FBI Gathers Volunteers' Handwriting Samples at WVU

WVU collects handwriting samples (The Daily Athenaeum)

During the first session, volunteers included hundreds of students, faculty and community members.

Those participating were first asked to fill out release forms that asked for consent to use their handwriting data in published papers and other studies.

Volunteers were given identification numbers and promised they would stay anonymous.

"They're all identified by random numbers, so we don't know names, but they can tell which each individual wrote what," Williams said.

Next, they were asked to copy the same paragraph three times.

Volunteers were asked to write a 2,500-character story about one of four given prompts. After they were finished, volunteers were given a $50 Visa gift card for participating in the study.

Earlier post: West Virginia: FBI seeks local volunteers for handwriting project