The ampersand (&) is a symbol that provides excellent material for clues to tricks and mannerisms. It varies in form from a mere v-shaped tick of almost indeterminate character to an ornate thing of loops and flourishes. It is very sparingly employed by illiterate persons, and some educated writers avoid its use under the impression that, like the abbreviation of words, it is vulgar. In a few high-class ladies' schools its use is sternly repressed, and there are many fluent and habitual writers who never employ this sign. This in itself supplies a useful clue to characterisation. Others, again, only employ it in such combinations as "& Co.," "&c.," though this latter abbreviation is, as often as not, written "etc." by many persons.

The dash (—) occurs very largely in many writings, and particularly in those of ladies, who regard it as a universal punctuation mark, and employ it indiscriminately as comma and full stop. Many persons of both sexes invariably make a dash below the address on an envelope, using it as a kind of final flourish. A close examination of the samples provided in such a writing will reveal many valuable idiosyncrasies. It may be a bold, firm horizontal line, a curve with a tick at either end, or both; a wavy line or even an upward or downward line. Note, also, the ragged edge, as it affords an important clue to the style of holding the pen. The dash is so essentially an unpremeditated and mechanically-formed hand-gesture that it often betrays more of the character of the writer than any other letter. Cases have been known in which the writer of an anonymous letter has successfully concealed all his characteristics, but in putting the final stroke in the form of a dash he has so far forgotten himself as to produce, quite unconsciously, what was probably one of his most pronounced hand-gestures, thus providing a clue which led to ultimate conviction.

Punctuation is rarely a marked feature of English handwriting. It is said that many of our leading literary men practically leave this important phase of their work to the printer's proof-reader. An examination of a hundred private letters by different hands will show a marvellous scarcity of punctuation marks, and few correspondents use or appear to know the use of any stop other than the comma and full point, the dash being made to do service for all else. The mark of interrogation is fairly often used, and its formation gives scope and material for careful examination. The examples offer suggestions of the form and direction eccentricity sometimes takes.

The colon and semicolon are very little used by average writers, and when they are, it is generally inaccurately, but nearly always under the same circumstances, which should be carefully noted. The quotation marks ("") are still more rarely employed, and it will be found on examination that most people form them wrongly. The accurate style is this, “”, but as often as not the initial quotation has the dot at the top instead of the bottom.

Another almost universal omission is that of the full point after initials to a name, after "Esq.," and in the initials of postal districts, as E.C., W.C. The addressing of an envelope affords interesting and valuable material for clues, for it will generally be found that a writer who uses punctuation marks at all will do so with automatic regularity under the same circumstances.

The shape and general formation of stops and marks must be carefully examined and classified, for they belong to the significant unpremeditated class of hand-gestures, and are, therefore, valuable as clues to peculiarities.

The "Esq." that generally follows a man's name on a letter addressed to him partakes much of the character of a symbol like the "?" or "!", and, being automatic through usage, is therefore valuable. Most writers use a uniform style in shaping it, and the three letters that go to make up the abbreviation are fortunately of a kind that lend themselves to characterisation.

Notice, also, the position of the possessive sign in such words as "men's," "writer's." If accurately placed, the writer may be presumed to understand punctuation, and will give evidence of it in a long writing.