An examination of these findings indicates that persons use many different methods, alone or in combination, to effect a disguise. The use of the awkward hand is treated separately because this type of disguise contains some characteristics not normally found in disguised writings by the practiced or normally used hand. The use of the unaccustomed hand for producing fraudulent writings, say, for writing an unauthorized endorsement on a check, is not as common as it might be, probably because the writer believes he would become conspicuous by his awkwardness, or it may be that the writer believes that the product of his unaccustomed hand can be identified as readily as the product of the other hand. There are, of course, some habits that will be revealed in this class of writing, for example, size relationships within a letter and relative heights of letters and the approximate form of most letters. As will be seen, however, there are modifications of some habits and at least a partial obscuration of others.
Most disguises are relatively simple in nature.
Any deliberate marked change in any of the above features, particularly an alteration in slope, will have a profound effect upon the appearance of handwriting. In many cases a profound alteration in slope is considered all that is necessary to render a handwriting unrecognizable. Where more than a few lines of disguised writing have to be written, the intense concentration, which is essential for the maintenance of any complicated scheme of disguise, is beyond the capability of the average person. Disguised handwriting exhibits less fluency and poorer rhythm than the normal hand. Handwriting can exhibit its best rhythm only when it has been executed to a great part as a reflex movement, without conscious thought having to be given to the details of its structure.