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Chapter 3
Punctuation and handwriting
3.1 Punctuation
Punctuation marks are not found in early Arabic manuscripts. The
Arabs have borrowed modern European punctuation marks with some
modifications in order to distinguish them from Arabic letters, as
follows:
. : ! ؟ () ′′〈〈〉〉
3.2 Arabic handwriting
It is recommended that handwriting technique is practised from the very
beginning, otherwise it may become difficult to learn not only to write
but even to read handwritten texts. Arabs consider good handwriting a
sign of erudition.
Printed and handwritten Arabic texts do not differ from each other as
much as they do in European languages.
Arabic handwriting follows certain rules. The straight horizontal direc-
tion used in writing English must be modified in Arabic handwriting,
since some of the letters change their form according to the preceding or
following letter.
3.3 Some remarks concerning the dots with certain consonants
The most common way of marking the dots which belong to certain
consonants in handwriting is to use a straight stroke instead of two