that I did not receive back any notes in kind. I attempted this again in high school, to no avail. For me, it had come easily the first time I tried it, and I assumed that everyone else could do the same. Until I learned it was rare (which is rather recently -- decades after the school debacle), I felt that I had merely been snubbed by my friends, who might have thought it stupid or childish. No one had ever given me an explanation for not responding.

Certainly this is a topic worth exploring and continued scientific study. What we learn from mirror writers may shed light on other aspects of brain function. --Catwoman07076 01:58, 8 September 2007 (UTC)


I made a change about the 1 in 6500 claimErnestC 15:23, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Add redirect?

I think some redirects should be added. I searched for the page under "mirror-writing" (without the quotation marks, and it didn't go straight to the page, but did find it in the search results. I would add it myself, but don't know how to.

Any other suggestions for article name redirects?

WikiReaderer 23:37, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

I've just added that one. See Wikipedia:Redirect for information about redirects. Graham87 13:20, 18 January 2008 (UTC)